Your own creations?

[somersetian]

I am a complete beginner when it comes to tying but I just tied 2 streamers that were all from my own imagination. It seemed more enjoyable for me than tying to instructions or a video. Then again I am not experienced enough to tie anything from memory. I was wondering how many more experienced tiers just wing it?

 

[Dale49]

Somersetian,

Essentially all my patterns that I use are adaptations of existing patterns that you cannot find commercially and they catch fish. I have a few successful patterns I created myself. If I see a pattern that lists materials that I don't have, I will experiment with materials I do have until I'm comfortable with shape, size and color.

I will then tie a few of these patterns in different size and fish them. Not every pattern works. Two of my more successful patterns that I use year round are CDC BWO soft hackles and glass bead midge pupas. I vary size and color depending upon the time of year and streams that I fish.

There's another thread that discusses tying vs. buying flies. Again the reason I tie is that my patterns are successful and cannot be found commercially and I can adapt and create new patterns.

Get creative, go fish them and see what works for you.

Dale

 

[CVangler]

I love making my own flies. I have a few that I designed and have caught some good fish with. Its all about experimenting with them. You could design a fly that for example uses green dubbing for the thorax and have no luck with it, but if you tie another one with say orange dubbing, you could catch tons.

 

[Rollingdog]

IMO
you need some foundation to start with
"creating/winging it/experimenting/breaking the rules" are all great, but you need a basic foundation to start with. you need to know the rules if you want to break them

widely accepted patterns are time tested and the materials "work"... and this is esp true and important in streamers

Find a few flies you like
tie them close to pattern
fish them and see how the materials work
then "create" your own in the style of that pattern
repeat

through this you will start to pull from different styles/patterns and come up with some original stuff. There really is no "winging it"

with youtube/google image search this is easier than ever and has really leveled the fly tying "playing field"

 

[troutbert]

Rollingdog wrote:
IMO
you need some foundation to start with
"creating/winging it/experimenting/breaking the rules" are all great, but you need a basic foundation to start with. you need to know the rules if you want to break them

widely accepted patterns are time tested and the materials "work"... and this is esp true and important in streamers

Find a few flies you like
tie them close to pattern
fish them and see how the materials work
then "create" your own in the style of that pattern
repeat

through this you will start to pull from different styles/patterns and come up with some original stuff. There really is no "winging it"

with youtube/google image search this is easier than ever and has really leveled the fly tying "playing field"

Totally agree.

As a beginner, learn to tie the standard, well known patterns first, and fill your fly boxes with those, and fish with them, learning which ones work best under best conditions, how best to fish them, etc.

Then with that experience, you may get some ideas for trying some new fly pattern ideas.

As a beginner, if you just tie random stuff, the chances that it will do as well as standard patterns is very low.

 

[Dave_W]

somersetian wrote:
I was wondering how many more experienced tiers just wing it?

I'm in this category, but have also been tying for many years and consider myself advanced. With that said, you should continue your "winging" of flies. This is much of the creative fun about the hobby. Fly tying is more than just maintenance, it is a creative and artistic endeavor that produces great personal satisfaction and fun.

Moreover, many of the "rules" of fly tying/design, are rather loosely founded. You can deviate from them and produce some interesting patterns that are great fun to experiment with. . .and that actually produce fish. I recommend you get a bowl of water and test your new creations to see if they float the way you imagine they should. This simple test reveals many of my experimental flies to be failures. For streamers, go to a local lake or stream and test them by casting and retrieving. Many experimental flies look great in the vise, but when they hit the water, they spin in circles or turn upside down. When this happens, back to the drawing board! Eventually, you'll design a fly that is pretty darn unique and proves a great fish catcher. This is the sort of experimentaion with different fly design that, at least for me, is the most satisfying aspect of our sport.

So yes, keep winging it.

 

[chromid]

I have been tying for 30+ years and one of the most difficult things I have found is deciding from which perspective to view your creation. Too many of those that tie their own are actually looking at the fly from a perspective that a trout never sees.

A really neat trick to test your flies is to use a clear glass bowl set on a couple blocks to raise it about four inches off the table. Place a mirror under the bowl and take a good look at the reflection. This will give you the same perspective as a trout would see.

I have found that this test really sorts out those flies which look good to me and those that look good to the fish. After using this technique the perspective on which patterns I tie and what goes into my boxes has changed significantly.

I would highly recommend trying this on your creations....

You will be surprised at what you see from that angle.

 

[Reeder]

I "wing it" all the time. Learn the techniques of tying all the different body, wing, tail styles etc and how different materials can be used and how they work on the water. There are a ton of them, and there are a ton of different fly recipes for every pattern you can think of. I don't have many flies in my boxes that are an exact match for any of them. A big part of that is because I am too cheap to buy the endless list of materials needed to fit all of the proven recipes, another reason is because I also find it boring to watch a video and do exactly whats on the video. I find it more fun to just experiment.