Fly Tying - Getting Started

[GeneBeam]

I am thinking of getting into fly tying, but I don’t how to get started and I can’t find anyplace close to where I live that has lessons. I’m a member of the Doc Fritchey Chapter TU and they had lessons last winter, but I missed them, and I don’t know if they will be having them this year.

I have an old Thompson model “A” Fly-Tyer's Vise "No-Glare Pro Vise" in its original box (I don't remember where or when I got it) and I’m hoping that I could use it to get started. I found Scott Cesari’s Fly Tying web site with 12-part lessons. (https://www.scottcesariflytying.com/)

He starts out by letting you know what tools you would need and part 2 is the 3 essential techniques of fly tying. Then he goes into tying 10 different flies.

I am looking at getting tools that I would need. My list is: Vise (my Thompson model “A”), Scissors (one pair small and one medium and one just for cutting wire & tinsel), Whip Finisher, Bobbin (2), Hackle Pliers & Bodkin Needle. Please, someone let me know if I’m getting everything I need to get started.

The thing that is overwhelming me is what material I should buy first; Scott’s web site has recipes for each fly but as I have never bought fly tying material, I’m a little lost. I don’t know the difference between wet hackle feather, partridge feather, goose feather or turkey feather. Don’t even get me started about microfibbets or a peacock herl.

I’m getting into his recipes and making a list of material that I’m planning on getting. I’m going to go down to Precision Fly Fishing in Lancaster, and I will call first to make sure that they had what I need. I’m hoping that there will be someone there, with fly tying knowledge, who would help me out and I want to support local fly shops.

My last question is if my vise would not work then I was looking at the Griffin Odyssey Spider Travel Kit or Peak Rotary Cam Vise. I think they are both made in the USA, but I leaning to the Griffin.

Any thoughts and\or comments would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

 

[Baron]

If you don't like tying you can use the tying vise to beat snakeheads senseless, lol.
I really liked tying and I just started a month ago. The quality of the vise and its purchase price doesn't make the flies. My vise was $29. from Bass Pro and I've had so much fun and you will as well.
Best wishes for this new adventure.

 

[redietz]

There's nothing wrong with a Thompson Model A, especially the "Pro" version. I wouldn't be surprised to the learn were more flies tied in the 20th century on a Model A than all other vises put together. I've owned one for 40 years, and still use it from time to time, even though I have more expensive vises.

Depending on what you plan on tying, you might want to add a hair stacker to your list of tools, and maybe a half hitch tool.

 

[GeneBeam]

Thank you, I have added a hair stacker and a half hitch tool to my list. Again thank you.

 

[maxima12]

I was a little different in my approach. My father bought me a Noll Fly Tying Kit in 1968, Tied flies but fished them with a spinning rod and teardrop bobber. Did not get a fly rod until 1974. Really enjoyed those "good ol day's".

Lucky to me a few miles away was Hille's Angler Supply House. Added extras as time went by. Then i too got a Thompson vise. Well at age 20, I was tying flies for sporting goods shops. Doing very well because from tying patterns from Noll Fly Patterns, i also developed my own patterns. Seemed, fly fishermen liked my patterns as good as the published ones.

Kind of neat selling your own because you could not find them anywhere else. Had a very nice cult following.

I guess what i am trying to say--------, Get a Brown, dry fly neck and some different color dubbing. Get some fur from hunters and some feathers and tie every kind of fly you can. Variety of hook sizes. Tie flies with hackle front, front and back, palmer, parachute, hackle center, see where it takes you. Use the feather stems stripped from you neck to make quill flies, again with all the different hackle positions. Once you learn this, you are ready to take any design to the next level.

Very simple, starting simple. Simple= fun! Complicated= quitting!

Good luck. it is fun and it is rewarding, tying your own! So many patterns out there, you will never Master All, till you Master One!

 

[Tigereye]

I'll second the comments on the A vise. Still using it after 40 years. I tie flies from size 4 to 22. My eyes limit me smaller than that, not the vise.

Good tips above. As for tools the 2 most important are your bobbin and scissors. Get ones that fit your hands well. You dont need to spend 100 dollars on scissors either. There is more of a difference between the $6 ones and the $15 ones than the $15 and the $100.

