re using fly skits

[silver one]

How many of you reuse skirts on your flys and just retie with new leaders and at what point do you consider the skirt junk?

[fishsniffer]

youll hear a lot of people saying the more frayed and ragged the skirt gets the better it produces..i retie until it stops producing...

[Nailer]

I'm with Don on this one. How often do you retie your flies?

[Rayman96]

I vote for using it till quits catching fish. I have also taken new flies and worked them over to more closely match a used fly!

[Priority1]

I make up a lot of my own stuff, from crawler harnesses to salmon rigs. I paint spoons blades, and tie some squid or fly rigs. I think a lot fishermen get hung up, on what looks nice to them. Some of my spray can paint jobs look good, but not as nice as the store bought ones. Do the fish care if there is some missing paint or a few tattered strand on a fly?? I have had beat up spoons, that I wouldn't sell for $50. Nothing has to look pristine. Like mentioned above if it stops working, and similar stuff is working, then can it.

[1mainiac]

I fish them till there is nothing left never retire anything that catchs fish. Some of my peanut flies used to be Salmon flies.

[HitMan]

Fly skirts are never junk! They just keep getting better and better. Rapture Trolling Flies don't rarely lose any hair, so there is no need to even worry about ever having to junk those out. But, other tinsel flies that do lose hair, the less hair the usual the better they get. This is the idea behind the "No-See-Um" series from Rapture Trolling Flies that Jeff and I came up with in 2002 after seeing how much better skirts with less hair produce than brand new bulky flies out of the package.

[Priority1]

Just like blue jeans, the more you wear em the better they get.

[Yooperdad]

I tie my own flies and generally make them in colors and combos that look good and have worked for me.

Does anyone know of a website with good photos of fly patterns? It would be nice to get a closer look at some of the ones that I see mentioned most frequently. Like I saw "No See Um" mentioned here for example. I see "Little Blue Boy" and "Blue Bubble" a lot too.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Mike

[boomerang]

here ya are mike!!

http://www.siggsrigs.com/trophy-flies.html

http://shop.bigweeniebrand.com/main.sc

http://www.howiestackle.com/index.php?productID=10

[salmonquest]

I usually take some snips and cut away fly material out of the package. Hasn't hurt.

[j1musser]

This seems to be the popular vote that the well worn, thinner skirts are best. I just tied a crapload of my first batch of flies and tried to make some thinner. Only time will tell this rookie what works best. I did enjoy tying them and had fun making color combos(about 50). Honestly i think i got my $20 worth of entertainment learning how to tie and rigging them. Another hobby to help get thru the winter. Bring on the catchin after all this rigging.

[Yooperdad]

Thanks for the links Boomerang. Just tied a few. Used a little larger tube so I can slip them over the knot and change flies using the same tournament tie. Saw that somewhere as a much easier way to store your flies.

Mike