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Just got a fly tying kit

1K views 26 replies 18 participants last post by  NukeLDO 
#1 ·
I just got my fly tying kit and i really want to get into it, any easy trout flies to tie?
 
#5 ·
Wooly buggers are an easy starting point. Also san Juan worm ( only one material !).
Gold/pearl ribbed hares ear are my go to , easy trout nymphs. Lots of videos on YouTube. Charlie Craven , Davie McPhail, and Kelly Gallup are go to tiers, but there are plenty of others.

And of course, if you are here, you have access to one of the greatest resources around.
 
#8 ·
Your basic trout varieties if that's what you fish, primarily. They are relatively easy to tie, they are very useful, and there are a million videos on them on Youtube. In no particular order, I'd learn these flies:

  1. Woolly Bugger
  2. Elk Hair Caddis
  3. X-Caddis
  4. Parachute Adams
  5. Stimulator
  6. Bead Head gold ribbed hare's ear nymph
  7. Pheasant tail nymph
  8. zebra midge
  9. San Juan worm
That covers most varieties and relatively easy to tie with enough practice. Your first fly will suck. After you tie 5, it will look much better. Just keep tying and you'll get good. Enjoy!
 
#9 ·
Your basic trout varieties if that's what you fish, primarily. They are relatively easy to tie, they are very useful, and there are a million videos on them on Youtube. In no particular order, I'd learn these flies:

  1. Woolly Bugger
  2. Elk Hair Caddis
  3. X-Caddis
  4. Parachute Adams
  5. Stimulator
  6. Bead Head gold ribbed hare's ear nymph
  7. Pheasant tail nymph
  8. zebra midge
  9. San Juan worm
That covers most varieties and relatively easy to tie with enough practice. Your first fly will suck. After you tie 5, it will look much better. Just keep tying and you'll get good. Enjoy!
I'd follow up this list with adding a few other nymphs. Particularly Copper John and Prince Nymph, and Pat's Rubber Legs. Slightly more difficult to tie but certainly some of the best patterns. Well, the Pat's Rubber Legs is pretty easy but can be frustrating dealing with the legs.
 
#12 ·
The most important thing to remember is that your first flies, no matter how 'imperfect' may very well catch fish. And that the most perfectly tied flies may often fail. It goes way beyond 'matching the hatch' (and most often there's no 'hatch' to match).

A great deal depends upon factors well beyond your control.

The greatest success falls to those who spend the most time on water flyfishing. My very best years flyfishing (after about 60 years flailing about at the game) were those that involved a lot of days fishing.

Bowling 300, golfing at par, or scoring with major babes, involves a lot of gutterballs. Anything easier would involve powerbait (or being an obscenely wealthy geriatric rockstar to score with young arm-candy).
 
#14 ·
It would help if your profile showed what part of the world you are from and what kind of water you fish. If you are fishing flats in the Philippines, lakes in BC, Steel head in the Skeena, the Railroad Ranch or red fish in Laguoona Madre, my answers would be different. help us help you!
 
#18 ·
A woolly bugger or woolly worm are definitely good starting points!!. A simple caddis nymph with a dubbed green body, ribbing, and dark dubbed head is also pretty easy and effective in streams. I'm going to assume the kit has pheasant tail. A PT nymph is not particularly hard, once you get used to judging the length for the pull-over and bend-back (the tips become the legs). There are ways to tie it w/o doing that, though. And yes, a gold-ribbed hare's ear nymph.

A griffith's gnat is a pretty easy tie for a dry. The Elk Hair Caddis is also "easy" once you get used to work with deer or elk hair. Kelly Galloup's instructions for them ("Slide Inn" on youtube) get you headed in the right direction. His videos are really an amazing amount of info. It can be a bit long-winded. I often crank up the playback speed to make it a bit more manageable. You will need a hair stacker, which I'm hoping your kit came with.

A word of advice: natural materials can be harder to handle/tie with. Don't hesitate to use polyurethane yarn in place of hackle tips or calf/goat hair for wings. Likewise using say peacock ice dub in place of peacock hurl.

Charlie's Fly Box has an incredible list of step-by-steps and videos. An amazing resource. Have fun, be critical, and remember the joke: What are the three tips you give every beginning fly tyer? Don't crowd the head, don't crowd the head, and don't crowd the head. ;)
 
#20 ·
@Logancoug, You are likely blessed with good young eyes and steady nerves. It won't take you long to get up to speed (certainly faster than most of us old farts with coffee habits).

Also be creative. When I was young and broke, I found or scrounged materials everywhere. Pets can provide awesome dubbing. Use them to tie your own designs. It is really satisfying to catch fish with your own creations.
 
#26 ·
The Cohio King has sound advice. Way back when I learnt to tie there was no internet just books and mentors. If you can find a mentor they are invaluble. Mine didn't even teach me dry fly proportion or tying skills until I mastered nymphs (idaho, montana, pheasant tail etc) streamers (careys and spratleys, and buggers etc, then basic classic wet flys. Seemed to work for me. Lots of practice!
 
#27 · (Edited)
Welcome to the world of fly tying. Abandon any thought that you were going to save money by tying your own! I can spend literally hours in a well stocked tying materials store and rarely make it out without dropping $200. Then, you'll need storage space. Then you'll realize you don't have the exact material the recipe calls for and you're back to the store or searching on the interwebs......a vicious cycle....but so much fun once you realize the fish will eat what you put together.
For my money, and trout in particular, find some pine squirrel strips, some decent hooks, non-lead wire, a few spools of thread, some ultra-wire, and some long hackled feathers and go to town on slumpbusters and wooly buggers. And enough materials to tie some halfbacks and stoneflies, and you'll be good to go.
 
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