Anyone do any fly tying?

I bought a kit and upgraded as I advanced

ETA: Quality bobbin and scissors make it easier.

Thanks for the advice guys.

Where do you buy your materials and stuff from?

Get a quality fly tying vise.....Renzetti, they are expensive but well worth the cost.

LINK

They are located about 35 miles east of Orlando in Titusville......Andy & Lily are great people who give a great deal back to the community....especially to survivors of breast cancer

What kind of fly fishing are you going to do? Do you have a friend that ties? Videos are great, but you will learn faster if you have someone to watch and help you. Try out different vises to see what feels better to you. My favorite is a Regal, but I have several vises for teaching my family or friends. I would get more than one bobbin. Keeps you from having to change thread if you tie a different fly. A whip finisher isn't a necessity, but it makes a nice looking head quickly.

Buy the materials you need, not a kit. I scrounge for lots of mine. I save squirrel tails. I have friends that save wood duck feathers for me, and turkey tail feathers. I look for dubbing materials everywhere. Check out Goodwill for coats with fur collars, or even whole fur coats. If they are worn or torn, it won't bother the fishing, and the price will be better.

Don't be discouraged when your first efforts don't look quite like the pattern. It's a sharp learning curve; you'll improve quickly. The thrill of fooling a fish with a fly I've tied never gets old.

quote:

---

Videos are great, but you will learn faster if you have someone to watch and help you.

---

I had a buddy show me the most basic stuff like getting thread on the hook, whip finishing, ect...

The rest has been youtube vids. OP, if you want flies for trout check out Tightline Productions on vimeo. This video just came out a month or two ago and I love it : March Sampler.. I could watch that one all day but it's not a tying instruction video.

quote:

---

Buy the materials you need, not a kit

---

Agree here - I almost bought a kit but my fishing bud convinced me otherwise and I'm glad he did. I look at what I have now vs those kits and I would have had a bunch of crap I never used.

quote:

---

I scrounge for lots of mine.

---

Yep. Birds I shoot in the fall are good for feathers. There's a gamefarm near here that raises pheasants and I just drop by there for pheasant tails. Never scrounged for dubbing material though. Also some feather packs you have to buy (like if you wanted Hungarian partridge) unless you're doing some oddball hunting.

For some flies where I'm not concerned about bulkiness I just use regular thread - lot of times you can get good deals on thread at Jo-Anns and other craft stores. I bought a lot of beads and 32ga. brass wire spools from there too. For flies that require a smoother profile or I need a lot more strength in the thread then IMO using GSP (gel spun polyethylene) is the only way to go - it is more expensive though.

Make sure and find Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails nail polish. It's clear and works just as well as any head cement.

Your SO may give you funny looks when you start shopping with her at the craft store but you can def. get some good deals.

Not sure about their fly material, but I got all of my stuff for inline spinners at Barlow's Tackle. Good prices over there.

LINK

Orvis offers two different fly tying classes for people just starting out. I think the first one is just a basic wooly bugger and the more advanced one is for tying saltwater patterns.

These guys are right though, the essentials are a vise, bobbin, and scissors. The guys at orvis are really good about telling you what materials you will need to get started. That's what I did when I was first starting out.

quote:

---

I'm really looking forward to getting into this hobby

---

Can be addictive once you start hammering them on flies you tied. Just takes the experience to a new level imo. If you're unsure/unhappy with the way a fly looks then I always get a razor blade and cut it all off to not waste the hook. If you don't like it you either won't fish it at all or won't fish it confidently.

On hooks - I would get a few cheaper ones to start out with but likely need some quality ones for saltwater/ big redfish. 2-3x heavy are what I use for steelhead - anything just standard, 1x heavy will bend out with a quickness if I get a 15 lber on. There are hook deals to be had on amazon.

If you already know what flies to use then you can just search those videos in youtube. You'll likely be able to make a list of materials from the videos and hopefully many of the materials will be similar/same. Most every tying video lists what all they use before the actual instruction starts.

This is one thing I really want to learn, just don't have the time to devote to it. I like going watch the guys do it at Little River Outfitters.

You are going to need bigger hooks than I suggested. I was thinking rainbow and brown trout flies.