First Few Flies

[flyguy2010 0]

Here are a few of my first flies, let me know what i have done right as well as done wrong. I apologize for the pictures they are the best i could get with my current camera

 

[SearchingSolitude 0]

Do yourself a favor and check out "The Fly Tier's Benchside Reference" by Ted Leeson and Jim Schollmeyer. You need some ideas on how to attach materials to the hook most effectively. The book has no patterns or recipes but instead shows techniques for many, many, many styles of flies. This book will change the way you tie flies! You will likely find it at your local Public Library.

 

1 I will tell you to try and be more conscious of exactly where your thread lies on the hook. Don't use three wraps of thread if two will do.

2 Do buy the best quality of materials you can afford, it makes a difference in the finished product.

3 Learn to size your hackle (rooster feather) to the hook you are using. One hook gape to one and one half wide is the recommendation.

 

Having said all of that, there is nothing that says your flies won't catch fish!! Fish are stupid, they just seem smart.

Have fun with this new hobby. Next year you will look at these flies and laugh at how they compare to what you will be tying in a year. Proportions and materials selection and placement ALL improve with time.

 

Caio,

Searching Solitude

[Flytyer14 0]

Those are a lot better than my first flies...thank goodness I still don't have them :whistle:

[neoFLYte 0]

Here are a few of my first flies, let me know what i have done right as well as done wrong. I apologize for the pictures they are the best i could get with my current camera

 

 

Despite the focus problem, I think #3, #4, and #5 would be good panfish/bass flies. :thumbsup:

[Flytyer14 0]

I agree!!

[deeky 0]

I would add (because I still struggle with it myself) to watch crowding the eye of the hook. There are at least a couple that you may have trouble even getting the tippet through the eye because of the thread and butts of materials. These are fixable. Make sure you have a good coat of head cement on, then head a needle or bodkin and run it through the eye (after the cement is good and dry). But on future flies, work to keep the eyes open.

 

This will involve a couple of different items that will help over all. As was previously mentioned, be sure to pay attention to where every wrap of thread lands. I know on one of them, you have the head, a gap, and then a wrap holding the wing down. Work to avoid those straggling wraps. Also, work to plan the fly a little more before you start tying. For what you want to do, know where the tail needs to be, where the body needs to end, where the wing needs to be, etc. so that you fit everything on and still have room for the head.

 

Both of these will help the heads, but also help your overall tying.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Deeky

[simmons_j_m 0]

Better than my first flies for sure. It all comes with practice, something that I know I could use more of

[Cheri 0]

From a fellow newbie: Practice Practice Practice. That is what I have tried to do. Sit down and tie the same pattern over and over until you make one you are really happy with. Made all the difference for me. And as said above remember to stay out of "No man's land" :bugeyes: at the eye. The benchside reference book really helped me tons too. I have only been "Seriously" tying for a couple of months, but a close friend who knows my A type personality (LOL!) reminds me all the time that the fish don't really care! If you are catching the flies are working.

 

Keep at it! And MOST IMPORTANT HAVE FUN!

[Hairstacker 0]

First of all, like others, I think your first flies are better than mine were. Really.

 

In this case, aside from perhaps the ant, you appear to be tying patterns you made up yourself. That's fine and all and is one of the great attractions of taking up fly tying, but it does present a challenge to yourself and others when evaluating how well-tied the flies are because, well, we don't really know what they're supposed to or intended to look like so we can't really tell whether you got there.

 

Sure, we can point out things that could obviously be better, such as thread control and not crowding the eye, and we might question the selection of a particular material for a certain body part but we can't always assess proper proportions, which is one of the most important aspects that every new tyer really needs to focus on. In this regard, I know you've been using your eyes all your life but it does take studied practice to use them well in particular applications, whether it's judging distances or assessing proper fly proportions.

 

Thus, for what's worth, I recommend you get a very good, very detailed basic instruction/pattern book (such as Skip Morris' Fly Tying Made Clear and Simple) and try to precisely duplicate the flies that are presented. Spend as much time or more doing this as you do creating new stuff. By using a very detailed basic technique book such as the one I referenced and precisely duplicating the established fly patterns presented therein, you will not only be picking up and practicing proper technique, you will be developing your eye for proper fly proportions. Believe it or not, this will also help you tie the flies you intended to tie when you try to create something new.

 

Anyway, tying such given, established patterns multiple times until you're able to craft reasonably accurate approximations will go a long way to improving how and where you tie on and tie off materials, as well as your thread control. If nothing else, you will have pictures against which to compare your attempts, measure your progress, and obtain ideas on where to focus more of your attention as you try to improve. Moreover, if and when you present such flies for critique, you will also likely get more helpful comments, as evaluators will likely already know the fly patterns you've attempted and thus will have in mind a standard against which to evaluate the fly and provide tips.

 

-- Mike

[flyguy2010 0]

thanks to all, i just picked up tying dry flies by Jay Nichols i am going to try a few flies from there this week and post the pics so i can get a better feel for what i need to do, the ant i found in a book i had but the others were flies that my grandfather had tied years ago and had much success with so i tried to my best of capabilities to duplicate them

[David Legg 0]

Those are a lot better than my first flies...thank goodness I still don't have them :whistle:

 

LOL... I know how you feel. Funny thing though... someone once stole a flybox full of my early experiments with fly tying. I'm not sure what they thought of what they got, but I can tell you this... they caught fish.

[Flytyer14 0]

Hahaha interesting story! hope that doesn't happen to me

[TitanFlies 0]

It's a great start no doubt; a helluva lot better than my first ties. Best way you can learn is select one (1) pattern such as a Wooley Bugger or Adams and tie 50. Then, get another 50 hooks and do it again!