Fly Tying...

[robert]

thinking of getting into fly tying again, it's been so long that I don't even know where to begin.

 

Looking at buying a basic vise and some tying materials but I don't want to go whole hog just yet. If you were to pick a half dozen flies to start with, what would you pick? And what would i need? Not looking to buy capes lol

 

 

I remember as a kid, we used to gather all of our materials - moose/cariboo hides, squirrel tails, goose feathers etc. Use what we could find then buy the threads and what not...

 

[Mitchell0724]

If i had to pick six they would be...

On a scale of one to five (five being the hardest) ill put the difficulty beside them in brackets

 

1. Hares ear nymph (2.5)

-A nymph hook at sizes 14-10

-A hairs mask

-Gold oval tinsel

-Turkey or natural duck quil

-Beads are optional

 

2. Pheasant tail nymph (2)

-Same hooks as the hairs ear

-A pheasant tail

-Fine/small copper wire

-A peacock tail feather (with the eye at the top)

-Beads once again are optional

 

3. Parachute adams (1.5)

-Dry fly hook in sizes 16-10 (Mustad 94840s or TMC 100s are great easy to find hooks)

-A combination of grizzly and ginger/brown saddle or roster hackle will work

-Grey antron dubbing

-Calf tail or calf body(white)

 

4. Parachute light cahil (1.5)

-Same hook as the Parachute adams

-Calf tail or body (white)

-White/cream antron dubbing

-Cream/white roster or saddle hackle

 

5. Catatonic leeches (1)

-Streamer hook in sizes 14-6

-Marabou in various coulors

-Copper wire

 

6. Brassie (1)

-Brassie sized wire in whatever colour (originaly copper wire or was it brass??????)

-Any dubbing but a hares mask works good and that will save you from buying more dubbing

-Any curved shank hook in sizes 18-12

 

Its hard to leave out the wooly bugger but I did.

[CopperJonny]

Do it Rob !! if you like to create things you'll love it . EVERYTHING is a material sometimes , haha . Look out for the entamologist in you to "emerge"... dont forget the almighty Worm , in this river , and rubber legged chenille stonefly.....caddis , stimies , BH PT's , Princes , and what Mitchell said ...lots of flies are diff combinations of near same materials ....Have a chat with the fellas at Fish Tales , they will steer you in the right direction !!

[robert]

Cool, I think next week i'm going to start collecting materials. Starting a new job on monday and they are promising lots of hours and projects upcoming so I don't know if i'll have much time.

[TerryH]

I have to agree with the list Mitchell0724 has presented. The only thing I'd add, is that if you want to do various mayfly dries (i.e. pmd's, bwo's, green drakes etc.), don't worry about getting dryfly hackle -- which isn't available anyway. Go to comparadun and sparkle dun patterns, which require only two simple ingredients -- dryfly dubbing and coastal deer hair. They are easy and quick to tie, and IMHO are more effective than a lot of classical dry fly patterns. Terry

[Jayhad]

Dont forget the SJW, probably your most used fly on the bow and it's super easy to tie. Got to FT buy some wire, some size 4-8 Daiichi 1870s, wrap the wire, no thread just simplicity

[bhurt]

I would also add the following flies.

 

1. Stone Fly Nymph and Dry

2. Copper Johns (Brassies are a varation but I would do Copper John before Brassies)

3. Midges nymphs and Dry

4. Prince nymphs

5. Bow Buggers (Leeches)

6. Clousers

7. Muddlers

 

That is all I can think of right now while I am at work.

[Giovanne]

Dont forget the SJW, probably your most used fly on the bow and it's super easy to tie. Got to FT buy some wire, some size 4-8 Daiichi 1870s, wrap the wire, no thread just simplicity

 

Don't confuse a wire worm with a fly.

[Swede]

Don't confuse a wire worm with a fly.

Curious why you would say that , when the SJW is presented using the same fly fishing techniques as any other nymph.

[bhurt]

Curious why you would say that , when the SJW is presented using the same fly fishing techniques as any other nymph.

 

I completely agree with you on this, but some of the eltitist and puriest think using a SJW is no better then a Rappela, to me it really doesn;t matter what the fly is as long as its profile, and presentation is what the trout wants.

 

I even fish light chenneal worms under hoppers.

 

Anyways that is just my opion and others may disagree with me on this but whatever, I don't tell others how to fish I just like to share what I have found to work for me, and if there is a better way thats cool, just explain why to me so I can understand myself, I really hate people that say *hit with absoultly no explanation its almost like they feel I have to bow down and worship them.

[tgo]

I have to agree with the list Mitchell0724 has presented. The only thing I'd add, is that if you want to do various mayfly dries (i.e. pmd's, bwo's, green drakes etc.), don't worry about getting dryfly hackle -- which isn't available anyway. Go to comparadun and sparkle dun patterns, which require only two simple ingredients -- dryfly dubbing and coastal deer hair. They are easy and quick to tie, and IMHO are more effective than a lot of classical dry fly patterns. Terry

 

I agree. And with the same ingredients plus some z-lon you could tie some x-caddis, which work as good or better than elk hair caddis and are super quick ties. You could also tie cdc patterns in place of patterns that use hackle.