I’ve been filling lots of customer fly orders lately when I’m not fishing my home waters. I’m a custom fly tyer, not a commercial tyer. What’s the difference? To me, a commercial tyer ties dozens and dozens of the same fly pattern, many times in assorted sizes. I would be bored with that. I enjoy the variety of flies I tie. Here are flies from orders I’ve filled in the last couple of months. I hope they’re creating memories for my fly customers.
Perhaps I mentioned a very large fly order I spent quite some time completing. It ended up being over 300 flies. All the flies are ones you will find in my fishing fly box, so occasionally, I tied another dozen for my provider box.
And a box of size 16 to 20 Blue Wing Olive imitations, totaling 120 flies.
It was difficult shipping these flies because I really enjoy looking at a well-stocked box!
Now for more flies.
How about a size 22 PMD tied with CDC for the wing?
Or size 24 Midge Pupa patterns? Yes, they are on a dime.
As a customer tyer, I learn about and tie flies I haven’t heard of. The fly below, a Doculator, is a perfect example. They are tied with a strip of foam wound around the hook to make the body. He couldn’t find them less than size 14 and asked me if I could tie them smaller. These are size 16 and 18. I’ll be tying them in orange and red too.
The image below is of my RiverKeeper October Caddis. I tied a few for a customer and decided the provider box needed a couple more.
A different customer asked me to tie some trout spade flies. He had seen spade flies featured on my Throw Back Thursday posts of Alec Jackson. Here are the links:
I hadn’t tied spade flies before but thought I could. I searched through a few smaller steelhead hooks in the back of my desk drawer and settled on a size 7 Daiichi 2051 up-eye hook.
I copied a couple of the Alec Jackson flies and created other variations with the help of my customer.
How about a lake fly?
Here are some Denny’s Stillwater Nymphs.
I was experimenting with a new lens, a Nikon Z 50mm f1.8 S. Here is a link to the camera equipment I use – Camera Equipment for Fly Fishing and Fly Tying.
I’ve got to get back to the vise and complete
Enjoy…go fish, stay safe!
