fly tying vs. fly buying

Tying will save you money if you fish a lot, thats no lie...especially if you like to fish for bass, pike, or saltwater species. most of those type patterns go for almost 4 dollars a piece in your average flyshop. Spending almost 2 dollars for a regular trout fly (like for something so simple as a "string thing" or "san juan worm") is ridiculous too, expecially when you see how easy they are to tie. i would say if you plan on fishing for more than a few times a month investing the time and effort to learn to fly tie would be well worth your money. i do it not only as a source of fly patterns, but also as a kind of "arts and crafts" deal....i enjoy putting together usuable (hell..and some unusable) fly fishing patterns, it gives me something to do when i am not out fishing, and know i wont be fishing for some time to come. ive taken my fly tying stuff all over the world, and used it to help keep myself busy during any "down time" when i was in the military overseas on deployment or otherwise. ive got so many flyboxes now that ive lost count, but what kind of fisherman would ever complain about having too much gear....

the bottom line is if you like to fish, and enjoy working with your hands, tying flies can provide you with entertainment (and flies) much like actual fishing can. plus it will save you a whole pot of money later on down the road. i would say, yes, its worth your time.

If you like making things by hand, you'll probably like tying flies -- eventually. And you'll also save money -- eventually.

Seems like whether you're self-taught or go through lessons at a shop, you're still going to have plenty of trial and error. Hopefully, with a shop the process is quicker, but I'm self-taught and sometimes you (or at least, I) learn faster making a pig's breakfast of things on your (my) own.

Trout fishing in Colo. streams often means lots of nymphing with small stuff. And to be effective, they've got to be right on the bottom. If you fish tandem nymphs, it's not too hard to lose a dozen nymphs or so in a day, depending on the water. So 12 x $.20 for flies you tie or 12 x $1.75 for those you buy adds up quickly. I would try to stop buying and start tying those patterns ASAP.

San Juan worms, thread midges (black beauties, miracle midges, etc.), small emergers (RS2's, WD-40's, Barr's, etc.), p-tails and many others are all very easy patterns. You could start with a pretty modest amount of equipment and materials and have a few gross of things along those lines in no time. When you get your chops together and start to be happy with your dry flies (and when you gulp and plunk down the cash for a couple of good necks) you can stop buying those too.