I recently found my old letter from 1984 from Bryan Peterson of Western States Fly Tying, Custom and Commercial, from Littleton, Colorado promising me a job commercial fly tying at $2.75 per dozen plus a bonus at the end of summer. He illustrated that at 40 dozen per week, I’d make $440.00 per month or at $20 dozen per week I could make half of that, which was a fortune for a fourteen year old boy. I met Mr. Peterson while he was doing our deck and fencing, another business of his, but he said fly tying was his real passion and he had many teenagers, retirees, and prisoners working for his company.
He taught me to tie Adams flies for a summer. I remember him giving me a Model A vise and all the requisite equipment to tie size 14 Adams, together with many hours of lessons. I tied my heart out for a week with the 100 hooks he gave me. He promptly came over to inspect my progress. “Those look like a great start,” he said, as he pointed out the too thick hackling and too thin hackling, too short tails, too long tails, too fat bodies and too thin bodies. He mused about the cement in the eyes and other comments designed to improve my tying, as he threw them all in the trash. He said, “Here’s another box of 100 hooks, call me when you are done.” I said, “Wait what about my money?” He said, “Oh, I could never sell those, but call me when you are done with these, you are getting there.” The same story repeated on the next 100. By the third week, I was done with my first 300-400 Adams, of which he bought about half, throwing the other half away, with the promise, “But don’t worry, you are getting there by 500, I should be able to buy them all.”
I didn’t last long as a commercial tier, as I realized that law school might pay a little better, but I appreciate Mr. Peterson for making me a commercial tier, as I can now tie most any pattern given to me with only a handful going in the trash, as opposed to 300-400 hundred. And, since I am only tying for myself, I don’t have to crank out the same numbers. With flies each now costing about what I was paid for a dozen, you might be tempted to try commercial tying for yourself, which you should, but not to make money, but to learn to be meticulous about your proportions and efficient in your tying process.
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2022- I just got an email today from a fly shop advertising a Whiting Cree neck for $300. I tied to click the links and they were all sold out of six of them within an instant of the email. I couldn’t believe it, I think I paid $30-60 for most of mine. So what happened to all the hackle? Cree hackles going for $500 on ebay—I apparently have a small treasure chest in my large collection—Hell I even have a Cree stuffed rooster. This discussion list explains the shortage: https://www.theflyfishingforum.com/forums/index.php?threads/where-have-all-the-whiting-dry-fly-capes-gone.905087/
