The Fly Tying Thread

[Gabriel]

"Thread" heh, eh? eh? Ok... sorry.

At any rate, Mrs. Gabriel and my daughter and I are all excited to check out the world of tying our own flies. As soon I sign on to CPS what do see? This post:

Anybody interested in starting the fascinating hobby of fly tying should check out this link. It's a blog called Fly Fish Food run by a couple guys who tie really nice flies, and - even better - understand how to teach other people how to tie flies. They have dozens and dozens of videos, and while they're mostly trout fishers they do a lot of warm water stuff too. And many of the critters trout eat live in your local lakes and rivers anyway. This is not you grandfathers fly tying.

Awesome - been thinking of trying this hobby a lot lately

Sent from my SM-P600 using Tapatalk

Perfect.

So... newbies, veterans, and wannabees lets talk some fly tying. I have a basic vise on hand and have some nice tools on my amazon wish list. Now I need to start compiling materials... hate to buy a kit with a ton of stuff I'll not use, but I'm having a hard time wading through all the vocabulary and such. Time to spend some time on that blog that FredS posted.

[Jocose]

FredS needs to do an instructional video.

[Gabriel]

Anybody interested in starting the fascinating hobby of fly tying should check out this link. It's a blog called Fly Fish Food run by a couple guys who tie really nice flies, and - even better - understand how to teach other people how to tie flies.

OK, just spent way too much time on that site picking out materials and patterns and such and I haven't even watched any videos yet...

Also, those materials add up fast when you're randomly chucking stuff in the cart.

[JudgeRusty]

I need to find someone who has been into fly tying a while and has bought one of those $600 vises and now needs to get shed of their old quality, but no longer needed, $100 vise at a deep discount.

[FredS]

I have a real honest-to-god fly shop 10 miles from my house. And a Bass Pro at 9 miles. But I buy most of my tying supplies from J Stockard. Believe it or not, hooks are one of the major costs in tying flies and J Stockard has their own line of hooks that are a very good value.

My local shop has one paid employee (the owner) and usually a couple of volunteers on Saturday, and I think his FIL owns the building so rent is cheap and his prices are actually comparable to online. Mrs FredS and I stopped in there a few weeks ago to get a patch of elk hair. He didn't have any on the shelf, but someone had just sold him an entire tanned elk skin for $50 the day before. He had me look it over to find the right hair (I was tying small EHC's) and then he cut out a 6" square patch and sold it to me for $5.00. He sold me a pair of waders a few years ago that were in a new line he just started carrying. He said, "You look about my size. I have a pair out in the truck that I used one time just to try them out. You wanna buy those for half price?" I was all over that deal. I like the guy and I really like buying from him and I'll drive up there if I'm in a pinch for materials that I need in the next day or two, but usually it's just easier to order online. My kids went togather and bought some some wading boots from him last year and they couldn't believe how helpful he was when they went to his shop.

[Tatanka]

I was given a bunch of fly-tying materials years ago. I've never tried even one ......Yet! I love fly fishing but am no where even beginning to be someone who can tell anyone else HOW to catch trout!

I have brused knees and fingers even, from falling in a stream, up to my neck against VERY HARD BIG ROCKS. In California and up to Montana on an Indian Reservation. 5 Cutthroat caught that day, but I suffered for months from the slip on "greasy rocks"!

[FredS]

I tie a lot of Clouser Minnow type flies for crappie, bass and other sunfish. Really, any fish that eats other fish will eat a Clouser Minnow. Walmart has cheap "All Purpose"hooks in packs of 20 for a buck or two. Size 6 & 8 are good choices. If I'm fishing in fast or deep water I use lead eyes made for flies, but most of the time I use "bead-chain" eyes because they're so cheap. You can buy a lifetime supply (in silver and gold) at Home Depot in the lighting department by the ceiling fan repair parts. Or pick up a hand full of free key chains from the National Guard at next years fair. I salvage copper wire from every piece of electronic equipment that dies around my house. I broke up some old electric toothbrushes and found really nice spools of fine wire. Stripping different gauges of stranded wire also works. Fly tying wire doesn't cost that much but I feel good scrounging materials. One of my dogs is a sheader and I use and old coffee grinder to turn her hair in to dubbing. Dryer lint can be used in a pinch too.

[BBvideo 560,340]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i477bZ6Ours[/BBvideo]

A few more places to waste time:
Learn Fly Tying with David Cammiss - He's an old school Brit gentleman and he starts with very basic steps.

Davie McPhail - Worlds second best (behind Hank) fly tyer. His accent (Scottish I think) is a bit hard for Yanks to understand, but his videos are top notch.

