My fly tying attempts

[SilverCreek 0]

There are two major problems that I find and these are common in beginners.

 

1. Hackle is way too large for the flies and some is kinked. The cause is poor materials and/or material selection. This is common in beginners because experience is needed to judge the quality of materials and what to buy and what not to buy.

 

2. Tail fibers are irregular and of varying length. I suspect that a hair stacker was not used. Again beginners may not have a hair stacker or the technique to match the length of hackle tails evenly,

 

3. The above two problems lead to off proportion flies, that is always a problem for beginners.

 

My recommendations are to tie with quality materials. It is so much easier.

 

I also suggest you work on repetition. Tying one fly and then different fly is an inefficient way to learn to tie. A beginner needs to tie 3-4 identical flies of the same pattern in the same size to get close to what a good fly should look like. Even changing the size of a fly, say from size 12 to size 14 can cause problems. You need to practice but this means practice with repetition.

 

Pick a pattern and size that you know you will need like a size 14 elk hair caddis and tie a dozen at one time. They don't have to have the same color body or wings, but the technique and proportions will be the same. You will be surprised how good the 12th one looks compared to the first.