🎣 Built a free tool to track your fly tying materials — would love feedback

T

TheAngler

Just Hatched
Hey PNW tyers 👋

Like most of you, I've got drawers full of materials and never quite remember what I have when I'm at the vise or at the shop. So I built something to fix that.

Fly Tying Inventory (https://www.flytyinginventory.com) — a free web app that lets you:

  • 📦 Track what you own — log your dubbing, hooks, thread, hackle, feathers, everything. Add colors, sizes, quantities, even snap a photo 📸
  • 🪶 See what you can tie — the app matches your inventory against 300+ patterns and tells you which flies you can tie right now, which you're one material away from, and what you need to buy
  • 📖 Browse 300+ patterns — full step-by-step tying instructions with materials lists and video tutorials. Browse without signing up → (https://www.flytyinginventory.com/explore)
  • 🛒 Smart shopping list — knows exactly what you're missing and where to get it
It runs in your browser — phone, tablet, or desktop. No app store download needed. Free to use.

I've been using it with a small group of tyers and the feedback has been great. Would love to hear what the PNW community thinks — especially what materials or local patterns you'd want to see added. 🪝

👉 flytyinginventory.com (https://www.flytyinginventory.com)

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Tried to create an account and it gave mScreenshot_20260401_125011_Vivaldi.jpge this error on my Android Samsung 24LE with the Vivaldi browser. Basically the same as Chrome. Looks cool!
 
@SurfnFish - I built the photo-and-category feature for exactly that reason. If I’m at the store and can’t remember whether I already bought something, I can pull up the category on my phone and quickly scan through the images. It helps me avoid buying too many duplicates.

I’m also planning to add image recognition to help auto-label materials, but that will take some time since I need a fairly large set of submissions to train it well. That said, I’d definitely encourage you to start adding your materials now, since those submissions will help improve classification in the future.
 
TheAngler said:
@SurfnFish - I built the photo-and-category feature for exactly that reason. If I’m at the store and can’t remember whether I already bought something, I can pull up the category on my phone and quickly scan through the images. It helps me avoid buying too many duplicates.

I’m also planning to add image recognition to help auto-label materials, but that will take some time since I need a fairly large set of submissions to train it well. That said, I’d definitely encourage you to start adding your materials now, since those submissions will help improve classification in the future.
Click to expand...
So AI running in the background for photo recognition?
 
TheAngler said:
@SurfnFish - I built the photo-and-category feature for exactly that reason. If I’m at the store and can’t remember whether I already bought something, I can pull up the category on my phone and quickly scan through the images. It helps me avoid buying too many duplicates.

I’m also planning to add image recognition to help auto-label materials, but that will take some time since I need a fairly large set of submissions to train it well. That said, I’d definitely encourage you to start adding your materials now, since those submissions will help improve classification in the future.
Click to expand...
I'll give it a go...thnx for standing the website up
 
Love this idea. Heading to Mexico on Friday, so likely wont have time to play around with it until I get back.

I did have a question though. If I add an outdated material (because it's not already in the program) will it add it to the program for others to select, or is that just for me to see?

I have a bunch of old school dubbing from manufacturers that are likely no longer producing it. Just wondering if it's like those sports card inventory apps where if you add a card that wasn't previously documented, it documents it, and then is visible to others so they can look at the pictures and see if it's the same card they have.

Another fun (but kind of useless) feature would be to see how many of each item the community owns. The one use would be if you allowed "trading", where a member could contact another member if they were looking for a specific material that is no longer available, and they could offer to purchase or trade for it.

Might also be cool to allow people to add patterns to the database to increase the material/recipe match functionality.

Anyways, cool idea, looking forward to playing around with it!
 
James St. Clair said:
Love this idea. Heading to Mexico on Friday, so likely wont have time to play around with it until I get back.

I did have a question though. If I add an outdated material (because it's not already in the program) will it add it to the program for others to select, or is that just for me to see?

I have a bunch of old school dubbing from manufacturers that are likely no longer producing it. Just wondering if it's like those sports card inventory apps where if you add a card that wasn't previously documented, it documents it, and then is visible to others so they can look at the pictures and see if it's the same card they have.

Another fun (but kind of useless) feature would be to see how many of each item the community owns. The one use would be if you allowed "trading", where a member could contact another member if they were looking for a specific material that is no longer available, and they could offer to purchase or trade for it.

Might also be cool to allow people to add patterns to the database to increase the material/recipe match functionality.

Anyways, cool idea, looking forward to playing around with it!
Click to expand...
I have implemented the functionality to make custom materials for others to select. It will be up to the creator to decide if they want to share the material definition with others. Currently, they go to an approval page I will moderate for now. I want to make sure people don’t abuse the site. Once we have a good set of dedicated users, I will either have an AI bot approve or we can use moderator.
 
That’s a no from me, dawg. It doesn’t solve a problem I have, and just creates another future security breach.
 
🪶 Update — New Features Just Shipped!

