I have laid out the lessons in an order that I strongly
recommend to tyers who want to tie the fully dressed flies.
Follow them in the order presented below, even if you are
fairly competent in tying other types of flies. The reason
is that each pattern presented will have elements needed
to tie the fully dressed flies no matter if they are the
classics or free style. For instance the hair wing lesson
has floss work while the simple stripwing gives a small
preview of setting married wings. The Speys have hackling
and the use of bronze Mallard for the wings which will also
come in handy for Mallard roofs on the classics. The Demon,
a Rangeley-type of streamer has a long floss body and full
feather wings. March Brown, Dressed to Kill will bring all
of these elements together and go into winging and other
areas of fully dressing a fly. Once you can tie this fly
consistently, you can tie any fully dressed fly either
classic or free style.
When you do these lessons/flies, don’t worry that you will
never fish them. It is the techniques that you need
to master. You can recycle the hooks after you have
finished the lesson. Tie each pattern until you can do
them well and do them consistently. Keep the first of
each fly and put it away, out of sight. In a year or
two pull them out and look at them. I guarantee you
will get a good laugh. As good as you thought they were
at the time, you will have progressed to the point you
won’t believe you could have tied such flies.
Lesson 1 & 2: Rusty Rat and
Silver Monkey .
Lesson 3: Gold & Red Strip Wing.
Lesson 4 & 5: The Caron
and the Dunt.
Lesson 6: Demon.
Lesson 7: March Brown, Dressed to Kill
Happy Trails! ~ Ronn
Please send your questions or information to me at
rlucas@cybcon.com,
by mail to:
Ronn Lucas, Sr.
13535 SE Beech
Milwaukie OR 97267
or, by phone at 503-654-0466.
Originally published c. 2006 on Fly Anglers Online by Ronn.