About the evolution of YOUR fly tying.

[utyer 0]

I remember a time when dry fly patterns called for chenille bodies, and of course woolly buggers, just HAD to have chenille bodies. I no longer buy it, and would give all mine away for the postage. Anything you can do with chenille can be better done with dubbing, or yarn. I have drawers full of crap I never use, and can't seem to throw away. Like I said, I would donate it all to anyone who wants it just for the postage. I bought Mylar tubing just for the core until they started making the core from cotton string. Now I shred it down for flash. Fortunately, I have been able to resist most the new "magic" products that seem to come out every week.

[Kimo 0]

I think that we are going to see more and more synthetics because
natural materials are getting harder and harder to come by.
I've been told to steer away from things like CDC, ostrich and squirrel
for patterns I plan to submit for commercial production.

Kimo

[Gene L 0]

My evolution in fly tying is still in the Neaderthal stage. I'm a sucker for materials, though. Materials are pretty cheap unless you get into capes, and a few bucks here and there satisfy my urge to Prepare. My problem is if I throw something away, two days later I'll need it. Not just fly tying materials, anything.

[notenuftoys 0]

The only chenille I ever use is micro for San Juan worms and an extended body caddis pattern, and ice or krystal chenille.

 

I rarely ever tie a wooly bugger with a chenille body. I use ice dub in a dubbing loop to get more movement.

 

There are other materials just sitting in my boxes that I haven't touched since I bought them. I can't remember what they are because I haven't even looked at them for a long time.

 

Early in my tying days I bought material like a crack addict, but over the past few years my buying as slowed way down as I focus on certain types of patterns.

[johnnyquahog 0]

ditto on the chenille. I bought a skein of black and one of yellow about 30 years ago when I tied the Montana Nymph and buggers. I still tie lots of buggers or bugger styles using dyed seal or seal sub twisted on dubbing loops. Maybe I'll put the chenille in the shed and it just might keep the mice from nesting in the snow blower.