Simple substitutions..

All about flies Fly Tying
1

We seem to be getting a lot of new fly tyers lately. When you are just beginning, it’s often hard to have everything you need to tie a fly. Worse, it’s hard to know what you need and where to get it.

Thus, many beginners have a limited stock of materials. Yet they acccess a site like this, or many others, and see a huge variety of flies that they want to tie.

In my opinion, what a beginner needs to do is concentrate on the techniques more than the specific materials. Things like porportion, tieing things down properly in the correct place and attitude, etc…

It’s easy to get discouraged because many feel that they can’t tie a fly they like because they don’t have a specific material.

I thought that maybe some of us could help them out with some basic and simple substitutions. I’ll start with a few, and maybe some of you guys will add some as well?

Fly Tails:

Dry Fly: Any straight fiber will work for dries, feather fibers, animal hairs, paint brush bristles. Even very thin mono tippet material can be used. Stiffness is often a good thing here.

Wets and nymphs: Again, any fibers will do, feathers, hair, fibers from yarns. Find the color you like in what you have. Exanple: A gold ribbed hairs ear standard pattern calls for the guard hairs from the hare’s mask for tailing. A few pheasant tail fibers, bucktail tips, hackle fibers, or even a bit of yarn will work just fine.

Ribbing:

Lots of flies call for ribbing on the bodies. It can be many different materials. You can easily substitute wire salvaged from an extension cord for most of it. If you want a particular color you don’t have in wire, use thread. Monofilament tippet material, or just plain old fishig line, works as ribbing too.

Bodies:

Dubbed Bodies: Many fly patterns will call for a certain type of dubbing. Dubbing is made from lots of materials. It’s basically interchangeable at this point. Use what you have. The fish won’t care if it’s synthetic, rabbit, or goat on most patterns. You can also substitute craft yarns for a dubbed body in most cases on larger patterns.

Floss Bodies: That olde stylle silke flosse is hard to handle, fragile, and unnecessary today. Yarns, acrylic flosses (available in any WalMart), UniStretch, even thicker threads, will work as well for fishing.

Chenille Bodies: The Wooly Bugger is ‘the’ beginner fly. It calls for chenille for the body on most of todays patterns. It’s a great fly to experiment on, though. You can any kind of yarn, dubbing, mylar tubing, or flash type material for the body and have a very fishable fly.

Weighting wire:

If you don’t have a ready source of lead wire go to your local hardware store. They sell solder in many different thicknesses. It will work just fine. Just don’t buy the acid core stuff, it will rust your hooks.

Anyone else have any simple substitutions?

Thanks,

Buddy

2

As a beginner this definetly helps. Thanks for the post. Now post something that will help me stop crowding the eye of my hooks:wink:

3

Build the fly pretending that the hook ends about one eye-width before it actually does, as if you’d like to tie the fly with a bit of hook shank between the head of the fly and the eye. When I was starting out and tried this, I alternated between crowding the eye and leaving too much space for a while, then eventually learned how to estimate the correct proportions.

4

When you start your thread, start where you want the materials to end. It gives you a visual reference on where to stop. Make sure you leave enough room for a head past the materials.

For tails, I confiscated a make-up brush from my wife. She had several that were still “new in the box”. They were made from beaver, but camel hair works, too.

If you go to a craft shop, you can find tanned rabbit skins in a few colors. Excellent subs for different dubbing materials.

Wooley Buggers don’t HAVE to be tied with chenille. Dud your thread as normal, then add more dubbing on top of that. This makes a very thick “noodle” on the thread. Wind it on as you would chenille.

Kirk

5

Head Cement: Use clear nail polish. It is pretty much teh same stuff and costs a lot less.

Foam: The large 8.5x11" sheets of craft foam from Walmart are the same stuff as the $2.99 2x3" sheets in the fly shop.

Dubbing: Brush your dog or cat. The soft underfur can be used to dub bodies and the stiffer guard hairs work well for tailing and other places you need hair.

Ultra-Fine Chenille: Use tying yarn or 1 strand of knitting or crochet yarn twisted tight.

It’s amazing what you can do with various colored Sharpies and white tying materials.

Those are the ones I could think of right off the top of my head.

6

Don’t always accept the idea that every material application needs an exact unique material.
A good example is that the large, webby feathers at the bottom of a dry fly cape are fine for Wooly Buggers. Also if you want a special color of dubbing just cut up some different color yarns and “tease” them together with your fingers. The only consideration here might be whether the yarn in water absorbing or not.
Some guys who are off the deep end in my thoughts, will insist that if you tie a pattern with any substitute material you are not really tying that pattern. I don’t think the fish really care. Just enjoy the craft.

