Do you record the flies you make?

[Fisherscastle 0]

i photograph the fly/flies i tie and record them in file folders on my hard drive

 

 

i also post them here and on my blog trying to include the recipes

 

i do not use a spreadsheet to record the quantity of flies ive tied. waste of MY time

 

i also make copies of flies i find interesting on instagram that i may want to tie some time in the future

 

 

and i'll record some on a word document

 

 

i photograph the fly/flies i tie and record them in file folders on my hard drive

 

 

i also post them here and on my blog trying to include the recipes

 

i do not use a spreadsheet to record the quantity of flies ive tied. waste of MY time

 

i also make copies of flies i find interesting on instagram that i may want to tie some time in the future

 

 

and i'll record some on a word document

 

 

wow nice work...i also have mine on instagram but yours is more impressive i must say

[Dave G. 0]

I'm just a tie 3 flies each of a few patterns and go fish with them guy. Not a secretary, so no I've never kept records or even thought of it. Fly tying and fishing is my sport, a hobby . I never considered secretarial duties as sporty or fun, in fact I get anxiety just thinking of it, so it's far from a natural extension to what is enjoyable. I have a dozen or so patterns in my head that I know work and can tie any time any where, the rest are on the internet or in my Orvis Index of fly patterns book. That book is interesting, it has instructions on how to tie six flies or so and with gaining the ability of those increasing steps to fulfill those instructions you can tie any fly in the index. That is how I learned to tie back before internet was around for home use.

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

I got started tying for shops a lot of years ago (before the 'net was popularized and long before GPS came along...) so the way I went about it was a bit basic... I found early on that it was very handy to keep a "master" of any new pattern I was asked to produce -or came up with on my own... (either by a shop, a guide, or just an individual angler). I still have most of them today (and every time I've neglected to keep a master I've learned to regret it...), Particularly when a specific fly really worked one day - all the way until some fish kept it. When that happens you're trying to replicate it from memory and that's not the best way to go about it...

 

Master patterns for me were the simplest way to know exactly what colors, exactly what dimensions, and materials I'd used... Selecting a master pattern was also pretty easy. I'd line up the dozen (or 20 or 30 or however many... and I almost always kept a few extra for myself) of that pattern I'd done and simply select the best one possible to retain in a plastic sleeve as a "master pattern". Then whenever I got another request (or simply needed a few for myself) my first step was to go to the box(s) and pull out the master as a sample to tie from... To this day I still have masters from the early eighties - and on each sleeve a bit of info on who it was for, etc.

 

Masters were also something that changed over time if I found a better way - or learned that a pattern needed to be a slight bit different (in some cases that was driven by not being able to obtain some critical part -when Tiemco quit making the 800s in larger sizes and I had to switch to Owner Aki hooks is one example where this occurred...). When that happened I routinely upgraded the existing master with what worked better)... I did enjoy surprising one customer or other who asked for something ten or more years after a particular order. With a master I can reproduce something color for color, size for size - many years later if requested.

 

All of this is a bit moot now that I'm no longer doing any commercial fly tying (still making bucktails, etc - but only tying for my own needs these days...). I'm only a saltwater tyer so that's my frame of reference -but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the really top quality freshwater commercial tyers are doing something similar....

[DFoster 0]

Never even thought of recording flies tied. Don't feel the need and I can't recognize a need since the interweb has everything recorded already. Do you guys only tie one fly for experimentation purpose? If I tie something to see what happens I will still tie 2,3, or 4 of them. If they work I will tie more. If they don't work I'll use the left overs for pannie fishing where anything works.

"At least one for the fish and another one for the tree" -Oliver Edwards

[flytire 0]

wow nice work...i also have mine on instagram but yours is more impressive i must say

 

 

 

the flies from instagram folder shown in my post are not flies ive tied

 

i copy flies i want to tie and record them to tie at a later date

[DarrellP 0]

If you are going to rely on a computer file, back it up twice, on a thumb drive and in the cloud. Trust me. My tablet fried and I lost my thumb drive.

 

I keep boxes of "masters", usually tied by someone else. Probably tied by some lady in the Philippines who makes a dollar an hour who has never fished.

 

I also collect flies by people I respect like AK Best, Mark Noble, etc for reference. And my flies are poor approximations of them.

[notenuftoys 0]

A number of years ago I started using Evernote to track patterns I tied or (mostly) patterns I found other places and wanted to tie. Right now I have 681 patterns in Evernote. Some I've tied, some I'll tie someday. I include a link to the website where I found the pattern (which admittedly sometimes doesn't work after a few years), a picture and the materials.

 

I don't tie commercially but still have a small fly shop worth of flies. I tried to keep an inventory of both materials and flies in Evernote, but gave up. There was just too much to track.

[flytire 0]

 

i have enough recorded patterns in my library that i'll never tie every pattern

[Poopdeck 0]

 

Never even thought of recording flies tied. Don't feel the need and I can't recognize a need since the interweb has everything recorded already. Do you guys only tie one fly for experimentation purpose? If I tie something to see what happens I will still tie 2,3, or 4 of them. If they work I will tie more. If they don't work I'll use the left overs for pannie fishing where anything works.

 

"At least one for the fish and another one for the tree" -Oliver Edwards

I like that!

[sandflyx 0]

Have over 60,000 patterns between books, magazines, Data Bases, on line. never will be able to tie them all because I add to this almost daily. several patterns of mine have been published over the years too. here is sample of one of mine

[flytire 0]

fly2000 software is another option

 

 

i have a zip file if anybody want a copy.

 

im not sure if it will transfer properly via email but its worth a try

 

pm only with email address

 

anybody willing to do a test?

 

one person at a time please. i dont want to attempt this over and over if it doesnt work

[sandflyx 0]

[email protected], my shop email

[brooktrout308 0]

I learn something new every time I get on flytyingforum I never even gave it a thought to keep a record of the fly's I've tied over the years, and yes I'll admit my brain is not working like it use to. Now I'm wondering how many patterns I've forgotten over the years, I'm going to get my daughter to set up a spread sheet or something. All I'll have to do is tell her what I want to do and she will know exactly what I want or need, Just need to get a camera now.

[j8000 0]

When a new pattern I try catches a fish or two I'll stick that fly on one of my two fishing hats, that's my place of record.

[j8000 0]

then later on if I want to recreate it, I have a real fly to look at.