Beginning Tying Class

[bv]

Hi, I run programs for kids and got suckered into teaching a fly tying class. I am an average tier myself, but am struggling at how I am going to show them how to tie. If any of you have lesson plans or explanatory drawings that would be great. I will comb through the archives here and look on the web but I thought I would start here. Thanks.

[Stewart]

You might check with a local fly shop. They might have a video they'd loan. Just a thought.

[steve s]

Try www.troutflies.com. They have a few tutorials with detailed pics for some good beginner flies like an elk hair caddis, woolly bugger, pheasant tail, etc.

Steve S

[riseform]

I think you'll have a blast. Some of these kids will remember you forever as they get hooked.

When I started taking lessons, each day taught one or two techniques while sending me home with a few flies that actually work. We had our own vice, scissors and bobbins, but the hooks and fur/feathers were supplied by the shop in little dixie cups at each station. Any left over materials from our station were ours to bring home for practice. The shop made out very well as we'd all be buying tools and materials that we suddenly couldn't be without by the end of each lesson.

Start with a gold ribbed hares ear nymph. It's relatively simple and it'll catch fish. Teach them how to mount a hook in the vice, attach thread to the hook, wrap lead (if desired), attach tail material with a pinch technique, dub fur, wind ribbing, tie in a wing case, legs, whip finish, apply glue etc.

I wouldn't give them a recipe, unless it's as a handout at the very end of class. Sit at a table where they can watch you do a step, and then stop and have them all do the same step so you all build the fly at the same speed. You can go around the room helping until everyone is at the same step as each skill is acquired. After they've built one fly with you, turn them loose to tie a few more before the end of class. The following week, teach them how to tie in wings and a hackle for a simple dry fly, always building on what they learned the previous weeks. Eventually, you'll be stacking and spinning hair, building parachutes, etc.

I bet by the end you'll no longer feel as though you were suckered into teaching. Good luck and try not to laugh too much at the awkward proportions and crowded heads.