Tying Flies for Fly Fishing

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Fly tying can be one of the most enjoyable parts of fly fishing. Catching a nice trout on a fly that you created adds to the thrill and tends to pull you deeper into the sport of fly fishing. While they are readily available for sale pre-made in many stores and fly shops, when you take the time to tie your own, you can make the flies look even more realistic than those you can buy in a fly shop.

Fly tying isn’t as hard as it might seem.  You need to have some basic tools such as a fly tying vice, scissors, pliers, and thread.  The equipment you use can make all the difference in quality work and a blob of fur and feathers.  If you are going to take on tying your own flies, make the investment to buy good tools. The goal is to make your flies look as close to a fish’s natural food source as is possible. With that in mind, the better your tools are, the better your flies will look.

You can find supplies for tying in various places.  Start the vice, which is one of the first and most important tools you will need. The vise holds the hook in place so that you can create the fly. Cheaper vises will be harder to work with, especially when using very small hooks for tying small nymphs and midges. You will also need scissors, pliers and bobins and you will want to have on hand the following items:

* Hooks of various shapes and sizes
* Different colors and gauges of thread
* Fur from animals such as mink or fox
* Feathers from pheasants and peacocks
* Craft cement

Precision is the key to good fly tying.  You should start out with a picture of the fly you are trying to replicate.  You can find pictures of may flies, caddis flies, nymphs and other natural food sources in many places on the Internet.  Once you have a picture, just get materials that will mimic the look of the natural and try to duplicate it.

Start out by wrapping thread around your hook and then add the fur and feathers as you go securely tying them to the hook.  As you go, you will continue to add materials until you achieve the look you are going for.  Of course, there’s a little more to it than that, but that is the general idea.

You can take classes on how to tie your own flies and you can even find instructional videos online.  When you start taking an interest in fly fishing, it’s best to stick with the pre-made flies, but as you gain more experience, you will want to start experimenting around with different flies to entice the fish. There also plent of resources online that will give you plenty of imformation about fly tying.  You can find pictures of the fly, lists of materials for that pattern and the complete instruction for creating the fly.

I recommend that you start with some simple patterns and begin tying the same pattern over and over until you start getting the finished fly that you're looking for.  Probably the easiest pattern to start with is the fur bug or scud.  This is a fast easy fly pattern to tie and it will produce results for you almost anywhere you fish.  It represents a scud or nymph which is the primary diet of trout.

Tying flies for yourself can be a great way to bring you more and more into the fly fishing experience.  It certainly isn’t for everyone as you need to have a lot of patience when you are tying flies.  It doesn’t always come easy, but once you learn the basic techniques, you will probably find a new hobby that gives you some enjoyment, pride and makes you a better fly fisher!

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