hunthicks 0 Report post Posted January 12, 2005 Depends on the fly. I can tie a dry fly like a blue dun or march brown in 2 - 4 minutes. I have timed myself a few times and the average was about 3 minutes. It takes me about 5 minutes for a hair wing salmon fly. About 4 minutes for a buck bug. 5 - 6 minutes for a bomber. I got my friend to time me on an egg sucking leech and timed in at a minute fifty six. I've been tying for 8 years and tie 2 - 6 dozen or more a day for commericial, so I have LOTS of practice. I was just tying a dozen mice for a customer and it took me two hours 12 minutes! or roughly 11 minutes per fly! Some days are better then others...If I want to tie, i go faster then if I don't want to but know I have to. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ArkieFlyGuy 0 Report post Posted January 12, 2005 My first fly was a San Juan Worm.... I'm glad it didn't take me 1.5 hours to tie THAT...... As everyone has said, it depends on the pattern. I've been tying for less than a year, but I'd say my overall average is around 10-12 minutes. I don't tie any salmon flies and I'm always trying new patterns/types. Newbies for me with several materials my take me half hour or more. The ones I've tied for a while will take 5-10. What was that first fly you tied, Skunked? Got a pic of it? It's neat to a newbie to go to something like a Sowbug Roundup or Conclave where a room full of top notch tyers are all tying different stuff. Watching some of them crank out dries, scuds, nymphs, and other standards gives me hope that with practice and determination I can get much better. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andrew 0 Report post Posted January 12, 2005 Tying speed is an interesting question. When do you start the clock? When the fly is in the vise or when you are prepping materials. Speed in the actual tying (putting the materials on the hook) always increases if all materials are set out beforehand, but shouldn't that time befactored in as well. In Randall Kaufman's Tying Nymphs he talks about tying a hares ear in under a minute, but he starts the clock after all materials have been prepped including wrapping the hook with lead. It is, however, still pretty impressive. Unless you are a commercial tyer, I think tying speed is overated. Quality, durable flies should be the first goal of a new tier. To answer your question: Not as long as it takes for me to tree them. Honestly though: Including prep time 10 an hour on standard or parchute dries, more per hour for comparduns. Unless my ADD is flaring up, then I am a lot slower. A Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Report post Posted January 12, 2005 This is a tough one. I believe that prep time has to be put into the equation. So if you aren't the type who prepares before hand, do you stop the clock when you go to cut feathers, etc? Depends on the fly and my mood (or how many I have to tie actually). If you're tying multiples of one fly, your speed will regulate eventually. Not saying "fast" but you will eventually get fluent. I can normally crank out a standard hairwing in a couple minutes. Mostly though, I just take my time, since I'm not tying in bulk. So can just relax and take my time. I don't think you really need to tie for "speed" unless you're a production tyer trying to crank out 1,000 flies a week. If you're not, go with the flow and see where your tying takes you. The more you tie, the quicker you "should" be able to tie. Though, some never ever speed up. Now, if you're trying to fill a flybox up and you can't ever get a "flow" going, pray you live where you have iceout all winter long and have time to tie. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Alex C. 0 Report post Posted January 12, 2005 QUOTE What was that first fly you tied, Skunked? Got a pic of it? Light cahillMy first fly Here's my 2nd2nd fly I tied my 3rd last night, it looks the same as the 2nd but the hackle is better proportioned and the tail is siting a little below paralell with the hook shaft Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TroutNerd 0 Report post Posted January 13, 2005 Its all about having materials ready to go. So before I attach thread to the hook I will have the materials all ready to be tied on as I go. With that said, it takes me around 10 minutes for a typical dry or nymph. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bentflyrod 0 Report post Posted January 13, 2005 Right now it takes me about 20 min. with prep time included to tye a pheasant tail nymph. Slow, but has inproved from the hour it use to take. I've spent as much as 5 hrs. on one fly. You will have to wait for the voting to see that one. BFR Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mozes 0 Report post Posted January 13, 2005 Normally it takes a few minutes to tie a simple fly. My speed record was tying 60 estaz eggs for salmon fishing in 1 hour. They were super simple just estaz wound around the hook shank, no head, whip finish, done. Regards Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
njsimonson 0 Report post Posted January 13, 2005 Skunked, what are you tying? Have you tried the FAOL beginner's tutorial? It'll have you tying easy, effective and good looking flies in under 15 minutes. If anything, a wooly bugger shouldn't take you too long to get down. What, may I ask, are you tying now? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ScottW 0 Report post Posted January 14, 2005 It really all depends on the fly... a midge could take 30 seconds or a dryfly that looks like a bug it represents could be a few hours. Most of mine are a few minutes including head dry time. The more you practice, the better you get and having your clippers in your hand and other tools right in front of you cuts the production time right down. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Alex C. 0 Report post Posted January 14, 2005 QUOTE Skunked, what are you tying? Have you tried the FAOL beginner's tutorial? It'll have you tying easy, effective and good looking flies in under 15 minutes. My first 3 attempts were #12 light cahills ( see previous post in this topic for pics) Today I am gonna try tying a quill gordon, and really concentrate on my technique( thread control), and proportions. I'll let y'all know how it turns out. I'm relly not concerned with tying time, this is just pure, simple relaxation, if it takes me all month, I will still be happy with it. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Steeldrifter 0 Report post Posted January 14, 2005 Skunked dont get discouraged if your first ones take awhile, you WILL get faster. The first ones always take longer than they should but the more you tie the faster you will get. Try to stay with the same "type" of pattern in the beginning so that you dont have to many different thing to learn. Then once you have one pattern that you can tie in a decent amount of time move on to the next, it will come to you. There are tones of posts with step by steps on this site as well FAOL does not have the market cornered by any means with step by steps. Just search the tying bench for step by steps and you will see many...as well as the data base many members have great tutorials with pics in there as well. SD Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Alex C. 0 Report post Posted January 14, 2005 QUOTE Skunked dont get discouraged if your first ones take awhile, you WILL get faster. The first ones always take longer than they should but the more you tie the faster you will get. I'm not discouraged at all, as a matter of fact, quite the contrary . QUOTE The reason I asked is cause you always hear about people tying on stream I can't wait till I am experienced enough to be out on a river and notice a certain species of mayfly sitting on a leaf or something, sit on shore and "clone" what I just saw. I thought when someone got good it still took just as long as it takes me now and it seems like it would be tough to want to tie on stream when it would take away from time spent fishing, not that I don't like tying, so far I love it, but I would like to be as productive on the water as possible., so I thought I would do a poll to see how long an experienced tyer took to tie a fly. I will reccomend searching the archives to any other beginner reading this post, the guys on here really have a versatile array of ways to perform different tying tecniques. I believe without some of the old farts advice and guidance on here, it would have taken me a lot longer to get to the point of cloning insects than had I not found the vast cornicopia of information there is here. Thanks everyone Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Report post Posted January 14, 2005 QUOTE (skunked @ Jan 14 2005, 03:26 PM) I believe without some of the old farts advice and guidance on here, it would have taken me a lot longer to get to the point of cloning insects than had I not found the vast cornicopia of information there is here. Thanks everyone [smartass - I hope you stick your finger on that PT Nymph!] Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Alex C. 0 Report post Posted January 14, 2005 QUOTE [smartass - I hope you stick your finger on that PT Nymph!] dry.gif Sorry, the devil made me do it Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