As for tying materials. Build slowly. If you check the "favorite flies" threads you will see a common theme of about the same dozen or so flies being tied. Wooly buggers, green Weenie among them. These are excellent flies to learn your craft and they work for many anglers across the state. Materials are cheap and easy to find, start there. Then graduate to the various soft hackles, a catskill style dry and perhaps an elk hair caddis. Lots of you tube how to videos. Charlie Craven, Davie McPhail, and Jim Misiura to name a few.

Some of the fly shops do offer intro kits that are respectable in quality of tools and materials. I would shy away from the big box "outfitter" kits.

 

[coyoterahn]

Gene, A decent resource to check out is Holsingers Fly Shop. Shawn from Holsingers has some pretty good fly tying video’s for beginners and his other video’s on fly tying are well explained. Also, Tightline video’s are some of the best and simplest out there for showing various techniques.
One thing you may learn fairly quickly is it’s impossible to have the materials for every fly/fly tying video that you see. Stick to buying materials for some specific flies that you want to master and then branch out from there. Good luck!

 

[UncleShorty]

Jim Misiura's videos are a great resource for novice tiers. Sean Holsinger also.

I learned a lot from Tim Cammisa's videos.

I cut my fly tying teeth on bucktail streamers. Their size and materials allow you to master many of the basic tying skills you'll need to tie more compex flies.

Good luck, keep at it. Just wait till you catch that first fish on a fly you tied yourself.

It's a great thrill!!!

 

[barrybarry]

If you're from Lebanon, Bass Pro has a FREE course that typically starts around November/December. Don't know if they still have it post-covid. Great staff/Great discussions about everything fishing related.

 

[GeneBeam]

Thank you, but I sent the manager of Bass Pro an email, a little over a week ago, about their fly tying classes and I got back an email from their co-manager Marwane Selmane stating that “Unfortunately, we are not scheduling any fly classes currently due to the safety of our customers and outfitters.” I did replay asking them to let me know if and when they were going to restart the fly tying classes.

I had stopped in at their fly shop, months ago just before the virus lockdown, and was talking with the two guys there about their fly tying classes, that is the reason I emailed them.

 

[outsider]

GeneBeam, check your pm in-box.

 

[Bamboozle]

You are getting a lot of good suggestions, I'll add two more:

#1. Get a small pair of diagonal cutters and while you are at it, a small pair of long nose pliers with smooth jaws. I'm talking about 3" - 4" pliers, the type people might refer to as "electronics" sized.

Use the diagonal cutters for cutting wire and other metallic stuff and use the long nose pliers for barb pinching, wire bending and other tasks.

Your scissors will thank you... ;-)

#2. Bite off small pieces...

If you got by all this time NOT tying flies, there is no need to catch up to someone who has been tying half their life in one month or even a year.

Practice the basic tasks first on a LONG shank heavy hook: starting thread, whip finishes or half hitching, tying stuff in and tying stuff off, dubbing, wings, etc.

Then cut off your practice sessions with a razor blade and go at it again over and over until it feels comfortable.

It's like learning a new piece of music and using rehearsal marks; sometimes you have learn things section by section or step by step before you put the piece altogether.

Good luck and have fun!

 

[GeneBeam]

#1. Get a small pair of diagonal cutters and while you are at it, a small pair of long nose pliers with smooth jaws. I'm talking about 3" - 4" pliers, the type people might refer to as "electronics" sized.
Use the diagonal cutters for cutting wire and other metallic stuff and use the long nose pliers for barb pinching, wire bending and other tasks.
Your scissors will thank you.

Thank you I already have a small pair of diagonal\side cutters\diags pliers and about three months ago I lost my forceps, which I had forever, and needed to get another pair so I ordered a pair of Orvis Scissor Forceps and found a pair of small smooth face needle nose pliers and went thru all of my flies and pinched barbs.

I also order a copy of Royce Dam's book, "The Practical Fly Tyer", a friend in Michigan recommended it to me.

#2. Bite off small pieces...
If you got by all this time NOT tying flies, there is no need to catch up to someone who has been tying half their life in one month or even a year.

Practice the basic tasks first on a LONG shank heavy hook: starting thread, whip finishes or half hitching, tying stuff in and tying stuff off, dubbing, wings, etc.

Then cut off your practice sessions with a razor blade and go at it again over and over until it feels comfortable.

