How long per fly?

[Hellgrammite 0]

Well....it depends?

 

Once im familiar with a pattern (GRHE nymph, for example) i can make a good one on a bit under 10 minutes....8 an hour or so. Winged dries, 15 mins (im picky about my wings) a variant, perhaps 5 minutes.

 

If its new to me, an hour or more isnt unreasonable.

[tneal 0]

I spend a lot of time teaching fly tying to non-experts. All of the patterns I teach are intented to be fished and, obviously, many new tyers take a lot longer than more experienced tyers per fly.

However, if your materials are laid out, many patterns can be tied very quickly. Tiny thread bodied nymphs take longer to put the hook in the vise than to tie. Foam beetles and hoppers with pre-punched foam can be produced in just a couple of minutes and then I might spend a lot more time decorating them. (Which is really kind of silly since the fish sees the underside of the fly.) Wooly buggers are what? Five minutes max.

I don't have a lot of patience at the vise.

Am I the odd duck?

 

As a commercial tyer, I average about 3 minutes per fly... wide variety of patterns....

[720 Kevan 0]

I got to.-- Once apon a time I was ordered 40 hours comunity sevice as part of a traffic ticket. I was able to tie flies for a charity craft fair [sweet] so I cranked out 60 rs2's in 90 minutes. the quality was there & there sure as hell aint much to the fly ha ha D.A. 90 min. for 40 hours ------- tying can bee great in many ways

[Scud 0]

I was talking to a gent today who ties commercially for like 30 years. He said he ties from 7am to 11pm 7 days a week. He said he can tie 2 dozen an hour. I could never do that. He told me he lays all his material out and has 7 vises through out the room. He was a very nice guy.

 

Jeremy

[tyrite 0]

This is a great question I Ty a great number of flies and I always try to Ty 12-24 of each!!

Some of the flies like woolly buggers take 11/5- 2 minutes. some wet flies take about 5-7 minutes. big deer hair bass bugs take 5-15 minutes. I am just getting into salmon flies so I bought the book building classic salmon flies. so for the hair wings and some small types like that it takes 7-20 minutes. next will be fully dressed flies!

 

Thanks for the question tyrite (Glen Dayton)

[Pastor Ron 0]

Wow... really broad topic! Perhaps asking how long it takes to tie a GRHE nymph, but with all the variables it's shot in the dark question to me.

 

If I'm tying more than half a dozen of one fly (which is almost always) I preselect and size all the components and set them in order. I.e., for GRHE nymphs I pull all the tail bunches and size them then place them in individual hair clips, same for the wing cases; if they are bead head I put beads on all the hooks and if they are weighted i do all the hooks at once. So then I am picking up a pre-weighted beaded hook, attaching the thread and picking up the preset tail material.... etc etc This goes back to my years of production tying, I got used to tying this way and it works well for me. I can do a lot of the pres-electing and sizing and beading of hooks anywhere... often take stuff to the family room to watch a movie with the family or sit outside on a beautiful day and prep materials.

[Olefish 0]

However long it takes. I am not a fast tier and I go to the stream with (1) pretty sparse box of flies compared to most I see. I don't loose many flies, due to the methods I normally fish. I enjoy the process more than the product. I wasn't always this way, but have come to enjoy fly fishing much more now.

I will go along with "Old Hat" however long it takes, :wallbash: as long as it is a fish getter :headbang:

[Harold Ray 0]

I will go along with "Old Hat" however long it takes, :wallbash: as long as it is a fish getter :headbang:

 

I do this for fun; I don't rush, just relax and enjoy. There are to many things going on in life, so I play as much as I can.

 

[David Legg 0]

It really depends on the pattern. But I have never tied any pattern that I was unwilling to sling. I do not tie full dress salmon flies, so I would probably feel differently about that, but more based on cost of materials than time spent. I don't care how long I spend tying... I can always do it again. Most of my patterns tie at the rate of about a dozen per hour pretty comfortably though.

[TheCream 0]

I voted 10 minutes. Most of what I tie is pretty simple. I like simple, I like effective, simple and effective is the win-win situation I love. That being said, last night I was working on a foam popper that I thought would be pretty simple. What I was thinking was do something similar to a crease fly, only make the body more rounded for more surface commotion. I tied in a bunch of marabou and flash for the tail and to build up a body surface to glue in the foam. Then glued one edge of the foam, let that dry, rolled it over and glued the other edge. After that dried, I glued in a foam "disc" to close off the front of the popper and retrofitted one to the back. Then glued on eyes and did a little artwork with colored Sharpies. The finished product I liked...then realized I had just spent over an hour on one dang popper. :wallbash:

[SilverArdea 0]

I'm with Ray on this one. Doesn't matter if I'm working on a full-dress or freestyle salmon fly or buggers or ::shrug:: anything. Life is plenty hectic enough, I don't need to rush through something I enjoy. I keep a couple vises around - if I'm going to work on a salmon fly and take 20 hours to build it, I'll put it in another vise for safe-keeping while I tie something else for the upcoming weekend's fishing. Part of what makes fly fishing enjoyable to me is tying a really nice fly. The fish probably don't care, but I do.

[Flytyer14 0]

I don't care how long it takes!! I'm too addicted!!

[DevinKaradeema 0]

ya i still pretty new to the vice but even with correcting mistakes as i make them usually no more then 15 min

[Slacker 0]

If it is smoething I am really excited about and wanting to fish ..... it really does not matter.

[Eusebius 0]

One of the principal goals of my tying efforts is to become better over time, for my own personal satisfaction. At my age this generally means to tie NEAT and SMALL, a goal not always met and getting harder each season. I greatly enjoy my time in front of the vice. I compete against the last fly I tied. So I will spend whatever time it takes to become proficient in my own mind, not for some gallery. It's all about learning. The personal satisfaction that comes from fooling a fish at his own game in his ballpark is it's own reward. Time per fly has nothing to due with fly tying, for me at least. I don't think about how much time it took to tie the fly as I pluck it out of Mr. Trout's lip.

 

ADD Free,

 

Eusebius