Thanks to everyone testing so far. Here's what's new this week:
  • 📖 Help & Getting Started page — full guide covering every feature, plus a welcome tour for new users
  • 🔄 Smarter pattern matching — the app now considers 264 material substitutions, so if you have turkey biots instead of pheasant tail fibers, it still counts
  • 🏷️ Substitution badges — pattern cards now show when subs from your inventory can unlock a pattern you thought you couldn't tie
  • ✅ Getting Started checklist — a progress tracker on your dashboard so you always know what to do next
  • ❓ Contextual help links — "Need help?" links throughout the app point you to the right guide section
  • 🔍 Better search engine visibility — all 316+ pattern pages now fully render for Google so you can find them by searching "how to tie [pattern name]"
  • ♿ Accessibility improvements — keyboard navigation and screen reader support for dialogs
Still free, still looking for feedback. If you haven't tried it yet, Try it out here: Fly Tying Inventory!
 
Update — feedback shipped! 🪶

Thanks again to everyone who tried the app and shared what worked (and what didn't). Pretty much every piece of feedback in this thread led to a real change. Quick recap of what's now live at FlyTyingInventory.com:

🔐 Registration & email confirmation A few of you said the confirmation email never showed up, took forever, or dropped you on a broken page. That whole flow has been rebuilt:
  • Confirmation links now reliably log you in instead of landing on a "session expired" screen
  • After you register, you'll see a clear "check your email" page
  • "Resend confirmation" button if the first email gets stuck in spam — no need to start over
  • If you try to log in before confirming, the app now tells you exactly that instead of a generic error
If you signed up before and bounced, please give it another shot — it should just work now.

📦 Adding materials is way less tedious A couple of you mentioned that adding 10 sizes of the same hook took forever. Now:
  • Bulk add a size/color matrix — pick a material, check off all the sizes and colors you own, hit add once. They all get created in one go.
  • Smarter custom items — when something isn't in the catalog and you create your own, the form now shows fields that actually make sense for that category (Hooks → Style, Wire, Eye, Point; Feathers → Bird, Part, Grade; Beads → Material, Finish, Shape; etc.) so the info stays useful when you're searching later.
🎯 From a pattern straight to your inventory or shopping list When you're looking at a fly pattern's materials list, every row now has a one-click button to either send a missing material to your shopping list or mark it as something you already have and add it to your inventory. There's a mode toggle at the top of the list, plus an "Add all missing" button to handle the whole pattern in one click.

💬 In-app feedback No more chasing me down on a forum (though I do love it). There's now a "Send feedback" link in the nav and a /feedback page where you can drop a bug report or feature request from inside the app — including anonymously if you'd rather.

📷 Bonus — barcode scanner The barcode scanner also got an upgrade recently. It now uses a lookup source with a much higher hit rate on fly tying brands, so scanning a spool of thread or a pack of hooks usually just works.

If anything still feels rough, please mash the new feedback button — it goes straight to me. And if you tried the app early and gave up, this is a great time to give it another look. Thanks
 
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📸 Try Photo Identify — Beta

Snap a photo of your fly tying materials and let our AI add them to your inventory — brand, color, and size pre-filled. No more typing... or at least less typing.

One photo, multiple items Lay out a handful of materials together — hooks, beads, dubbing, threads — in a single shot. The AI identifies each one separately, matches them against your existing inventory (so no duplicates), and lines them up for review.

Where to find it
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  • 🖥️ Desktop — homepage Quick Actions row, or the camera icon up in the header (works from any page)
  • 📱 Phone / tablet — same spots, plus a floating camera button bottom-right of the screen. Honestly, mobile is where it shines.
How it works
  1. Tap Photo Identify and take/upload a photo (one item or many)
  2. Wait a moment — analysis typically takes 10–20 seconds per image (sometimes longer for busy shots). It's AI doing real work, so a little patience pays off.
  3. Review each match — edit brand, color, size, or quantity, drop anything you don't want, then accept. Items land straight in your inventory.
What we need from you
  • 👍 / 👎 each match so we know what's working
  • Tell us when something looks wrong (bad match, missing brand, weird behavior)
Photos auto-delete after 30 days. Generous daily quota. Have fun with it.
 
TheAngler said:
@SurfnFish - I built the photo-and-category feature for exactly that reason. If I’m at the store and can’t remember whether I already bought something, I can pull up the category on my phone and quickly scan through the images. It helps me avoid buying too many duplicates.
Click to expand...
This would've been really sweet 11 packs of electric purple ice dub ago....
 
I just shipped a couple of features to make your patterns look sharp and easy to share. The one thing I will note is that the image cleanup can be compute intensive, so be patient. It can take up to a minute to generate. All of the new features are available in the custom pattern section.

✨ Clean up your pattern photos with AI: When you add a photo to a pattern, you'll now see a "Clean up with AI" button. One click isolates the fly — dropping the vise, background, hands, tools, and harsh shadows — recenters it in a clean square frame on a soft white background, and gives it a subtle product-portrait polish. It stays faithful to your fly: same hook, proportions, materials, and colors. You get a side-by-side before/after, and you can revert to your original anytime.
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📸 Post your flies straight to Instagram: Open one of your own patterns and tap Instagram. We'll generate a square, social-ready card of your fly (a few layouts to choose from) and draft a caption — written in a real tyer's voice, with hashtags — that you can edit however you like. Save the image, copy the caption, open Instagram, and post. No more screenshots or fighting with crops.
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Both are live now. Tie something, snap it, share it.
 
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