I wonder/

Bigfoot I don't tie but a few bucktails before Crappie season but if you want to discuss, the time fishing vs catching... I can tell ya about the fishing part. Stupid fish!!!

Be well.

I stocked up on some my trout flies but I’ve been mostly tying for pike or musky.

I tie almost daily, if not, every other day.  Mostly bigger streamers, I don't trout fish much anymore, If I do, I have plenty of flies in that box to get me through a day on the water.  I have been playing around with downsizing and tying up very sparse and light bulkhead/buford flies lately.  Trying to find color combinations and blends that work together.  I have been pairing them with large & medium sized pacchiarini dragon tails with some esox success.  I am thinking(hoping) they should also work for bass.

There some good toothy critter flies, bigfoot if you ever get into it. Saw those dragons tails work pretty good for them. Got a pack but no takers on them yet. The movement they give are great the only problem is they can get beaten up pretty fast with a nice big pike or musky grab it. I know some tied them up for bass but don’t hear a lot of success at catching them. If you get one it’s gonna be a nice bass though. As we all know it’s all about colors finding the right ones can take some time. I’ve been getting into the game changers fly and articulated ones.

I actually stopped tying in the mid ‘80’s. A friend and I were taking a break along Spring Creek and we started to pull out fly boxes. I had about 1,300 flies on me and he had more. This didn’t count what was at home on “reserve.”

Since then, almost 40 years, I still run low of certain patterns at times, but have plenty of friends that still tie that are more than happy to fill my boxes back up in exchange for hunting over the pointers and getting all the feathers (plus the meat).

Last week I went through my “active” boxes and pulled out flies I had not used in decades, literally. Most were neatly placed in their original dozen count ( always tied at least a dozen of something the first time), some with 11, meaning at least they got tried — once. I probably threw out 800 or so.

I get the tying thing. Used to love it — that’s why so many unused flies — try a new pattern, try a new technique, see if I could duplicate a fly someone else tied, develop new patterns, etc. as was evidenced by the number of flies and patterns in my boxes that never saw the water. But I lost the desire.

I carry way too many flies, but I am getting better at limiting myself.

This is for trout mind you;

I carry a general nymph box that has three of almost every pattern and size for the waters I normally fish, 6-12 of the generic stand-bys like PT, HE, etc,

I carry a general dry fly box arranged somewhat the same, but more generic in make up as in light, dark, big, small.

I carry a general doesn’t fall into baby clean category box, eggs, small streamers, and weird stuff.

I then add or subtract specific boxes for caddis, sulphurs, midges, and terrestrials ( the main bugs I get on the waters I fish) depending on what is happening at the time. These specific boxes have various sizes that include the whole life cycle from nymph to emerger to pupua, to adult, to egglayer/spinner.

Then I have the “this happens sometimes” boxes that go along if there are green drakes, locusts, steelhead, etc.

I can probably count on one hand over the last four decades that this system let me needing something I didn’t have on hand.