7

I have used colored pipe cleaners in place of chenille when I started. They add weight and do the same purpose.

8

Those won’t get shredded by teeth, either!

9

On the weighting wire front, if you are just getting into tying, don’t buy lead-based wire. Not only is it harmful to the wildlife just like your average split-shot sinker of old, but more and more areas have outright bans on all lead fishing tackle, which already includes lead core fly line in most states.

Non-toxic wire is cheap, works well and a spool will last for years. Not only will you be doing the critters a favor, but you won’t have to toss all of your old creations in the trash when (not if) the ban becomes total.

10

Christmas tree “Icicles” are a great substitution for flashabou!

11

the smaller sized coats and clark spools of thread from your sewing box or box store.

paint brush fibers for micro fibbetts

many many things from hobby lobby (wish we had one here), jo-ann, michael’s, beverly’s etc. stores.

stretchy jelly cord for beading makes great nymph rib/bodies (see above stores)

dryer lint for nymph dubbing…you can get some great mixes if you strategize loads on laundry day.

I use deer for elk…I have a lot of deer skin.

12

While that is certainly a noble decision, I’ve also found the “lead free lead” to be less flexible, and adding less weight-for-bulk than traditional lead, as well as being harder, making it very difficult to pinch off with a finger and smooth down the cut ends, meaning that it makes small nymphs very difficult to get smoothly tapered, especially for the beginner.

When I was first starting out I asked the guy who taught me about this lead and basically, his opinion was that one shotgun blast from a hunter or one bottom-fishing bait rig broken off put more lead in the environment in one moment than a month’s worth of his losing nymphs in the stream bed. All things considered, he didn’t feel he was being environmentally irresponsible by using lead. Having used both, I also prefer the lead.

But its certainly a good point to suggest that new tyers learn the regulations regarding lead in the places they plan to fish!:slight_smile:

13

Ignoring the environmental discussion, my precise point is that it does not matter what the regulations are now because very soon the ban will be total. Buying lead wire today is going to mean throwing it and your old flies away tomorrow.

Unrelated, another substitution struck me last night. If you have young kids, they likely have stuffed animals they’ve outgrown and are too ratty to be given away. If you also have an electric shaver, or a pair of scissors and a lot of patience, you can get some really funky dubbing.

14

Ignoring the environmental discussion, my precise point is that it does not matter what the regulations are now because very soon the ban will be total. Buying lead wire today is going to mean throwing it and your old flies away tomorrow.

Thats a very tenuous argument at best, but if you feel that’s the way of it (and in your state, it may well be), then its a good decision for you.

For my part, I dont see PA outlawing lead any time in the near future, most certainly not before I can use the nymphs I’d have on hand. PA has water quality issues with AMD that make lead from recreational hunting & fishing the last thing on the state’s mind. PA will outlaw felt before lead, methinks.

15

Go to your local 99 cent store. They sell lots of stuff that can be used to tye flys. Easter grass, tinsel, colored feathers, and other things can be had there. Other things for tying include storage boxes, flat trays (for placing under your vice to collect waste), fabric dye, and other things that can help. Also Fabric and Craft shops sell thread and many other things like foam at prices that can not be beaten.

HOWEVER you do want to go to your local fly shop as often as you can. They are a priceless source of knowledge and without your support they will disappear.

16

I think this lead issue is important. I’ve started another thread about it where we can all look at it.

Buddy

17

Wowzer! I sure wish I’d known about FAOL when I started fly tying! How many frustrations could have been saved had I known, or been comfortable with, such simple substitutions!

18

What metal is used in pipe cleaners, I wonder. I pondered this in the past, and had considered using them. I thought they might rust after a time…have you had this problem? They would be perfect for chain pickerel flies or pike I would imagine!

19

I tied a few with the pipe cleaners years ago…they rusted.

20

I also found that flies tied with pipe cleaners, or what they now call chenille stems in the craft stores, rusted after use.

But if you are aren’t concerned about the rust issue, then they do make good flies.

I get the feeling that many look on flies as some kind of heirlooms that need to be useable for generations. Or maybe just months or years.

If you don’t get the fly wet until you fish it, then it will work just fine. Once it gets wet, and you don’t lose it to a snag, have the fish tear it up, or you don’t cast it into a tree, you can just throw it away.

How important is it to you that your flies be reuseable?

I know that for me I’m perfectly happy if the fly gets me one fish. I seldom save a fly that’s left on the end of the tippet at the end of the day anyway. It’s used now, and I like to start the next day with a new fly. It’s not like I don’t have way more than I could ever fish anyway.

Maybe it’s just me.

I no longer use the chenille stems, though. Mainly because I have every color available in just about every fly tying chenille, yarn, or rope like stuff already.

Buddy