… tying technique would you say is essential to master?
For me my arch nemisis and enemy is spinning deer hair!!! I keep trying but I really need to find a class or someone in my area to help me.LOL
Fatman
Proportions; not just amount of material, but length of body parts (tail, abdomen, wing, thorax, etc).
Regards,
Scott
Finishing the fly with a good knot. If your finishing knot(s) come undone so does all of your work.
Tim
thread control, dubbing control, proportions, knowing how to avoid crowding the head area
Yup, what these guys said. Common problems are way too much dubbing, too many thread wraps and poor thread control, proportions and crowded heads.
Another big one for folks starting out, if they’re selecting their own materials without benefit of a mentor/instructor is what to use for different purposes (wet vs dry fly hackle, bucktail vs deer body hair etc), appropriate substitutions (cdc, comparahair, hare’s foot) and how to tell good stuff from crap.
There is no one technique that you need to master… to be honest in my experience you will need to master them as you feel you have the last one mastered. I know looking back on my tying I could never get a nice tapered body, then I couldn’t get the propper proportions, then I couldn’t stop crowding the eye. Over time as your tying eveolves so to will the things that you want and or need to master.
On a side note spinning deer hair was one of my worst ones I would try it and then abandon it for a while and come back, then abandon it again, finally about 3 years ago I got a good handle on it and now I spin hair like it’s going out of style but by no means have I mastered it although I do tie some very nice deer hair flies from time to time.
Steve
Great advice from the previous guys. As someone who has only been tying a couple of years, I need to devote more time to tying to develop all of the skills that I need.
Someone touched on this but I found a local mentor who has been tying a long time and is very skilled who is also willing to share his knowledge with this 50 year old kid. Finding a mentor is a cool thing indeed.
Figuring out a plan for your tying, not just tying a new pattern because it looks cool, but how does this next new pattern fit into your overall arsenal of flies for your personal combat with the fish.
As a beginner a good pinch wrap will do a lot for you, if you don’t master some of the real basics your fly won’t work out very well.
Their are some good articles on this web site from a man named Al Campbell,
…Finding time to tie more…Practice is where its at. Swaps are the shizzle for this
…ModocDan :)
There are many techniques you should master…
But for my money, you can’t consider yourself a tyer if you can’t dub.
Any artist or artisan must first master his/her medium before being able to fully express themselves.
THREAD CONTROL!
Ed
The list of useful skills is endless (hence the thickness of the FTBR). But underlying it all is the thread, and so the thread control people have mentioned, including the judicious use thereof (as few wraps as possible at each step) will really help. The proportions skill Scott noted also floated to the top of my list.
And nobody really MASTERS this activity. Some get pretty good at it, and some don’t, but… I place myself firmly in the “good enough to catch fish” category after 33 years and tens of thousands of flies, which is right where I need to be.
One technique huh?
EdD is right. Thread control.
Can’t tell you how many new and almost new tyers have terrible trouble keeping their bobbins from getting away from them. If you have more than 1/2" of thread outside of the bobbin you have too much. In a recent workshop one of the students couldn’t make himself understand this and two seconds after I told him to shorten up he would have 3" of thread out trying to tie something down with huge loopy action.
Having been pondering this thread while tying I can definatively answer: Concentration. I kept trapping wings and snipping thread until I decided to quit until my mind was on the job at hand. Second place goes to recovery from errors. Even on a good day there are some times when I realize things are not going the way I want them to and I’d hate to throw all of those flies away.
The hardest for me was crowding the head. Once I got proportions figured out the rest was a piece of cake. I don’t like to spin deer or elk hair but I can if I have too.
Also I finally learned not to cover the whole thing in glue to make it stay together. I seldome use glue except to make the head shiney.
Having been involved with our club’s annual fly tying course program for the last ten years, with close to twenty students in each class and who have ranged in age from 8 to 60+ years, I can say unequivocally that thread control, including proper tension, is the most critical, as well as most difficult technique to learn. Once this is learned, the quality of their flies goes up exponentially and most of the attributes of a well tied fly seem to become automatic. How to hold, and use, a bobbin is a prerequisite to thread control.
Agedsage
I agree with the thread control issues…However with “My Obession” with the 26 and smaller hook’s and my “somewhat” problem finger’s getting the hook in the “Vice”(and yes I meant to spell it that way) :rolleyes:
not really the “one thing to master” but kinda goes with thread control.
you will not get tight thread wraps with the bobbin in this position
you will with the bobbin in this position and you can place a thread wrap exactly where you want it
keep the tip of the bobbin about 1 to 1 1/2 inches away from the hook shank
OK, Norm. I gotta pop in on this one. That desk is too neat and tidy! How can you tie with all of that order radiating from your bench?!? 
Man, I need to reorganize my desk. Seeing pics like that make me realize how it has crept up on me. Perhaps keeping things somewhat organized might be another critical skill. 
getting the hook in the vice.