Trout & Feather - tying videos

[beagle_fan]

Now I need to start compiling materials... hate to buy a kit with a ton of stuff I'll not use, but I'm having a hard time wading through all the vocabulary and such.

As for starting materials, you can't go wrong with a few basic. Here are the materials I would start with:

a few different colors of dubbing. Soft dubbing is good for dries. Works well for caddis larvae in various colors.
pheasant tails. These are vital. I can get lots of pheasant tails if you guys want them. I will send them out if you guys want any. Just let me know.
turkey tail feathers. I can also get these for free from birds we take hunting. Not as often as pheasants though.
a few different colors of uni-thread

Do you fish nymphs or dries? My favorite patterns for nymphs are bead head hare's ears and bead head pheasant tails. I also like to tie caddis larvae both with and without a bead head. Don't discount a good yarn egg pattern either; they will absolutely slay any stocked trout and work pretty well for native brook trout / wild browns as well depending where you are. For dries, most everything I tie is on a parachute. The trout absolutely love parachute style dries. My other dries I usually buy if I need them.

The most important thing is to decide what kind of flies you want to tie, then get the materials from there. I don't have a bunch of fancy equipment, but I tie flies that take fish. I tie what I like and what I know the trout I target like. I love to talk flies, and if you guys are interested we can even get a fly swap started. Those are a ton of fun! Anyway...

[FredS]

It's easy to get carried away. This is my desk.

[ReverendThom]

It's easy to get carried away. This is my desk.

Geez! You don't get to smoke there at the same time do you?!

[Jocose]

Troost?

Really?

[Tatanka]

I think we have a serious fly tier here!

[John-Boy]

Do you carry that purse?

[hugodrax]

Troost?

Really?

This isn't a Dutch thing, is it?

[Tatanka]

I was not familiar with the word "Troost". But this is what I found on Google. VERY interesting! Now, how was it used here? I'll have to see if I can find it.

Troost Avenue or Troost is a major north/south main street that runs in Kansas City, Missouri. It starts at 4th Street & Troost Avenue at Garrison Square and ends at Bannister Road (95th Street) & Troost Avenue. Troost Avenue was named after one of the founders of Kansas City, Dr. Benoist Troost (born 17 November 1786; died 8 February 1859), who was originally from Holland where tulips have been historically a major trading and tourism product. Dr. Troost was the first resident physician in the Kansas City area. After the Town of Kansas (which is now the city of Kansas City, Missouri) was incorporated in 1850, Dr. Troost became one of the trustees who governed it. In the 1850s, he was involved in publishing the first newspaper, the Kansas City Enterprise. He was also one of the originators of the first Chamber of Commerce in 1857. He died in 1859 and is buried at the Mount St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery at 2201 Cleveland Avenue.[1]

Troost Avenue has historically served as a racial dividing line in Kansas City, with more white residents living west of Troost and more black residents living to the east.[2] For some time, this "line" was legally enforced under Jim Crow laws.[3]

[FredS]

Troost Ave is indeed a dividing line in KC. Many of our ladies of the night work ply their trade along certain parts of Troost. Some parts of Troost are best avoided after dark.

But in this case, Jocose was referring to that yellow pouch of tobacco on my desk. Like the namesake of Troost Ave, Troost tobacco is also from Holland. It was a free sample and it's cut lends itself to the RYO cigs I often smoke while fishing. It's usually in my 'purse', but I took it out to make room for one extra box of flies before my last trip.

[Tatanka]

Troost Ave is indeed a dividing line in KC. Many of our ladies of the night work ply their trade along certain parts of Troost. Some parts of Troost are best avoided after dark.

But in this case, Jocose was referring to that yellow pouch of tobacco on my desk. Like the namesake of Troost Ave, Troost tobacco is also from Holland. It was a free sample and it's cut lends itself to the RYO cigs I often smoke while fishing. It's usually in my 'purse', but I took it out to make room for one extra box of flies before my last trip.

Ahh! Thanks. Boy Jocose must be super informed on a yellow pouch, to think Holland Troost tobacco! I would have asked, "What's in the yellow "thing" that looks like a tobacco pouch, Fred?" Ha ha.

[Gabriel]

It's easy to get carried away. This is my desk.

Niiiice.

[Gabriel]

This thread is getting some legs. I love it. Hopefully the office will calm down sometime tomorrow and I can get back to CPS...

[UncleBob]

This thread is getting some legs. I love it. Hopefully the office will calm down sometime tomorrow and I can get back to CPS...

You deserve your own emoticon: