Starting to tie flies

[ryanpas]

I want to spend this winter learning to tie flies. If anyone has any comments what Im going to need and what brand tools are best to get started it would be greatly appreciated. Is it worth taking a tying class to get going?

[Doc]

You can learn more tricks in a days tying class than a year just experimenting on your own. If you live in Edmonton join the Northern lights/TU if in Calagary there is Hook & Hackle and the Mckenzie tying club.

Cheers,
Doc

[Kingfisher]

For tools here is a small list.

Vice, to start with just buy a knock off of the good one's. That way if you don't stick with it then your not out too much. A good knock off might cost you between $75 and $100. (knock off = just a cheap copy of the good one's)

Sissors, Anvil make good one's. You should buy 2 pairs. One just crappy cheap pair for cutting wires. The other should be fine for cutting feathers, thread and hair.

Bodkin, basically a bodkin is just a pic. Used to pluck out dubbing and feathers.

Matterelli whip finisher. Tried all the others and this is the only decent one. Takes about 5 minutes to learn to use correctly.

Bobbins, for holding thread. Buy 2 so you can have 2 different colors of thread without having to swap out all the time. No sense buying the expensive one's to start with. So just get the cheap one's.

That's all you really need to get started with. You'll find out there are a thousand more things that you need. But those you can get one at a time as you go along.

As for supplies.

I'd say buy a grizzly hackle.

Get 3 or 4 colors of dubbing. Olive, red, black, and purple will be fine to start with.

Get a couple packs of flashabou. Go with a sliver, gold and what ever other color strikes your fancy.

Buy 3 or 4 spools of thread. Buy 6/0 to start with. Even some Mono cord. It's just stronger. Rookies tend to put too much tension on the thread and bust off lots while tying.

Buy some random packs of feathers. I'd say buy a couple of pheasant tail feathers, some black feathers, pheasant rump feathers,

Deer hair, elk hair. Don't get too big of a pack. Probably a 3" square of each will last you a good long time. You can get more later.

Hooks, get a variety of sizes. Be sure to get some size 8. That's the size I start people on when I'm teaching fly tying. Buy a few smaller sizes so you can experiment once you tie a few and feel a bit braver.

Good luck with your tying.
Cheers,
Rob

[Rick.]

Good list by Kingfisher. I would add a hair stacker to the list. I don't know if "Fly Tying..The Anglers Art" is still on PBS T.V. on Saturdays but it was an excellent show for teaching methods and patterns. I used to video tape it so it's been around for a long time. There are courses run by most of the shops during the winter. Take one for beginners and you can't go wrong. Be prepared to spend lots until you build an inventory of material. I remember the first time I stood in line at the til with an 80 dollar hackle in my hand I started laughing hysterically about how I was spending 80 dollars on feathers. Best of luck. Rick.

[ryanpas]

thanks everyone for the tips. time to get started.

[2big4u]

Take a class. Learn good habits from the start. Get basics down then get fancy.

[jts1]

I found even a site such as You Tube had a good list of vids that showed me a lot. Just do a search online and you will come up with lots of information. I started doing leach patterns and Nymphs. More times than not at first I came up with a creation that no self respecting trout would ever look at , let alone consider it a meal. But with practice and patience you will have a new aspect to fishing. Good luck

[duffy4]

It has been my experience that there are "fishermen who like to tie their own flies" and then there are "fly tiers who do a little fishing now and then".

And several shades in between.

When I started off tying flies, I wanted to tie every pattern and invented some of my own (snipped off some of my beard hair and tied a streamer called... you guessed it "duffy's beard")

Then hunting started to take up more of my time and I settled in to tying a bunch of flies of just a few fav patterns that worked well for me.

You definitely make some "new friends" if you can tie a decent fly.