Tie Flies for Customers or Myself

I’ve been tying flies, trying to complete orders for several customers. But I have a dilemma. Fish are still rising on my home waters, although for shorter durations. Shall I tie flies for customers or myself?

I’ll try to squeeze in both!

Included in the image above are #14 Sparkle Dun Green Drakes (left), #8 Norm Wood Specials (right) and #18 Sparkle Dun PMDs (middle), which I tied yesterday and today.

The five small flies are for my fly box, the others will be mailed to a customer tomorrow. I’m happy I tied them because I landed a nice Rainbow Trout with a Sparkle Dun PMD today.

I’ll put away the materials and begin the next order for a variety of damsel nymphs. You’ll be seeing them soon, perhaps next week.

My most recent customer ordered a nice assortment of flies for four friends…Christmas presents. Have you been good this year? Do you think you might receive two dozen RiverKeeper flies?

Several of these patterns are flies I really like to fish. They are very effective for me. It got me thinking of the fish I caught during this year’s fly fishing road trips as well as fishing my home waters.

The Dolly Llama streamer is a fly I like to fish for Bull Trout in my home waters of the Metolius River. It was part of an order I mailed last week.

I don’t fish for them often, but when I do, it’s the first fly I tie on.

It seems to work!

The image below is one I posted on Instagram and Facebook recently. I tried to highlight the diversity of my fly tying…from a #4 Dolly Llama streamer to a #22 In-The-Film CDC Midge Emerger. The midge emerger would fit in the cone of the streamer!

Here is a closeup image of the #22 In-The-Film CDC Midge Emerger. I tied them for a Throw Back Thursday Fly and liked them so much I ended up tying a half dozen for my fly box. It caught a fish last week.

I used Trouthunter CDC puffs for the wings of this fly. I was really impressed at the quality of these feathers. It made tying a small size 22 fly fairly easy. The other tip I’d share is to use smaller diameter thread. I used 16/0 Veevus.

Here are four flies on a dime to better show the size.

One order included several October Caddis imitations, including the Morrish Deep October Caddis Variant and Miasmic October Caddis Pupa-Emerger.

I love tying these flies! Especially the variety. I think that’s what I’m known for.

Enjoy…go fish, stay safe!