bpetersen

I hear what you are saying about all the stuff to learn Angelo. here is what helped me. start with some easy patterns and just get the materials that you need. you have plenty of time to learn. as you start tying you will figure out what you need. as others have said I don't think a kit with all the materials is worth it. go to a shop and talk to the folks there and also these folks on the forum are a great help. it seams intimidating at first but as you along everything will make more sense.

I started adding a bit of peacock herl as a collar right behind the bead on the zebra. also a couple of strands of flashabou for a trailing shuck.

My 5 Year old son started expressing an interest in tying so I set him up. Bought him his own bobbin and scissors. O mostly just let him do whatever he wants but recently I have been helping him out with some skills. he actually tied a pretty decent bugger with a little bit of help. now when I come home from work he usually wants to tie. I was looking at new vices the other day and he said he should get the new one and I can use the old one.

Thats great, nice to see your creation work out.

I like the looks of this pattern. Just got some moose and will try it out.

great topic. I have been interested in tying for a long while but just recently got really into it. Go figure, I start when I am starting to loose my dexterity and don't have as good of eyesight as I once did. I am 42 right now, i know thats not real old but im still no spring chicken. I would say the one thing that I have now that I lacked as a youngster in the patience to sit down and tie. anyway what really kicked it off for me was that my wife signed me up for lessons a couple of months ago.

Brad. I know what you mean about space. I ended up making my tying space in the walkin closet in my kids room. I had a bookshelf unit with a door that folds down into a small desk top. I keep my materials in small plastic bins and baggies. for my tools I used an old leather tool holder that I had sitting around and for thread and wire I ended up using a baby bottle drying rack but you can easily make one with a block of wood and some wood dowels from the craft store. Brian

being a beginner tyer I have found that it is an issue with not having everythign you need or want. I think most of it is just a want though. like others have said you can sub many items. example, I did not have any partridge to make some legs with so I sub other similar feathers or crazy legs. with my money situation I can only afford to buy a few things at a time. i usually pick up at least one package of hooks and then I will choose one or two more materials that I would like to try. utyer has gotten me interested in comparaduns so now my next purchase needs to be some deer fur and appropriate hooks to tie duns, emergers, and cripples. Brian

for some reason I cannot view your pictures but it sounds pretty nice. I have a 5 year old son who i think is ready to start learning to cast. I will check back later to see if I can view the pictures, i suspect it is an issue with my computer. Brian

Hi Kim. being new myself I found that like others have said, the pheasant tail is a good effective pattern that is fairly straighforward to tie but will help build other skills. also a zebra midge pattern is very simple with the only items needed being a hook, bead, thread and some copper wire. I myself found that taking a class is a good place to start. I ended up paying 60 bucks for 6 two hour sessions with all materials included plus the use of their tools. Brian

I know of the creature that you are talking about. the sow bug I am talking about is a water creature mostly found in tailwaters similar to a scud in appearance. that sow bug pattern is very easy to tye just some rainbow dubbing and copper wire on a scud type hook with a shellback or even just a black sharpee marker down the back.

Thank you all for your comments. I plan on working on these more plus do the Adams and others traditional. piker the bottom one is supposed to be a sow bug. Brian

Here is my first attempt at tying a parachute fly. I have not been tying for too long. these are supposed to be a size 14 parachute adams. I did not have any brown hackle to go with the grizzly. any comments or tips would be appreciated. i did these in my class.

Great subject. coming from Utah I think that they are pretty rare here and I have not seen any info about our DWR stockiong them. they do however stock albino rainbows and some people get them mixed up. There have been a few caught in the high uinta's Echo and atwood lake along with some of the streams in this drainage. they are definately on my list of trout to catch. from what i understand the best bets are in wyoming/wind river range and california in the sierra's

welcome to the forum Obi. looking forward to hearing from you. great helpful site and helpful folks here. Brian