I also recommend NOT getting a kit. The materials are not always good quality, are selected to satisfy the entire county (not your region alone), and the tools are sometimes cheap. I suggest waiting a week or so to see what gifts come your way. Then go to the local fly shop and ask what their top 10 flies are in sales. You want the materials for those (and in the beginning ONLY those).
Like many here, I have been tying many years and have more stuff than I will ever use. And still I go back to about the same 10 or 12 materials all the time: peacock, pheasant, rabbit, grizzly hackle, bucktail, deer hair, black chenille, black marabou, yellow and brown phentex/antron, to name a few. Whether in a kit or purchased on impulse, the exotic materials are nine-day wonders (except pearl flashabou).
To jump right in on the fun you could always get the materials for black wooly buggers because they work everywhere. I know it sounds boring, but if you start with a little research on the flies/bugs that are for YOUR RIVER AND LAKE, the result will be a choice of materials that work and catch fish where you live, and you won?t have wasted $$ on a bunch of extraneous stuff.
Those little kits that come with a vise & tools contained in a wooden ‘chess set’ style box (no materials), are perfect for beginners. No, they aren’t top-of-the-line, but that’s the point. Children don’t need top quality kits. Get them started. If they use it for a couple of months then forget about it, you’ll only be out $30 or so. If they get ‘hooked’ on fly tying, it will last them until they are ready to decide what they really want & need.
I bought one for myself and I love it. It is a great travel kit. I have a Renzetti, but I like these little kits because they pack so well & I don’t have to worry about them on the road (Theft, damage & so on).
And you don’t want a kit that comes with materials. I paid $80 (in the 1980’s!) for my first kit, and I still have many materials I’ve never touched from it.
As far as patterns go, start simple. A size 10 foam spider with rubber legs will catch fish and be satisfying for a young tyer.
Let the boy decide what he wants to tie. If it’s not too complicated, do it. It doesn’t even matter if it catches fish. He’ll be proud of himself for making it. (It will almost surely catch fish though.)
If you start with flies he doesn’t want to tie, he won’t like tying them and may get turned off.
I’m sure he has an imagination. Turn it loose on the vise. Get a vise for yourself, and sit together and learn together.
My first vise was a cheapie, and it lasted for years & thousands of flies. By the time it wore out, I knew what I wanted in a ‘permanent’ vise.
Grab some EVA foam (Craft foam available at Wal-Mart, let him pick the colors), Some thread, a few #10 hooks, & some rubber legs.
eBay has lots of those kits. Get one or two and starting having fun! (Maybe even get him to tie up some Black spiders to scare the girls with, hee hee)
All of these materials will be on eBay too, if that’s where you like to shop (I do!)…
Bill
Dave,
Send me your address. I’m always putting large bags together of ‘left-overs’ from tying the giant flies, and materials that I have accumulated over the last 30 years that i no longer use. I have a lot of hackle that I’ll never use. Everything in the bag is good stuff, and a scrap from my giant flies can make 10 fishing flies. It just needs to be sorted, bagged, and organized.
Also, not to be a salesman, but check out my DVD on dubbing. He’ll not have to bother learning other methods at all if he learns this easy method 1st.
Let me know what fish he’ll be targeting, and the size hooks he needs.
I was 10 when I started tying and had literally nothing in the way of tools and materials or instruction. That was 1961 in New Orleans. It’s a new day today.
Don
Dave;
I just mailed off a large box prioity mail to Cody today (Friday August 6) it should arrive either Monday or Tuesday. Delievery Confirmation # 0310 0480 0001 4543 7460
I also included a FAOL CD ~Parnelli
Package was delivered at 9:00AM Monday Aug 9th,2010.