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  Like a lot of fly tiers I started tying when I was about 12 or so. Good flies were hard to find and too expensive to buy back then, so I had to tie flies in order to fish. But I'm almost 60 now and good flies are cheap to buy and easy to find. Rather than a threat to creative tying, however, I see that as a great benefit. I don't need to tie any more Elk Hair Caddis Woolly Buggers or Beadhead Nymphs because I can buy those flies for not too much more than it would cost to buy the materials. That means I can spend a lot more time experimenting with new designs. It also means I don't have to worry about tying time efficiency. Because I now buy most of the flies I actually fish with, I can suddenly afford to spend a lot more time on the few special purpose flies I do make.

That's what most of the flies I tie are: special purpose flies. The Roadkill Streamer, for instance, is indeed one of the best big fish flies ever made. And there is no simpler, faster easier-to-make fly. But even I don't fish with Roadkills all that often. They're for fishing at dawn and at dusk, or for off-color water, or rainy-day afternoons. When you're fishing a Baetis hatch on the Missouri at Wolf Creek in April, use the traditional stuff: beadhead soft hackle wet flies and gray Paraduns or Sparkle duns. During the one or two days a year you get to fish the Salmon Fly hatch, dig in to your special purpose box, and tie on some Boomerangs and Marshmallow Nymphs.
 
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