When you are fly fishing why do you need to poke out the eyes of the...

[brynhild84]

...flies you are fishing with? In a book I was reading, which is set in Scotland, they were poking out the eyes of the flys they were using

[Crazy Horse]

They get painted over. If you don't poke the eyes out, you can't attach the line to them.

[nikomat77]

its the eye of the hook that the fly is tied on, as in the part that the leader (fishing line if your not familiar with fly fishing) goes through, not eyes that are used for seeing. new flies are often clogged with fly cement, basically glue that is used to hold the thread, hair, feathers ect together and in place on the hook so as to imitate the fishes food source.