Advice for new fly tyer...

[FishnDave]

I've talked with a few folks who were interested in getting started with tying their own flies. My advice to those wanting to get their feet wet in tying flies for warmwater species would be to start tying wooly bugger-type patterns.

These are easy to learn, easy to modify, and catch just about everything.

They can be as simple as marabou & chenille. Then you can learn to add the hackle. Then you can play with various weighting options like glass beads, brass beads, lead or copper wire, bead-chain or barbell eyes. As your skills progress, you can add flash to the marabou or dub the body instead of the chenille. Or a mylar tubing body.

It increases your confidence greatly, as a newbie, when you start catching fish on your creations. And these are easy to fish as well!

I fondly remember some of the extremely horrific flies I first tied up. I wasn't tying by any patterns, and hadn't learned the proper sequence for things. I think I got the marabou tail on correctly, and sort of mangled the chenille into place, and then realized I wanted to use silver wire for weight. I wrapped so much of that on the outside, you couldn't tell what color the chenille was! U-G-L-Y!! And yet I caught several bass, bluegills and crappies on it! As my flies progressively improved in quality, I was embarrassed to still have it in my fly box, so I "unwound" the whole thing in order to reuse the hook.

[ohiotuber]

Dave,
Fantastic advice. I am still a new tyer & the flies I tie aren't much to look at. I wish there had been a post like this when I started...it would have saved me a lot of headaches. By sticking with JUST chenille & tail materials for awhile, you will learn the basics, including building a head. Last year, my most successful fly while fishing on Lake Moultrie with Jim Hatch was a "honeybug", tied from a kit sent to me by Nighthawk. SIMPLE??....Literally a maggot/waxworm pattern & it's a killer dropper fly & real effective fished on it's own.!!
Great post...I hope new fly tiers read this.
Thanks,
Mike

[sagefisher]

New to tying flies?

Here is what I would suggest:

• Join FAOL, if you are reading this you may already be a member, Great. If not, then join now. Review their Fly Tying section. This is found in the index on the main page. Open and read their Basic Tying Kit section, buy what you need. Open their Beginning Tying section and open Part 1-read it, then go to Part 2, and so on. Then you can jump to Part 13 if you want to tie a Woolly Bugger, but each part here teaches you some basic fundamentals. Repeat?Repeat---Repeat. Get the movements down. Train your muscles to do what you want them to do.
• Join a fly fishing club (however, many people do not have one in the area).
• Go to your fly shop and ask if they put on classes (they should, it helps them sell more materials) (however, many people do not have one in the area).
• Do you have a good friend who actually can tie flies decently and is willing to help you, ask him/her (however, many people do not have one in the area).
• Buy a really good beginning fly tying DVD- the DVD is much better than the VCR tapes as you can freeze, go backwards slowly and see exactly what it is that the instructor is doing.
• Like FishnDave said, start simple. The Woolly Bugger is usually one of the first flies instructors will teach you, there is a good reason for that, read FishnDaves message.
• Repeat, repeat, repeat. Just because you tied one fly does not mean you know how to tie that fly. Tie another, then another, then again, by the time you have tied six flies or so you will start having a decent looking fly. Keep the first ones and fish with them too. You can cast out a perfectly proportioned fly and once a fish or two has chewed upon it, the fly no longer looks pristine, yet it catches fish. There must be a lesson there somewhere.
• Don?t buy out the store when you decide to start tying. First find out if you really like doing it and if you have the time and patience to do it. Don?t worry, you will start acquiring more and more materials soon enough. Start simple and slowly work your way into it.

Have fun.

Larry ---sagefisher---

[William Fitzgerald]

Again in May our ffishing club will treat 15 to 20 children from Big Brothers Big Sisters to a day of fly fishing. These intercity children have never seen a live fish. They are divided up one on one with a club member to learn to tie WOLLYBUGGERS ,learn how to cast and catch that first fish. I love to see that little girl tie a wollybugger, then catch that fish on the fly that she tied. I have to have a couple dozen extras for the lost flies. BILL

[TomTrout]

Dave,

That's great advise. A simple to tie but very versitile pattern that can be change any way you want.
When I first tried fly tying in the 80s' the kit was not only bad but the instructions for the first fly was a Royal Coachman Dry. Knowing nothing about the process and you have to figure out how to handle Duck Quill wings and floss. No wonder so many people tried and gave up. That Flunky Footman fell apart after 2 casts.

Tom

[DruLeeParsec]

Here's some advice:

When tying flies, Don't Crowd The Hook Eye.

It took me a long time to get use to that. I've cut fur and hair off of dozens of flies that I've tied to recycle the hooks after I found (on the river) that I couldn't get a tippet through the eye of the hook because I had deer hair of hackle or something covering the eye.

Now I leave WAY more room than I think I need and I tend to move the wings from about 1/3 of the way back on the body to nearly 1/2 way back. By the time I add the wings and hackle and then whip finish it I'm all the way up to the hook eye again. If I moved the wings forward to where I thought they looked right visually then I'd always run out of room.

There are few things more frustrating than standing waist deep in your waders in the middle of a river with fish jumping all around you while you struggle to get the tippet through the eye of the hook that's crowded by the mess you made when you tied the fly.

Uh, not that that's happened to me or anything.

[bdesavage]

Good Advise, another "Tip" is if you can go to a Fish-In or a show or just talk to the folks at your Fly Shop. BUT Beware Flytying is addicting,before you know it your dog's and cat's won't go near you and then you start trying to "Dub" on a size 32. If any one has any advise on this Please I'm all ear's.

[crazy4oldcars]

Good Advise, another "Tip" is if you can go to a Fish-In or a show or just talk to the folks at your Fly Shop. BUT Beware Flytying is addicting,before you know it your dog's and cat's won't go near you and then you start trying to "Dub" on a size 32. If any one has any advise on this Please I'm all ear's.

If you keep doggy and kitty treats in your shirt pocket, you can still "lure" em in. You have to be quick with the scissors, though. They have a tendency to "grab and run"

Another tip. Plan what you want to put on the hook BEFORE you attach the thread. Lay out what you want to use so you don't have to hunt through your materials in the middle of a fly. There are so many possibilities I tend to get sidetracked by options, and don't finish with what I started out after.

Kirk

[Normand]

have lots of money

[NoLuck]

As a relatively new tyer myself, I would have to say that the thing I've learned most of all is that you don't have to tie pretty flies to catch fish. Through the learning process I've tyed some really good looking stuff and some not-so good looking. FISH DON"T CARE!!!!!

This is a good thing to US people that are learning to get it correct. Take your time and experiment with different techniques. I tye about 12 different patterns on a regular basis and thats all I really need. You may only need 2-3 for your waters. When I get the ones I have mastered then I start on a new pattern.



Isn't this a great hobby??

Rich