Retiring Old And Damaged Flies

1868 Views 20 Replies 18 Participants Last post by mtnsaremyhome, Nov 30, 2016

aimacart

Discussion Starter · Nov 26, 2016

I had a few flies that were damaged beyond using again and decided to cut off the old material and tie them up again. I was also going thru my older flies that I tied and did not like the job I did at the start of my tying career. Threw them on the vice and cut them off so I would not have to look at those lousy flies again. Being better but not great at tying, they came out allot better. Every time I opened my fly boxes I hated looking at these bad attempts. I have not seen this anywhere so the question is, do you guys do the same and redo your flies when needed or just send them to them fly graveyard.

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1 - 20 of 21 Posts

FinLuver

· #2 · Nov 26, 2016

Grave yard...

lee c

· #3 · Nov 26, 2016

I always say I am going to cut the bad ones up for the hooks, but never do. Something about all that seems like work, so all my old poorly tied flies, and some of the new ones, end up in box. Can't seem to throw them away though. Maybe someday I will get motivated.........doubt it though

Buzzy

· #4 · Nov 26, 2016

I started tying flies when I got out of the Navy, poor college kid, married...... so I used to spend some of my time cutting materials off and reusing the hooks. But anymore, like @FinLuver bad or wornout - goes to the graveyard - most of the time ;-)

zen leecher aka bill w

· #5 · Nov 26, 2016

I had one once that I wanted to see how many fish I could catch on it. 88 was the total on a black woolly bugger. It had no tail, the hackle and chenille were unwound, over half the chenille was gone with a black rope hanging from it.

Reactions: 4

C&CRods

· #6 · Nov 26, 2016

Everything goes in a Mason jar that I don't deem worthy. I get in there and cut up flies when I need something. Usually have an order of importance though- cones and dumbell eyes, streamer hooks, and small dry fly hooks last. What I don't cut up my girlfriend usually swipes when she goes out, and she always catches fish.

Norm Frechette

· #7 · Nov 26, 2016

i usually lose them to trees and submerged branches

GAT

· #8 · Nov 27, 2016

I've never cut the material off an old fly and started over. Somehow, any fly I don't like ends up in a fly box somewhere and that's where it lives. I never even see it.

Of course when you have 13,456.5 flies on hand it's easy to ignore some of them

Reactions: 2

SilverFly

· #9 · Nov 27, 2016 (Edited)

Mine go in a recycle jar. If the fly has a usable hook or a bead head, it meet's it doom with a razor blade. Some are used and sorted from fly boxes but most are just really shitty tying experiments. Have to admit it's kinda fun going through really old ones and wondering WTF was I thinking at the time.

Reactions: 4

yellowlab03

· #10 · Nov 27, 2016

Funny, I just did the same thing last night. I dug through a bunch of fly boxes I hadn't seen in a while and found a bunch of my first flies. I cut up a bunch to get dumbells and such. I have a bunch more I need to get the hooks from. I know that they will all catch fish, but damn, they are just so ugly!

Reactions: 1

HooverK

· #11 · Nov 27, 2016

GAT said:
I've never cut the material off an old fly and started over. Somehow, any fly I don't like ends up in a fly box somewhere and that's where it lives. I never even see it.

Of course when you have 13,456.5 flies on hand it's easy to ignore some of them

.5...? How's that work...? I'd like the see that half (or 5 half) fly...

plaegreid

· #12 · Nov 27, 2016

I cut a few up every once in a while, but I have a stash of ugly flies that have escaped the razor too

Reactions: 1

GAT

· #13 · Nov 27, 2016

HooverK said:
.5...? How's that work...? I'd like the see that half (or 5 half) fly...

I didn't quite finish one of them...

Reactions: 1

Jim F.

· #14 · Nov 27, 2016

I'll cut one up to salvage hook/bead/eyes when I screw-during the tying evolution, but the rest/old flies go out in the trash. I thin my boxes during periodic reorganizations.

FinLuver

· #15 · Nov 27, 2016

Jim Ficklin said:
I thin my boxes during periodic reorganizations.

On a CEO's pay too...I suspect??

Reactions: 1

Jim F.

· #16 · Nov 27, 2016 (Edited)

No, that is a different reorganization - the kind when they shake the tree, all of the monkeys fall out, and then scramble back up to sit on different branches. I stated that at a reorg announcement meeting at Hanford one time - I was not popular with some senior managers for quite a spell after that (well, except for the company pres who liked me anyway and laughed out loud.).

Reactions: 3

Krusty

· #17 · Nov 28, 2016 (Edited)

When I was primarily a skinny water flyfisherman I generally lost flies long before they became ratty and candidates for the razor blade.

Nowadays they do get recycled (since I mostly fish stillwater and don't lose many to snags) especially if they've got spendy tungsten beads. I simply can't bring myself to throw out good hooks, particularly at today's prices for high quality product.

There are a few hideous flies sitting in my boxes that go back to when I started tying more than a half century ago. Every time I look at them I get nostalgic....so they'll never be recycled.

Deep Swing

· #18 · Nov 28, 2016

Recycling is more work. Hard if you super glue the underbodies. Have way too many flys.
DS

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Squamishpoacher

· #19 · Nov 29, 2016

I gave up on recycling other than retrieving beads. I took a mason jar half full of flies no longer worthy of the light of day and put them into a couple of old fly boxes and donated them to a thrift store and it's almost time to do so again.

Nooksack Mac

· #20 · Nov 30, 2016

I keep the first fly I tied, in a mothproof box. A bucktail, it has to be handled carefully, as the hairs threaten to fall out of the loose wraps. I keep wounded warriors that were chewed apart by memorable fish. Zen Leecher, you should frame that Woolly Bugger!

I've tied many not-ready-for-primetime flies that I save in Cannon Fodder boxes. I use them when fishing a treacherous, hook-grabbing place; or I lend the box to a novice for what may be his first day of fly fishing. I recycle many old flies, but I junk the rusty, bent pointed hopeless cripples.

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