The Fly Tyers Blog

Two Dollar Bill Flies

I don't mean flies that cost $2.  I mean flies that are worth $2.

As in a two dollar bill.

Whenever i think about it, I ask for dollar coins.  I like to have them.  They feel good (i.e. hefty) in my pocket, but they don't stay there long.  Mostly I keep them in the car and use them for tolls.  I'm still resisting the modern age and haven't bought one of those ez passes like other drivers who whip through the toll booth.  That's fine with me; i'd just as soon have all those people who are in a hurry ahead of me and let me poke along and do my roadside birding thing, or otherwise think about flies i need to tie.  

Last time I was in the bank I asked for dollar coins.  The teller evidently figured that anyone who would want a dollar coin might also be strange enough to want a two dollar bill.  She said she had one and would I want that, too.  

Sure.

So i've had it around for awhile, and one day it occurred to me that a two dollar bill is a lot like many of the flies we drag around with us.  They're tucked away in old fly boxes we hardly open.  Some of these flies relegated to non-use are maybe not such successful ties ("…hey, nice.  That'll fish!" your tying friends say), but many are perfectly good ties. Together, though, they are a collection of patterns that you simply don't use.  But they're perfectly good, and in fact, they will "fish good", and they'll catch fish.  

So, I am committed to spending my two dollar bill (although i might keep it around long enough to use it for something special -- the first ice cream cone of the season).  And I'm committed to using some of those perfectly good two dollar bill flies in my fly boxes.

By the way, I like Andy Jackson's expression on that bill - sort of a non-plussed "…Hmmm.  What was I thinking when I tied that?" expression.

Get a grip.