Tying vs. Buying - Which costs more?

Creativity meets economics

This fly sells for $10

There are a lot of reasons why people tie flies.  I really like the artistic outlet that I have on my vise and the ability to create basically anything I want.  Others might like the relaxation tying gives them, they might only tie to re-supply their standard fish catching patterns, or they may do it to save money.  I have heard this a million times that you will never save money by tying your own flies, and for me specifically (if I didn't sell them) I'd say that I would definitely NOT save money no matter how I try to justify having about 25,000 hooks on hand.  This being said, there is definitely a way to save money on flies if one is fairly methodical about it.

Before I get into the actual money saving part, I'll preface this by saying that if you only buy flies you are limited by what is in the shop, or what is available online. Period.  If you want to so much as change the marabou color on a Wooly Bugger you are running into asking a custom fly designer to do it for you which will most likely cost you some cash money.  So - by relegating yourself to only purchasing flies, you are limiting yourself to the creativity of others.

Before I go all "Curtis" on this and put my Nerdalysis hat on let's set some parameters on the cost of a fly (in very broad general terms).

• Junk fly - $0.75 (Congrats, you just purchased a zebra midge from Africa.  Yes it will still catch fish... after you Zap-a-gap the hell out of it)
• Normal run-of-the-mill fly - $2.00 to $3.50 (Typically from a reputable fly distributor i.e. Rainy's Umpqua, MFC etc.)
• Specialty fly - $3.50 to $15.  These are more specialized ninja patterns that include big articulated meat and bugs from custom tyers.

For the sake of simplicity I'll use $2.00 as a general reference for what a fly costs (and this is probably a low estimate.)

The kicker in making the jump into tying flies is the sunk cost that comes with the purchase of a vise and tools.  I guess a nice dry fly hackle really ups the initial price of tying dry flies as well, but the hackle will literally last you for thousands and thousands of flies.  For the beginning tyer there really isn't a huge "need" to buy all of the top-of-the-line vise and tools, but it certainly won't hurt to have top quality stuff to tie with.  This being said, in my example I'll use a vise and tools that you won't want to throw away after the first month of tying like the tools that many of the starter kits come with.

Vise: Griffin Montana Pro - $78.00
Scissors: Dr. Slick All Purpose - $15.00
Bobbin: Griffin Supreme Ceramic - $12.50
Whip Finisher: Dr. Slick Stainless Whip Finisher - $7.00
Total price: $112.50

So this list represents "needs" and not "wants."  In order to get started with tying flies, these are the things, in my opinion, that a new tyer needs to start off on the right foot and not want to throw a vise (or bobbin) through a window.

Now lets get down to the nitty gritty.  Let's say that a new tyer wants to start out tying wooly buggers and pheasant tails, and I'm going to list (generously) enough materials to tie 25 flies:

Wooly Bugger

Wooly Bugger:
Hook:  Allen S402 #6 (pack of 25) - $3.39
Thread: UTC 140 - $2.00
Tail: Marabou - $3.50
Body: Chenille - $2.50
Hackle: Schlappen - $7.00
Total price: $18.39

Pheasant Tail

Pheasant Tail:
Hook:  Allen D103S (pack of 25) - $3.39
Bead: Tungsten beads (pack of 25) - $3.75
Thread: UTC 70 - $2.00
Tail/body/wingcase: Pheasant tail fibers - $2.75
Thorax: Peacock herl - $3.25
Ribbing: UTC ultra wire - $1.45
Total price: $16.59

So if a new tyer started from ground zero, it would cost $147.48 to tie those first 50 flies.  That averages out to be about $3 per fly for the first go 'round.  For the next round of flies when you don't have to account for the vise and tools, your cost is $34.98 which rounds out to be about $0.70 per fly (and it will likely even be cheaper than this because your materials will actually tie much more than 25 flies.)

This is kind of an extreme example because you are limiting yourself to one size of hook and one color per pattern, but as you move into buying materials for different patterns you will start seeing that your materials will mix and match to tie many other types of flies.  As you get further and further down the road of tying, you will get to the point that you are only limited by how many hooks and beads you have.  Like I said above, if you buy all the materials for a certain pattern, there is a very likely chance that you will only have to buy another pack of hooks to tie your next 25.

Uncle Ken's Wooly Bug

The other thing to consider is that your flies won't look like friggin' Captain America sat down to tie them (I'm confident that he is great on the vise), so it will take practice to get your flies to the point where they can compete, or even be better than their store bought counterparts.  Your goal from the get go is to tie flies that are durable and that can catch fish.  Once you have that down, you can focus on cleaning them up.  I have ranted many times about tying flies that are nice and tidy and that look great, BUT, if you are tying for yourself and don't intend on selling them or entering them in the Miss Universe contest, feel free to just tie "fishing" flies.

I'll tell you right now that many tyers (myself and Curtis included) will likely never "save" money tying flies because we have the sickness of having to have every new material and doo-dad that comes into the market.  Even though tying is a viable way to save money on flies if one is disciplined, for many people the draw of tying is much more than that, and it's worth it for them to have $25,000 worth of junk in a basement dungeon in order to have that perfect caddis pupa with just the right amount of flash and legs etc...   

The point I'd like to make the most with this post is this: Is it possible to save money by tying your own flies? Absolutely. It is probable? well...  that's complicated.

~ Cheech

P.S. To all you married fellers... One of the biggest ways to save money is to find a way to keep hooks from finding their way into your wife's feet.  I hear divorces are expensive.