How many styles do I need?

[Malcolm]

I'm just about to start having a concerted effort to tie my flies for the coming year.

I'm sure I can cut down the number of flies. Looking at the upwings I'm thinking of limiting the number of styles I use drastically.

I like the compara/sparkle dun style for fully emerged adults so that has to be in there although I'm thinking of changing the wing from deer hair to a mixture of CDC and polywing

For the sunk abdomen styles it seems to me that all the different patterns are much of a muchness and whether one uses a polywing with a para hackle, deer hair as in the DHE or the same fly tied with CDC the effect is much the same. Again I'm tempted to tie this with a polywing CDC wing with no hackle.

That's it I don't need any more styles.

That doesn't sound much but once I've tied a few of each in  olive, brown, orange (good in the evenings no matter what colour the natural is ) in a number of sizes then than is quite a lot of flies - and that's not including the specials - mayfly and yellow may dun.

That means cutting out flies tied in the f fly style and CDC and elk, CDC suspender buzzers and my seals fur dries and.....shit ..maybe I'll need a box of "change flies"!

[Wildfisher]

This is pretty much what Bob Wyatt's  new DVDs are about. Keeping the range small and simple.

[Inchlaggan]

I tie only one style---------crap!

[Fishtales]

I tie only one style---------crap!

As trout generally attack crippled flies you are well on the way to imitating them, Ken.

[Inchlaggan]

As trout generally attack crippled flies you are well on the way to imitating them, Ken.

absolutely correct, thus my high success rate, bettered only by The Man.
Which gives us an anomaly, his flees are prettier than mine.
Explain in ten words or less.

[Fishtales]

absolutely correct, thus my high success rate, bettered only by The Man.
Which gives us an anomaly, his flees are prettier than mine.
Explain in ten words or less.

He fishes more flies, has few witnesses to their success.

I fish mostly with three flies, My Dryfly, Iron blue Dun and my Hillloch Nymph, all year, only the size changes #12 or #14.

[Inchlaggan]

Back on topic.
My fishing requires loch wets, and I stick to traditional patterns.
Black Pennel, Soldier Palmer, Dunkeld, Alexandra.
I do experiment with nymphs in the lochans and burns, thus the shiny-backed PTN in the recent fly-swap.
Crane flies in season.
I tie more flies than I ever fish with, most have never been in the water, but it keeps me amused.
Sad really.

[Black-Don]

Well it's mainly loch's I fish so am trying to keep it to 3 styles of wets - I'll leave the dries out of the equation for now

1. attractors/lures ( call 'em what you want )
2. standard wet's and nymphy type things
3. standard bob type flies.

I'm going to try and keep to 6 of each which means 18 in total but might opt for 2 sizes.

[haresear]

As Malcolm appears to be talking about dries, I'll focus only on them.

I do like to have a variety of profiles of flies.
I like to carry some F flies, elk hair caddis, parachutes, some DHE style emergers without hackles and some dirty poly/dirty duster/klinkhammers with hackles.
I also like some terrestrials such as beetles, leggy hawthorn/heather flies and some extra terrestrials in the form of chernobyl ants and the like.
Another option I like to have up my sleeve are some upside down duns, for those fish that won't take a hook subsurface.

Alex