It's like learning a new piece of music and using rehearsal marks; sometimes you have learn things section by section or step by step before you put the piece altogether.

After going thru the recipes on Scott Cesari’s Fly Tying web site I made my material list and you are correct about catching up someone else’s fly-tying inventory. The list has over 35 items and now I’m thinking just getting what I need for his first two fly lessons.

His 2nd lesson on “Three Essential Techniques Every Fly Tier Needs to Know” covers your statement about practicing and since I started to learn to play the piano, which I started last November, I’m doing exactly what you suggested.

I have been breaking apart the song I want to learn and see which sections are repeated and pick a section and then keep practicing until I have it down pat, then go to the next section. I just having a problem with matching my left hand with my right hand. I having an easier time learning the right-hand part. I also hate practicing the minor scales, they sound weird to me when compared to the major scales.

Since I retired, last August and I detest daytime TV, I have a lot of time on my hands even after doing my yard work around the house and with winter coming, I will have a lot more spare time on my hands, I’m also hoping to get in some fall and early winter fly fishing. Again thank you for your time and suggestions.

 

[GeneBeam]

Outsider, check your pm in-box.

 

[shakey]

Thompson model A is a great vise. My wife has been using one for years, and class a rotary vise “cheating.”

The next most important piece of equipment is your bobbin holder . It’s worth getting a decent one.
A “bobbin” is a spool . The fly tying tool that holds the spool,or bobbin, is a “bobbin holder.”
Calling your bobbin holder a bobbin is like calling your reel a rod.

As for material, just pick a few flies that you like to fish, and buy the material for them.

Raid your friends sewing boxes. Save a lamp cord for the wire inside to make ribbing .

Befriend hunters.

Many material can be substituted. Don’t fall for the latest greatest new material.

 

[shakey]

If you let us know what you fish the most, we can help further.

 

[GeneBeam]

Shakey
Thompson model A is a great vise. My wife has been using one for years, and class a rotary vise “cheating.”

The next most important piece of equipment is your bobbin holder . It’s worth getting a decent one.
A “bobbin” is a spool . The fly tying tool that holds the spool,or bobbin, is a “bobbin holder.”
Calling your bobbin holder a bobbin is like calling your reel a rod.

As for material, just pick a few flies that you like to fish, and buy the material for them.

Raid your friends sewing boxes. Save a lamp cord for the wire inside to make ribbing .

Befriend hunters.

Many material can be substituted. Don’t fall for the latest greatest new material.

Thank you, good comments, about raiding my wife’s sewing boxes as she doesn’t do much sewing now days and about the lamp cord.

My brother-in-law is a diehard hunter, so I have that covered.

As for substituting material, that is the reason my friend recommended Royce Dam's book, "The Practical Fly Tyer".

Also after all the comments I've gotten my list of tools that I would need to get, some I have already have. As for now I'm going to start with Thompson model A that, as I said, I already have.

If you let us know what you fish the most, we can help further.

Mostly fly fishing for trout and maybe bass in mid-summer here in PA and hopefully someday inshore flat fishing in Florida when visiting friends and relatives somewhere between Tarpon Springs and Crystal River and bass on Lake Rousseau.

Again thank you all.

 

[JerryC]

GeneBeam wrote:
Mostly fly fishing for trout and maybe bass in mid-summer here in PA and hopefully someday inshore flat fishing in Florida when visiting friends and relatives somewhere between Tarpon Springs and Crystal River and bass on Lake Rousseau.

That's quite a range of flies to learn how to tie. From a size 30 to a 4/0

I can think of one pattern that would work across all the areas you might fish. Maybe two. The woolly bugger is #1. Relatively easy to tie. Trout like them. Bass like them. Not sure too many people think about using them in salt water , but my favorite salt water streamer is just a woolly bugger on steroids. That's the first fly I would learn to tie.

 

[Dave_W]

Much good advice above (especially Bamboozle, as usual).

Precision Fly Fishing has a good crew and they're a good option for materials and advice.

 

[GeneBeam]

My fly tying will be mostly for trout flies and trout flies that bass would take, no saltwater flies.

I spent tonight going thru the Precision Fly and Tackle web site and checking if they have the tools and material that I need for my first 2 or 3 flies. Which are, as suggested, the Woolley Worm & Woolley Bugger.

I'm thinking they will have everything I need, one stop shopping.

Thanks again.