Diversity of Flies I Tie

Last week I talked about filling three orders for customer Christmas presents in My Favorite Dry Flies of 2020 post. I finished the orders yesterday, a total of 191 flies. What I really enjoyed about this project was the diversity of flies I tie…river flies, lake flies, and steelhead flies. The image below are the materials for Shewey’s Spawning Purple. The flies are on the left, but difficult to see. These materials are so vibrant and I really enjoy creating flies with them.

Here is a close-up of Shewey’s Spawning Purple. Perhaps you can make out the flies now.

The last order included a total of 17 different fly patterns, three each, for rivers and lakes.

And a close-up…

People have called me a commercial fly tyer. When I hear that, I immediately correct them by saying “custom” fly tyer. I take pride in my ability to tie a wide variety of flies. I even surprise myself some days!

The variety is what I enjoy. I have over 200 fly pattern sheets on my RiverKeeper Flies website that I’ve tied at one time or another. No commercial fly tyer in their right mind would tie only three of one fly pattern. Commercial fly tyers tie dozens and dozens of one fly, perhaps in multiple sizes. I think it would drive me crazy if I did. As I mentioned above, I like tying many different flies.

Here is an example. Yesterday, I tied a handful of chironomids, Zebra Midges and MT’s Crystal Chironomid. The day before, it was two steelhead flies…Green Butt Skunk and Shewey’s Spawning Purple, four of each fly.

You saw Shewey’s Spawning Purple above. Here is the classic Green Butt Skunk.

I don’t know anyone who ties steelhead flies one day and Zebra midges the next! 

Well, I better get back to the vise.

Enjoy…go fish, stay safe!

And tie a fly or two!