by Allan Taylor

Created on: November 12, 2008   Last Updated: May 11, 2012

How to get started in fly tying

It is not necessary to spend a lot of money to get started in fly tying. Maybe $25 would do the trick to buy a few feathers and gear needed to create two fabulous flies that will catch trout and salmon anywhere in the world.

What are the odds and ends that you need?

At the local dime store you can buy a little hobby vice that screws onto the edge of a table, and also a tube of all-purpose adhesive. Next check your wife’s/partner’s sewing box and ask for the loan of a reel of black thread and donation of various lengths of orange and red wool. A small pair of scissors and a yard of fine copper wire are also required. A clip is needed to hold things dangling while fly tying and this can be improvised from a small spring-type clothes peg.

A supply of orange/tan and black hair is important. If your family dog is an Irish Setter, black and tan miniature long-haired dachshund, or a Cavalier King Charles spaniel, then you are very fortunate!

Next you must go to an angling shop and buy some suitable fly hooks and special feathers.

Get a packet of hooks of standard size #10 and #14 (ca. 14 & 11 mm) for nymphs and size #4 (24 mm and long shank) for lures.

The two fabulous flies that I have in mind are the Pheasant Tail nymph and the Red Setter lure. I have chosen these two flies because they are the easiest to tie and are the most effective flies worldwide under varied fishing conditions. Really, you don’t need anything else!

At your angling shop buy one pheasant tail and a bit of peacock herl for the nymph. For the Red Setter buy a soft hen hackle of orange or black, or both colors with longish hackles. Nothing expensive. Now you are ready to start!

How to go about tying these flies? The instructions and illustrations are right in front of you hovering in cyberspace! Try Googling “Pheasant Tail nymph trout fly” and “Red Setter trout fly”. Check out a few sites and study the illustrations presented and instructions on how to tie these flies.

Practice tying on a hackle, wool body and hair tail to a size #4 hook. Stroke back the hackle and tie in place with black thread and finish off the head of the fly with a dab of cement. This is the classic Red Setter lure which has one or two hackles swept backwards.

Tying a nymph is similarly easily done but more fiddly because of the small hook size, but persevere! If it looks a bit rough don’t worry. It will be rougher still once a trout has chewed

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