My nymphs look so much better since I started making the thoraxes fatter - I think I noticed that, but just never paid attention to how to get there. Anyone else?
Fly tiers anonymous.
x2 I should have taken up gambling
That 95% of everything included in all fly tying “kits” is useless.
The only rule is that it has to fool the fish!
Smartest question ever posted.
Buy the best equipment/gear you can possibly afford so you aren’t always wishing you had better equipment / materials. It does make a difference - especially in materials, and most especially in hackle.
That I would spend(in $s) what I’ve spent, have the volumous collection of books, materials and ‘stuff’ that I have, tye 1000 times more flies then I’ll ever use and most of them will be ones that I won’t use and not enough of those that I will use, but I’ll have a great time and enjoy most all the time spent doing this:).
Allan
I guess I found the two kits someone should have told you about…
I wish someone had told me to not sale my Scott Eclipse rod…
That fly fishing is all about tying knots, not catching fish.
Plus, X2 what Allan said.
Learning to cast with a level line is about as frustrating as it gets. Since this is under fly tying I should add something about that. Sooo I wish someone had told me about buying materials only for the flies I want to tie instead of just buying materials because it looks so cool. I probably could have saved several hundreds of dollars (or more:()
Before I answer the question I want to thank Alan Roe, who taught me the basics very well indeed. Without him setting me right at the start this journey wouldn’t have have gone as far as it has. He doesn’t frequent this board, and would only make fun of this if he saw it. Even so credit where credit’s due. He taught me techniques not flies, and brought me back to the purpose of tying flies to catch fish when I went off into flights of fancy.
The only thing I would have liked to know sooner was how to set up the vice so that tying didn’t hurt after a while. I went through a lot of pain before getting that right.
Cheers,
A.
Listen to what others have to say. There are a ton of experienced people out there willing to help. I’ve gotten so much advice, in tying and fishing both, from just this sight that its amazing. And look at profiles. Most pics you see of flies are flat and shown only from one side. Each pattern has its own profile as seen from different directions and can be very important.
How about this:
Spend more time on the water (that’s were the fishies live).
Adios, Philip
[ol]
[li]as was mentioned above, buy only the materials for the flies you need (pink polar bear hair from South Africa my be in a ‘silver bullet’ article, but is not necessary).[/li][li]there are only 4 things you can do with material: wrap it (body, rib, …), tie it in and let it stay (wing, tail, …), tie it and fold it over (wingcase, …), tie it and make it stick out (dry fly wings, spinner wings, …); learn to manipulate materials and you can tie anything.[/li][li]there is no wrong way to tie a fly if the results are durable and catch fish.[/li][li]don’t rely on ‘patterns’ as gospel - the poor tier {providing the pattern} used what he had on hand to imitate a bug - look at bugs and you can do the same.[/li][/ol]
Dental floss can be used to make fly’s fatter or shape bodies.
Not to mention, used as a fly line for light action dries…
Is that before or after you use it for dental floss?
I just wish someone had told me something. I didn’t know anyone who I knew was a fly tyer when I started and still do not know many locally. Thankfully there are some good books and Miss Ellis and Miss Ruby taught me how to read a little.
That old rod in the garage will catch fish just as good as that new one.
but:
I am glad I had to find out for myself that the best lunch ever is the PB&J one with my Son on our favorite stream…
Twelve years later still hooked together by PB&J lunches… forever 
I would say that is a matter of choice and maybe what you have been eating, LOL
And for me Steve, it was a Tuna sandwich on Wonderbread made by my best buds son.