The more I look at different companies the more confused I get about what I really need to buy…I am ready to venture out into the world of fly tying, but I am confused. I learned that you can tye a lot of flies using very little material, but what material to buy. I would like to tye the popular trout flies, woolly buggers, bass bugs, and panfish flies. Please help with the confusion.
Do I really need 10 capes and 10 saddles?
Do you need it? Need has nothing to do with it. You want it.
Honestly, for what you’re talking about, probably not 10. Check out the recipies for some of the flies you want to tie and see what common materials go across the various flies. About 20 chickens, a couple partridges, a pheasant or two, what seems like half a deer and enough thread to start my own fabric store ago, I was in the same place you are. Get what you need to tie a couple of the flies you want and see if you like it. Then start accumulating the stuff you want.
We’re on your side. If you tell your wife you’re tying flies to save money, we’ll back you up.
Jeff
I would pick maybe 4 patterns you’d like to tie, find the recipes and buy just the materials you need. Practice those patterns. Then add more patterns and materials. The Woolly bugger needs marabou, chenille and hackle. I’d start with black or olive and a cheap grizzly saddle. Good luck.
"Do I really need 10 capes and 10 saddles? " No, but if you get hooked you will probably end up with them.
This my opinion and I am ready to take the darts of disagreement
When you start, the flies you tie, are not that good and don’t look exactly like the patterns, whats more important in my opinion is technique if you don’t follow the exact recipe no one is going to care. Fish and game officers will not come knocking on the door in the middle of the night. No one is using your flies except you, no one is paying for your flies, all that matters is you learn.
You can tie a close approximation of any dry fly with Grizzly hackle, it has light it has dark and it will do, no its not exact but it is close enough. Later when you know that you want to continue then great invest in lots of feathers. Starting out One Good quality Grizzly cape is all you need…
Wet Flies, buy some good quality wet fly hackle in brown or other dark color. In some light conditions the fish might be able to tell the difference between brown gray and black, but not in most conditions. as a beginner brown gray or black is all you need.
Yes its fun to try different materials, and match fly patterns exactly, but where the fly hits the water as a beginner tier and fisher… it doesn’t matter.
If starting now I would buy size 12 and 14 hooks dry fly hooks (can be used for wet or dry flies) and the stuff to tie pheasant tail nymphs, shwapf flies,
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/beginners/part9.php
and Woolly buggers in olive and black. size 12 and 14 With these flies I could reasonably expect to catch a large percentage of the fresh water fish in the USA. after I was happy with my tying of these flies I would move on to dry flies.
Just my thoughts
Eric
Buy a grizzly hackle of decent grade – probably #2 – and one in olive.
The grizzly will work for many many dry patterns and the olive for many wooly patterns. Shop equipment shops listed here and shop for a saddle that advertises it can tie down to a 12. http://flyanglersonline.com/features/bobboese/bobboese20090803.php
Of you want to add rubber legs go to jannsnetcraft.com for the cheapest on the market.
Go to hookhack.com for cheap hooks and chenille.
Go to http://canadianllama.com/cat3_1.htm for cheap brass beads.
Go to your local pet groomer and bring a couple of zip lock bags to collect hair you can use for dubbing. Free!
Don’t try to spin hair until you have accomplished other simpler tasks.
Oh, go to Hobby Lobby for cheap foam sheets.
Here is what I would recommend you do. Go to http://www.hookhack.com/
They are a sponsor here and a good vendor to work with. In there search window which you will find after you click on “Shop On Line” type in this item number: TAF0008 and look at that product. There are several there from Item Number TAF0006 through TAF0013. These are tying kits that contain all the material and supplies you need to tie up at least a doz. of each pattern. There will be hooks, all tying material needed for a doz., written tying instructions with pictures and a sample fly tied so you can see what the fly looks like. Find the pattern you want and one that works in your area and after using this kit, you will know what material you need to purchase to tie more.
This will assist you with tying and show you what hooks and material you need for that particular pattern.
Hope this helps…
I went through the very same…so many flies so much material to get!!! I almost gave up before starting tying flies but I simplified the whole thing by getting the recipes of the flies I wanted to start with, you won’t tie all of them in one shot. Start with the woolly bugger and take it from there. I’ve seen in a couple of places (cabela’s and sportman’s warehouse I believe) some kind of starter kit with material for popular recipes. Take a class at your local fly store, I’m sure they can guide you through the process.
Little by little you will figure out what you need instead of buying a whole lot of stuff that you’re not even sure how to use. So far I have bought material that I have actually used. I keep all my material in a tool box and I have enough material to tie lots of flies. Don’t get anxious, listen to everybody’s opinions but do your own thing.
Good luck.
I cannot imagine being limited to a mere 20 capes and 20 saddles! 
MY MY MY what you need is a MENTOR. A teacher or a coach. Find a fly fishing club or atiyer that will show you what to buy. Your only going to get opinions asking such questions. Ive been tying 80 years and love to teach. Have you bought your vice???
Buy your vice and other items to try tying. For all you know you may not like it. Dont you have a flyshop in your area??? If you do go there and tie a fly with their material. Buy the basics ,some size 8 hooks a pack (patch)of hackle,chenelle,marabou and tie a dozen wollybuggers. Some material can be found in a craft store, No you dont need 10 capes. BILL
raiderhunter,
I learned to tie on this site, from the Al Campbell tutorials. The way I did it was to go through the flies that Al had laid out starting with #1. I would buy the material I needed for that fly only and learn to tie it for a few days. Then I would move on to the next fly and buy what I needed for that one. By the time I got to the Humpy (the last one in the Beginning series) I had a pretty good start on a tying material arsenal. I’m not saying that this is the best way to get started, but it worked great for me. And, it was a good way to help keep the cost down. Here’s the link;
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/beginners/
Good Luck & Have Fun
No you don’t need 10 capes when you’re just starting to learn. You only need 1. And I don’t want to see you get confused - send me the other 9. 
