Cheap Fly Tying Materials

[Armando]

HAVEN'T YOU NOTICE THAT THOSE NEEDLE WORK SHOPS THAT ARE EXACTLY THE SAME FOR OUR GRANDMAS AND MOTHERS AS FLY SHOPS ARE FOR US, ARE GREAT PLACES FOR BUYING FLY TYING MATERIALS?
YOU CAN FIND MYLAR TUBINGS, TAPES OF ALL COLORS EVEN METALLIC COLORS FOR POPERS AND STUFF.
THERES WERE I BUY THE EYES OF MY BIG SALT WATER PATTERNS $0.20 PER TWO AND I RECENTLY DISCOVERED SOME VERY FINE CORDS CALLED FRANCISCANIC CORDS, MADE OF VERY FINE PLASTIC THREADS, THAT UNTIED AND COMBED FORM THE BEST ARTIFICIAL HAIRS FOR BIG PATTERNS IN ASSORTED COLORS. ONE DOLLAR FOR A YARD AND YOU GET SOMETHING LIKE 20 onz OF PERFECT HAIR.
ALSO SWISS STRAWS, FLASHABOUS, EYES AND BODIES FOR CRAB AND SHRIMP PATTERNS YOU NAME IT.
AND ALL OF THIS FOR HALF THE MONEY WE ALL SPEND ON SPECIAL FLY TYING BRANDS.
JUST GREAT ISN'T IT?

[bones]

I, too, get stuff from those craft shops...........amazing how cheap that stuff is.

One can get really creative by keeping one's mind open for fly-tying materials.

Wife and I were on Interstate 93 up in Maine last week and noticed a motorist had stopped his car, ran a coupla hundred yards back up the highway and picked up a dead pheasant that had been whacked by a car probably a day or so earlier (judging by the obvious stiffness of the poor unfortunate bird). Wife was puzzled by such odd behavior. "Why in the world would that guy want that nasty old dead bird?"

"Simple", was my reply........." he's a fly-fisherman......he ties his own flies!" Hiways offer some of the best shopping for fly-tying material.

I've got this old carribou hide I bought up in Alaska a few years back. I pluck hair off it for use in some of my flies............the carribou hair is hollow inside and makes for excellent floating flies!!!!!

Which reminds me, whitetail deer season is just around the corner and I save the tails for fly tying. I yank the bone out of it, cut it down the middle and stretch it out to dry in the sun..............and mine don't smell like last weeks roadkill like the one's at Orvis. The white hair is colored by painting it with a colored Magic Marker. If you would like a tail or two, drop me a note and you'll be the first on my list to send some to.

[Armando]

Hey Bones
Those tails sound really good for some killer streamers, sign me in sure like to see them. But I live in Colombia remember several miles down from you.

I know road kill is a great flytying store, but I haven't been able to grab a dead animal in the road, I just suffer too much when I see them like that.
What I do is contact people with bird farms, where peacocks, pheasants, weird roosters etc. are raised, so each time a beautiful bird dies of who knows what, they call me and preserve it in a freezer for me. I just prepare the skin, it's been a long time since I haven't received a call.
Also have been running after guinea hens in my grandpa's farm trying to get a handful of pretty feathers, not too effective I can say but helps me loose some pounds. Also when in the university, while working at the natural museum, I grabed every single skin and/or feathers I found from the taxidermy room, still got tones of those.
Now that you offer me some of your tails, I can offer you some of my sinthetic hairs so that you tie some killer giant saltwater patterns.
'till next
Keep on with the fishing fever

[boba]

Please stop shouting and put things in lower case unless they need real emphasis, Armando. My eyes hurt.