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Fly Tying
DarrellP

What are your favorite materials to tie with?

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Do you find yourself tying flies with the same few materials? If so, which ones? Natural materials or synthetics?

 

I find that I use a lot of peacock hearl, hare's ear, black Beaver and natural Muskrat dubbing, white calf tail, Copper wire. Mallard flank, brown and grizzly hen neck. Yellow, red, black, and cream Embroidery thread my Mom gave me. That is what I use 90 % of the time on Mustad hooks size 14-10.

 

I also sometimes use small chenille in black, orange, chartreuse, some real JC nails(Steelhead flies), some red goose shoulder and occasionally Schlappen or neck hackle, primarily white, some Chartreuse.

 

I almost always use 6/0 black Uni thread.

 

For Salt and Bass,I use some tabbed eyes, Bucktail in White, Chartreuse, & Gray. lead dumbells, and rarely, real JC. White rubber legs, foam sheets and popper bodies are the only synthetics I have used. I use larger Mustad stinger hooks and stainless hooks in 4-1/0. I have started using Alec Jackson Steelhead irons.

 

That is all that I have used in the last year. That is not a lot of materials considering I could practically open a fly shop with all of the crap I have.

 

I tie for Bream, Bass and some Saltwater and Steelhead. I tie alot of wet flies, some Clousers, Classic Steelhead (my daughter lives in Oregon) flies and poppers. I mostly use natural materials aND foam. I may be in a rut.

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I tie with fly tyers dungeon dubbings and synthetics quite a bit, for both trout and bass, I also do a decent about of deer hair for bass as I hate painting poppers.

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Haven't even scratched the surface yet. Still "learning" (read:struggling) to choose the proper feather for both wet & dry Hackle. Killer Bugs seen to be pretty easy so far; a bit of Yarn, some copper wire & some thread. I guess that's my favorite so far.

 

:P

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I have a small fly shops supply of materials but haven't really found one that would be a favorite

 

Well maybe hooks and thread

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Cheap materials. I tie with Dollar Tree stuff, FTD stuff, and E-bay stuff.

happy birthday Jarhead, a day late. BTW you're a cheap bastard. :D :D :D :D

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I don't have any favorites, depends on the fly. Most problematical for me is kip for wings. Easiest is chenille. Each new material offers a new problem I have to overcome.

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I certainly don't use a lot of materials. I've got a bunch of homemade dubbing I haven't used in years. The past year, I've used buck tail, deer hair, CDC, pheasant tail, feathers, various soft hackles, mainly starling, peacock herl for the natural materials. What have I tied with them, PT Nymphs, Austin Chicken Nymphs, buck tail teasers, add eyes to them and they make great minnow patterns, Various soft hackles, midges(CDC body and wing) CDC and Elk(deer hair). I do more warm water fishing these days than I do trout fishing. Foam, mop pieces, a lot of sparkle chenille and estaz, Spinner bait skirts/silicone skirt layers(sili legs to those of you who buy them in fly shops), artificial hair(Mirror Image) and Senyo Laser Dub for bait fish patterns. I do some shopping in craft and dollar stores. Hooks size 20 up to 2/0. Mainly Tiemco, Gamakatsu, Eagle Claw and Partridge. I do use a lot of non-standard hooks. Stinger hooks, spinner bait hooks, drop shot hooks, crappie hooks and a few treble or double hooks.

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Cheap materials. I tie with Dollar Tree stuff, FTD stuff, and E-bay stuff.

happy birthday Jarhead, a day late. Thank you and Semper Paratus.

 

BTW you're a cheap bastard. biggrin.png biggrin.png biggrin.png biggrin.png Absolutely, thank you very much !!!

 

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My favorite materials without a doubt are ring neck pheasant rump and Hungarian Partridge. I love tieing either in by the tip, folding the feather, then wrapping the hackle. The stem on both feathers is so fine you can almost always finish the fly with a tiny head of just a few wraps.

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Favorite? well, that would depend on the flies, I have always used natural materials and only have half a thirty gallon tote full. but I am attempting to work more plastics/synthetics into my flies, not liking them a lot, but they shine in the light.

Pick two? yarn and feathers.

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