buy your hackle at the fly shop not online. you can handle the hackle at the fly shop for inspection and quality, you cant do that online
buy the highest quality materials you can afford
clean your tying tools. clean out the waxy build up in those bobbin holders
sit in a comfortable chair and have it at the right height to prevent soreness in your back and shoulders
have good lighting in your tying area.
keep all of your feathers in the original zip lock baggie they came in or replace ripped open baggies with new ones.
organize your tying room/area. know where everything is. label those Rubbermaid plastic shoe boxes so you’ll know whats inside
practice techniques you are having a hard time with. it will get easier.
take a tying lesson. you don’t know it all. yet!
head out to your local fly shop on Saturdays. most will have a tying seminar of some kind
leave your materials on the card or spool. for instance, just unwrap a few inches of chenille and the stick it back into that slot. tie in the chenille and wrap forward. tie off and cut off the chenille. no wasted material
break some thread. its the only way you’ll know how much tension you can apply
untwist your thread counterclockwise to lay down a ribbon of thread in lieu of a rope.
minimize wraps of thread. it doesnt take 57 wraps of thread to tie in materials.
Don’t be too proud to give up on a technique that’s frustrating you now and trying it again later. Your skills will improve in the mean time. For example, if you’re having trouble with the wings of your elk hair caddis, try working with hackle fiber tails or bucktail for a while until you get a better feel for the motions and technique required for bundles of fibers, then try the elk hair caddis again later.
Go to the fly tying menu on FAOL and click on “Tying Tips” and then check out the tying tips archives. There is a lot of wonderful information therein.
Norm, why on earth didn’t you think of just posting a link to the “Tying Tip” section on FAOl??? I mean of course EVERY useful tip ever conceived will be listed there right?? That is if anyone should choose to go through every one of the hundreds of different pages and links, which by the way are not labeled and/or organized in any kind of useful manner that lets you find anything without reading all 200+ titles and THEN the titles often don’t even suggest WHAT the tip is. They are not even alphabetized, which in itself makes it a real PITA to find anything. If the FAOL-heads here want to advocate the greatness of FAOL (and yes, it is a great site), how about suggesting tips to the owner/operators of FAOL on how to make FAOL better instead of just spouting “Look it up on FAOL!” The info may indeed be in the archives on FAOL, but finding it among the millions of computers on the entire Internet is ofter much easier.
One tying tip I found extremely valuable that I leaned from LeRoy Hyatt on Fly Tying the Anglers Art, is when wrapping the body and rib, take the first turn of body wrap BEHIND the rib material. Then, when you take the first turn of ribbing wrap over the body it won’t slide off the back of the body.
YES, I checked the tip archives here , but did not see anything like this mentioned. Of course I only looked for tip titles that might suggest they were ribbing related. No matter what tips are listed, if it’s label something else, It obviously doesn’t do any good now does it?
I’ve been on the board for a little while and I didn’t even know there was a tying tips section so thanks for bringing it up. Along with Normand’s wonderful thread as always the two should work together nicely, just like we all should.
Guys it just in the positive column for temps today in Wisconsin, high today about 11 F. I’m thinking of last night’s fly tying class and just getting ready to sit down at the bench and tie some. I’m sending some flies off to Iraq today. The sun is shinning outside and it IS going to be a grand day. I hope that everyone can look outside and think to themselves that we live in a grand coutry and things could be a lot worse so we have it pretty good.
It’s just about the weekend and I am going to the best fly show in my area for the year this weekend. Looking forward to picking up some good tips to add to this thread while watch some men and women that tie a lot better than I do.
My tip to add to this thread is watch some people tie at a show. Don’t care what pattern they tie. I watched a guy tie a scud at a show a coulple of weeks ago. I can tie scuds in my sleep but it was still interesting watching how he controlled the thread, manipulated materials and managed his tools and his tying area. The pattern was inconsequential.
Remember life is pretty damn good.
I probably should appologize for the strange tangent I went off on during this thread. I tried to bring a good tip into it but my reason for posting on this topic was probably more personal than tying related.
Lots of great advice. I will disagree on one point - I’ll by Whiting 100 packs on-line because I’ve found the size, quality and color to be uniformly outstanding. Capes and saddles I’ll agree with you for the most part, although there are a couple of suppliers I’ve had very good luck with and trust.
Wonderful tips as always; I enjoy rereading them from time to time. I will take issue with #1–I will trust Denny at Conranch Hackles to supply me with the very best hackle for the money, and as I don’t live anywhere near Washington state, I must use the online/phone connection. A big supporter of FAOL and I am a big supporter of him. I too am waiting for the FAOL book; searching through a hard copy is easier and faster than the internet. Maybe Parnelli is listening!
lets try to stick with tips and tricks and not whose feathers are the best. some folks may have a good experience with a certain growers feathers and some may not.
i will admit that todays hackles are far superior to the hackles i bought 29 years ago when i started tying flies. i just like to handle and inspect what i’m buying.
Normand, great stuff. Thanks for sharing. As for me, I’ll be tying tomorrow at my local fly shop, Jimmy’s All Season Angler, and then I’m scheduled to tie at four different expos this spring. I learned a lot of what I now actually use by watching others tie at the local fly shop and at the expos. Don’t be afraid to ask a lot of questions. Most of all, get out there and see the many and varied methods used by the tiers in your area.
Look at the bugs. I see people asking for patterns all the time but no one asking what the insect looks like. The same goes for minnows and streamers. You want to copy the living prey creature not the other tyers fly.
What if your fly shop carries junk hackle and the next shop is over a 100 miles away? I think talking about online suppliers of hackle is a great tip. What better information (tip) than word of mouth?
To clean your bodkin, stuff a film canister with steelwool and punch a nail through the top. After each tying session just stick the needle of the bodkin through the hole a few times to remove the buildup of head cement.
Use scrape hackle to clean head cement out of the hook eye.
Norm
I wasn’t saying whose hackle is the best, just whose hackle is the best for MY money. I was taking issue with your first point. I am sorry that wasn’t made clear. You stated:
“buy your hackle at the fly shop not online.” That was a blanket statement, an imperative if you will. Some of us do not have the resources you may have at your disposal of many kinds of hackle to fondle. Do I think there is good hackle that is not Conranch hackle? Of course I do and I have some from shows I have attended. To include a “tying tip” which is prejudiced against one of the prime supporters of FAOL is a bit myopic. When I was a beginning tyer, I didn’t know good hackle from bad. Your point about mentoring and attending a class is well-founded. As I gained some experience, I learned how to judge good hackle by handling it at shows and shops and by tying with it. I will continue to buy good hackle wherever I can find it, and if it has to come online, so be it. YMMV.
Mark
Go to every fly fishing/tying show that you can. Sit and watch as many of the tyers as you can and ask questions. No matter how good a tyer you are, you’ll always learn something at the shows.
