Here are some of my first flies. Constructive criticsm is welcomed.
Baybum
You are off to a great start! My first flies looked like complete garbage! :rolleyes:
Your pictures turned out really good too!!
You DO look like you’re off to a good start!! Just watch, carefully, the materials crowding the eye. It can be a pain to get to the stream, and not be able to get the tippet through the eye!
They look great! The real test will come when you fish them, but I don’t think you’ll have a problem getting takers. I especially like your foam beetle.
Nice job!
Very Nice,
When I mess up and crowd the eye, I use a very fine dubbing needle, (bead needle stuck in a cork) heat it to a red hot and burn out the eye. not as nice as tying it right but better than cutting the fly apart with a razor blade and starting over.
Eric
Great flies! I started putting rubber legs on the same beetle pattern, just a bit larger, and in yellow…bass & crappie love 'em…ModocDan
Maybe you should come over and tie my flies…
Yours look way better than my first flies. Keep up the good work.
Thank y’all for the compliments.
I have been running some line through the eye when I am done, just to clear out any cement or make sure I can get a line through. I need to focus more on not crowding the eye so I don’t have to worry about it.
I fished with that beetle last Saturday and caught 2 bass and a bluegill on it. As soon as that beetle hit the water for the first time, I had a bass on it. I was pretty tickled.
Those look good, I specially like the Poly Wing Caddis. I just see a couple little things:
- Just like Betty said, watch out for materials crowding the eye of the hook - getting the correct spacing will come as you tie more flies.
- On the all-purpose nymph, it looks like you cut the tail fibers (pheasant tail, maybe?) square as opposed to leaving the tips intact. Was there a reason for that?
Alberto
Baybum79,
Take a permanent marker and mark a line one eye length behind the eye of the hook. Use that line as a stopping point. After a while you can do away with marking a line as you will have trained your brain to where you should stop without really thinking about it.
Tyrone,
That is a great tip! I’ll have to keep that in mind when trying out a new pattern - I seem to crwod the eye of the hook whenever I tie a pattern for the first time.
Thanks,
Alberto
I don’t remember cutting the tail on the AP nymph, but if I did, it was probably because I felt the tail might be too long. What should I do in that situation? (Aside form the obvious, don’t make the tail too long)
Good tip on the marker. I will start doing that tonight.
For the AP nymph you could try cutting the tails at an angle to try to give them some taper but that is about all I can think of. One thing to keep in mind is that the fish probably wont mind, this is more for the tier.
Alberto
Baybum,
Nice ties…If you take these first few and put them away and keep them, you will be glad later on. You will have them for the fun of it and you will be able to compare flies tied later on with them and see the differences. Best Regards…
One thing I used to do when I used cement was to string up a piece of tippet with one end loose, and just hang my flies on it to dry - thereby clearing the eye of cement.
I have a very serious criticism of your flies. THEY ARE NOT IN MY BOXES!!!
I would encourage you to tale a few wraps under the foam projection over the hook eye on your foam beetle and build up a small “dam” by pulling the thread towards the bend of the hook. This will cause the foam to stand up at an angle from the hook. Forty five degrees is about right. This feature can produce quite a commotion, and even a little “pop” when retrieved. It will also expose the hook eye for easier attachment to your tippet.
I wholeheartedly endorse the red-hot dubbing needle to “singe” any natural materials from around the hook eye, such as you appear to have on the AP nymph. It dies not work as well on some synthetic materials in my experience. I keep a small alcohol burner on my tying desk just for this purpose.
Also, save a few hackle butts of various sizes when you trim hackle and keep them close at hand, as there is no better means of clearing fresh head cement from a hook eye than to pass a hackle butt section, butt end first, through the hook eye. It never takes more than two passes to do the job.
Keep up the good work!