Hello everyone! After years and years of wanting to try fly fishing, I’ve finally gone and done it. The nice thing is that I got a nice medalist reel from this guy, and as a bonus, he sent me his old vise and some materials to get started with tying as well. So I had a somewhat free evening (somewhat hard to do when you’ve got 3 kids under eight) and got to do some tying. I had a couple of ideas in mind, and just came up with some other stuff. I had borrowed Helen Shaw’s Fly Tying: Materials, Tools, Technique from the library. Although it is a little dated, it very clearly outlines various techniques and methods. There were a few things I read there that I wanted to try, and then compare to how I’ve seen/read on the internet.
Anyhow, here’s what I was up to today:
Ok, so starting at the top right, we have a white hair tail, black thread body, brown hackle, and some white hair again for visibility. I was hoping that this would somewhat resemble a spinner or emerger… something sitting in the film.
Next one down is a white hair tail, grayish brown dubbing body, grizzly hackle. Dubbing wasn’t very well done.
Next is my attempt at a bivisible, with a grizzly hackle palmered and a white hair tuft. It would have been better if I had some white hackle… hopefully soon.
Bottom of the right hand side is my attempt at a parachute. Muskrat tail, muskrat dubbing body, white hair parachute with grizzly hackle wrapped around the white hair. The hackle should have been longer and maybe thicker.
Top left is a woolly bugger, as is the second one, but the second one has a very ample tail. I wanted to second one to imitate a leech, I suppose we’ll have to wait and see on that one.
Lastly we have something I grabbed out of some weird corner of my mind. The tail is actually the tip of some black hackle left over from the woolly buggers. Than black chenielle ribbed with orange thread. And finished off with grizzly hackle and an orange thread head.
Helen Shaw’s stuff is good so don’t worry if the book has been around for awhile. (I’m reading stuff from the 1800s, and they have some things worth knowing). Anyway, your flies are great! I can’t believe these are your first attempts. All of them are more than good enough to catch fish. Keep the first one you tied, then, when (not if) you catch a fish, keep that fly as well (along with a photo of the fish, etc). Makes for great keepsakes. Anyway, great job and glad you started posting. Welcome to the board.
Dave, great start! Her book is as good today as when it was published. Excellent one for you to start with. Sometime buy your own copy, not expensive one. Your flies are just fine, especially the bottle cap, very realistic.
The flies look great, and as others have pointed out the old patterns still catch fish, if you have not found it yet check out the beginning tying section.
Thanks, I tried a couple of them today, but it wasn’t a good day. I saw about 4 or 5 trout in the creek, floated about four or 5 different patterns by them, but they weren’t paying any attention. They seemed to be around the 1-3lbs. range. Couldn’t tell if they were brookies or brownies, not steelhead. Maybe next time, but one thing is getting better, is my casting. Getting much more comfortable with playing line out, starting to get some hauls in, but my accuracy was getting much better. From about 30ft away I could hit a 3 ft circle every time. That felt good. We won’t mention how many false casts it took to get to that, but I started trying to make my casts without any false casts as well. Oh, right this is the tying thread… ok enough of that. Time to get my kit out and try tying some more…
Thanks for all the great encouragement. Like someone noticed, I’ve been lurking here for a while, and it feels nice to finally post something as well.
i agree with herefishie the flies look great keep on casting and one will think your flie looks like lunch and then the fun begains with the fight and the great feeling that it is on a fly you tied and then you are hooked forever a great feeling. from my experience on this board there are many friendly folks that will help you with anything they are able to all you have to do is ask
Those are some impressive flies for your first attempt at tying. I mean, honestly, those are really good. My first flies didn’t even look like flies. Welcome to the best BB on the entire web. Let us hear from you often. 8T
[b]doftya/Dave, I wish my first flies looked as good as yours. Heck, I still tie some terrible looking flies after a couple of years of practicing. Rest assured, the fish will be the final judge of the flies fitness for use. Some of my strangest looking ties have actually caught fish.
Welcome aboard, glad you finally had something to say and jumped in with us.