Good advice so far but personally I’d stay away from fly tying kits. I just don’t think the quality is there and if you decide you really like tying you’re going to quickly want to get better stuff. I’ve known 3 guys who purchased a kit and all upgraded within months.
If you have a fly shop or TU chapter nearby check with them - they may offer classes or at least let you come in and use their stuff. It’s a great way to try different vises and other tools to see what you like best without having to actaully spend any $$$.
And while it’s nice to tie a fly that you can use I think learning technique is more important at the beginning so spend more time learning to do it right than just whipping out flies as fast as possible.
Gotta agree with Lotech.
I didnt necessarily follow Al’s tutorials word-for-word, but they WERE one of the biggest things that changed my attitude on tying flies from, “That might be for some guys, but not me.” to “Hey, I think I might actually be able to do this!”
Once I decided I wanted to tie, like most of my endeavors, I read. Alot. I read anything about fly tying that I could find, and remembering Al’s tutorial, I read it ALOT. Read it and re-read it to the point that I knew how to tie most of the first half of the beginners series before I ever picked up a bobbin, even if I didnt actually know if I could.
Like others have said, start simple. I wouldnt even worry about dries for a while. When you do, I’d suggest getting a good quality grizzly saddle to start off with (even a 1/2 or 1/4 saddle if you want to same $$ in the short term). I started by tying a beginners’ adams: moose mane tail, gray body, and grizzly hackle, no brown. The saddle hackles, for me, were much easier to work with, and the longer feather allowed be to dress flies with heavier hackle if I chose to.
Dont worry too much, you’ll learn at your own pace. There’s patterns that stumped me as a beginner that, when I revisited them months down the road, I magically would be able to tie them. Basically, my abilities had improved in the mean time.
Also, the bit about the mentor is invaluable. There’s a HUGE time difference between turning and asking “How to you do hackle nymph legs?” and tying a few dozen shoddy looking nymphs before you finally get it…sort of…
I tied for a while with a very accomplished tyer, and the experience was great. Not just for the tying instruction, but the conversation at the vise and the amount of fishing knowledge gained. One of the most overlooked aspects of fly fishing/tying, IMHO, is, “Okay, you’ve got these nice-looking flies you tied up…how should you fish em?”
A mentor helps with that considerably.
do not buy fly tying kits. Most vises in these kits on the market are imports and are of poor quality. Find someone who ties and learn from him/her. Purchase videos or go on-line for demos. Wish you well in this endeavor.
i’m going to say this (again):
pick 5-10 flies that you want to learn how to tie, go through the recipes of each one and buy those materials.
those materials will be your building blocks for tying future patterns
a local fly shop would be your best bet vs online order. you can talk to the shop workers bout materials and such but you cant talk to an online supplier
do you need a $90 cape from whiting farms? absolutely not! and i dont recommend you buying one. theres nothing wrong with starting out with the generic chinese neck hackles.
tying lessons: if they are available at your local fly shop, take them. to me its the best way to get started. however, summer is not a good time for tying, everybody is out fishing. fall and winter is usually better for tying.
Once again, re-read my post. I am not recommending a “fly tying kit”. What I recommended was a “Fly In A Box” kit. That kit will give you all the material, hooks and tying instructions for that particular fly only. Pick out the fly you wish to tie, buy that particular “fly in a box” and go tie up a dozen. After that, you will know what material you need on hand to tie many more plus you will have a good knowledge on how to tie that particular fly and the techniques involved to tie it.
I do not recommend fly tying kits…
Raiderhunter:
With all of the great advice given ponder this; there is a 100% chance at some point in your fly-tying life that you will end up in one of these camps:
[ul]Camp Runamuck is where you buy everything you see figuring you’ll use it at some point. Later on, when you have been at this thing for a long time you’ll be using about 20% of what you accumulated. I was the camp director here for YEARS!!![/ul]
[ul]At Stalag 13 you BUY “nothing, nothing” yet despite the restrictions, you get things done. BTW, regardless of the proclamations of your particular kommandant, escapes to other camps ARE possible![/ul]
[ul]Of course you may be lucky enough to end up at the hardest camp to get into, Camp Granada. Even though you made initial pleas to the “mudda & faddah” that guide your fly tying life to get you out, Granada is where you end up with just what you need & use. At that point Camp Granada becomes Camp Nirvana.[/ul]
What I’m getting at is; no matter how you get to the place you will ultimately end up at, proceed slowly. There will always be time to buy tons of stuff that you will never use!
You could have been tying by now…
Instead you are worrying. 
Why don’t you just get a begginers set and go on from there?
Cabelas has some really affordable (cheap) begginers set ups that will get you well started. Then refine from that.
Simple, good assortment of material, tools, and a cheap but workable vise.
You could have been well on your way.
But you are more like my step-Daughter, you’d rather stress out than just do it. :roll:
warren,
are you thinking of the “tie a fly” kits??
http://www.tie-a-fly.com/choosepatterns.htm
this would be one way to go!
i too do not recommend tying kits except for dr slicks tool kits.
Lotech Joe is right and Cold probably improved on his excellent advice. I wish I’d been that smart 3 years ago when I got the bug and amassed enough materials to last several lifetimes before I ever tied a decent fly.
Read Normand’s messages again and again and again - it’s the best you’ll ever hear on this subject!
Then get the materials you need to tie a woolly bugger and go enjoy!
Cliff
Raiderhunter, check your PM’s
Eric