Perspective .....

[David Lee]

I have always enjoyed tying flies ..... untill now .

Deer hair is no problem , same with wool . High/low tyes can be taxing , but still fall into the "fun" catagory . Even the distribution wrap on a #16 Birdnest has a certain appeal .

These #%$^#$ Bugskin Crawdads are going to be the death of me . What a nit-picky , time-eating , pain in the ...... fly . I haven't tyed any for about 6 or 7 years , now I remember why . TEN different materials on the stupid things ..... I should have picked the Bead-head olive bugger for my craw-fly , I'd be done by now and my eyes wouldn't be crossed . It's a good thing they work so well , I'm having thoughts of super-glueing a Power-craw on a hook and cutting my losses . I even have to fabricate 24 seperate eyes for the stupid things !!?!!

Which fly is YOUR least favorite to tye , and why ??? David(used to be sane)Lee

[PaulC]

I'd have to say some of my least favorite flies to tie are from Stalcup's mayflies from top to bottom book. They look great, but flies like the winger are a tedious process to get to look right (at least for me). That on top of knowing they'll survive a few trout and be mauled adds to the frustration.
Some of the more classic salmon and steelhead patterns can also be time consuming, but i'm usually not trying to pump out a bunch of them.
Things I find that help tying these tedious patterns is to work in stages and then switch to easier saltwater patterns to keep from going blind.
The thing that cracks me up is how expensive some of these saltwater patterns are when I sometimes spend more time tying a size 24 trout pattern.
-Paul

[Adam Grace]

I also tend to stay away from tedious fly patterns. I usually purchase those flies and tie the easier less frustrating patterns.

The most expensive thing about saltwater flies are the hooks. The are rust proof and need to be very strong. Heck, just tying saltwater flies can be expensive because of the extra money for the specialized hooks.

[PatrickM]

Don't know why, but I hate tying #18 pheasant tails. I don't like paying $2 for such a small fly, and they are very effective, so I guess I don't have much of a choice.

[MSP]

My least favorite flys to tie are the ones that don't work. Hmmm, that would be about 80% of them! Actually simple flys kinda bore me, like Woolly Buggers and San Juan Worms.

[Darian]

Due to that ravages of time and arthritis, I have finally reached a point where I am completely uninterested in tying anything under size 14 (regardless of the pattern or effectiveness) and avoid that as much as possible. Like Adam, I prefer to purchase those size flies. Altho I do fish for Trout, most of the fishing I do doesn't involve the use of tiny flies.....

Admittedly, I'll tie a pattern once, even if it's small/tiny, just to obtain some understanding about the construction of it.....

[Hairstacker]

David, your post is TOO funny, but I do feel your pain, ha. I know how you feel 'cause my least favorite fly to tie turned out to be those Golden Stones I tied for our last fly swap. It was kind of fun and interesting to figure out the pattern based on just a photo but tying a couple dozen of those things and still not being happy with how they looked definitely took its toll. On the other hand, I think fiddly, nit-picking flies are good for your fly tying game -- after tying those Golden Stones that required such precise thread control to do the goose biot legs, I tied a few other patterns that seemed TOO easy.

[Jgoding]

Anyone seen or use Waterwisp flies?? Tying that style is a real pain the butt to me. It can be done though and quite well once you get it down. But the inverted backwards tie is hard to get used too. PM, I will show u some of my pheasant tails 22 and smaller..... I like to tie them, so fast on such a dinky hook.....and I even use v-rib for a body sometimes. Most of the time though, just tie in tail, don't even bother trimming the butts, just wrap them forward for the abdomen (looks realllllly nice if done right) tie in wingcase and herl, and finish the fly.

Jeff

[David Lee]

Nice to see we all have our own millstones ...
I remember Andy Burk writing that no matter how hard he tried , he just couldn't get the no-hackle wings right !! So it goes ..... David

[PatrickM]

Jeff, thanks for the tip. I'll try that next time I do a batch of PTs.