I am still gathering my tools, but I was wondering what materials I should purchase to tye some basic beginner flies...
Starter Materials???
I am still gathering my tools, but I was wondering what materials I should purchase to tye some basic beginner flies...
Raiderhunter....Always In Search Of Water and Fish....
pick out the flies you want to tie and then look at the recipes online or in a tying book and buy those materials mentioned.
example
wooly bugger
hooks
thread
lead wire (if you want to weight them)
maribou (tail)
chenille (body)
wire (ribbing and reinforcing the hackle stem from breaking)
hackle
etc etc etc
Start with that list and tie buggers. From there, its a simple matter to get a hare's mask, dubbing, and turkey feather to tie a GRHE. From there, get a pheasant tail and peacock herl to tie a PT. Get some biots and you've now got princes, get some yarn and you've got tellicos.
The first few patterns will require a shopping list. After you've got the stuff to tie 3-4 different flies, you'll probably only need 1 or 2 additional materials to tie a whole new pattern.
Definitely start with nymphs and buggers. They require less finesse than hackled dries and the fish seem more willing to forgive rough edges and poor proportion. Once you can tie a few well-proportioned pheasant tails consistently, get yourself a grizzly neck and try griffiths gnats. Master tying hackled, tiny dries, and then you'll probably have the patience to tackle split-wings.
If you need dries earlier, look to tying foam beetles and ants. They'll catch loads of fish in the summer, and tying them is easy-peasy. Add bits of color, legs, flash, etc. to suit. One of my favorites is a black beetle with a maroon antron thread underbody and black deer-hair legs.
Experts opinion on
the material kits available from Cabela's
Raiderhunter....Always In Search Of Water and Fish....
this material kit from cabelas doesnt look too bad even though i'm against buying kits
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/te...532&hasJS=true
Bought one of them about 5 years ago. am irregularly using the bobbin...and that is all. The materials sucked, the use of said materials was limited.
Get a 3 Whiting Dry Fly Hackle 100 packs of whatever color and size fly you want to tie. Plan to waste them.
Get a couple of wetfly saddles in grizzly and some other color.
Get a piece of Elk/Deer Hair.
Hooks of course (you can always razorblade the bad flies back to bare hooks.) Get Some standard dry fly hooks.
Lead wire
Copper wire from an electrical cable.
Find your patterns on this site in the beginning Fly tying section. look at the materials needed, then go to Jo-anne's or michael's craft sections and try to match them.
Find someone local who can help you along. They will be the best resource.
PM Sent
"Trust, but verify" - Russian Proverb, as used by Ronald Reagan
Were I to loose all my tying materials today and have a spare hundred or so to start over, I would buy, assumining my tools survived
Two or three Pheasant tail feathers
1conranch #2 dry fly cape in Grizzly
1 spool #6 and 1 spool # 8 thread in grey
dry fly dubbing in grey and olive.
Wet fly dubbing in grey olive black red
Deer Hair Patch
Squirrel tail
1 spool non lead wire to weight hooks
1 spool fine brass wire
mustad dry fly hooks in size 10 - 16
With this I could tie approximations of 90 % of the flies I tie
Eric
I would also add peacock herl to this list.
If I had money left over which I should I would purchase materials for buggers.
Last edited by Eric-WD; 07-20-2009 at 08:25 PM. Reason: spell check and add materials
"Complexity is easy; Simplicity is difficult."
Georgy Shragin
Designer of ppsh41 sub machine gun
Excellent advice from Normand! The urge is strong but resist speculation on future flies or you'll end up with a load of stuff you'll never use. Believe me, I know!Originally Posted by Normand
If I had to do it all over again, I would do it exactly like Normand said, buy the materials I need for the fly I want to tie. Hopefully it will be a fly that works for you and that you will tie enough of to make the purchase cost effective.
Another lesson I learned the hard way is hook selection. When you choose your hook based on a recipe; make sure it works for all other flies of that type. In other words, if a recipe calls for a Daiichi 1180 for a dry fly, make sure that hook will suffice for all other dry flies you plan to tie in the future REGARDLESS of what the recipe calls for.
Recipes are great, but don't be a slave to the ingredients!
Have fun!
As a starter into fly tying dont bother buying half the material that has been shown so far . I have taught hundreds to tie their first flies. Once you have the tools buy 6/0 black thread, a box of standard Mustad hooks size 8,a pack of olive or black marabou,a pack of olive or black hackle ,either yarn or chinelle and tie lots of Wollybugers. Once you have mastered the thread and whip finishing then decide what you will be fishing for what flies you will need then buy more material. You may only fish for bass,why buy material for trout. Of course there is always "Road Kill" I have lots of it ,squirrel deer tails, mallard and goose feathers,deer skin. Find a hunter or trapper. A lady asked me if I could use some yarn. She had a trash bag full of sparkle yarn that Ill have for years. BILL
Hi Raiderhunter,
The advise to only buy materials for flies that you use (currently use) is exactly on the money.
This is why (this is the cold hard facts of fly tying from someone who has been there, and has communicated with other very avid fly tiers for quite a few years), if you start buying materials for every fly you would like to fly you will spend a LOT of money.
A lot of the folks who frequent this board have enough money in fly tying materials, vices, and hooks to buy one (or frequently two or more) VERY good fly rod.
You can keep the tying hobby reasonably priced if you only buy materials that you will use in the IMMEDIATE future. Buy the materials for 4 different fly patterns at one time at AT THE VERY MOST. Buy that much and tie for a while.
For example, to tie gold ribbed hare's ears, a package of hare's ear dubbing, some gold ribbing, a hare's mask (you actually don't need the dubbing as you can make the dubbing from the mask and I used to tie them only in that way), a goose flight feather, thread, and a box of hooks will keep you in one size of GRHEs for a long time. Such will cost you about $20 if you tie them on Mustad 3906Bs. (To go to different size flies you only need to buy other sizes of hooks.)
There is no better way to learn to tie than to start out with a standard, relatively easy to tie, pattern such as the GRHE or pheasant tail, and tie a bunch of them. Start out with a #10 and when that is mastered go to a #12, and when that is good, go to the #14, etc.
This same philosophy was listed above on a different fly, but the principle is the same, applies, and is true.
On the other hand, if you decide to be able to tie several different colors of drys, you will need to have at minimum 4 colors of hackle. The cheapest decent quality capes you can buy will total more than $80, and if you buy hackle that has enough feathers on the cape to tye a bunch of flies the cost will be more like $200 minimum, and that is just hackle.
Regards,
Gandolf
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