New to tying - materials selection for PA trout

[BTRobertson]

Couldn't really find this information in other posts, so I'm sorry if this was answered before:

What set of materials would I get for basic dries and nymphs for PA trout? Is there anywhere you can get a package set of materials all inclusive that would tie things like the Pheasant Tail, Hair's Ear, Prince, Light Cahill, BWO, etc.? Or is it more of buying everything separate? Where would you guys recommend? I met the guys at Hook & Hackle in Pittsburgh and they offered me lots of help. Go that route?

I attended the Orvis free fly-tying class today at the new Orvis Pittsburgh shop, and the other three guys were no-shows. I had one-on-one instruction and tied my first two flies ever: a pair of Wooly Buggers, one black, one white, and did a good job (attached photos) apparently. I've seriously never, ever touched a single tying tool in my entire life until this morning, and tied two flies. The white one I did 100% on my own without his instruction, and he was helping customers while I did it. Not bragging, I'm officially hooked on tying and I'm going crazy wanting to do it again. But I have ZERO equipment or materials (working on that).

The instructor (Bill) advised me to focus on a few fly patterns and just buy materials for those rather than spend hundreds of dollars at once on a ton of materials I may never or rarely use. I know what I need to tie a WB (chenille, marabou, streamer hooks, hen hackle, lead wire, copper wire, and flash tinsel).

If you guys have some standard recipes handy for the Pheasant Tail, Prince, and Hair's Ear nymphs, and maybe the Adams, BWO, Lt. Cahill, and other dries you recommend, etc., I would be greatly appreciative. I can build the materials from that myself (I wouldn't expect you folks to do the hard work for me...I need to learn) and consult YouTube for how to actually tie these patterns.

Also, why is hackle so expensive? Aren't chickens and roosters plentiful?

 

[RCFetter]

There is a good youtube video series on fly tying for beginners. It starts out with what tools you need and progresses to knots and then flies.

It's a good start:

Beginner Fly Tying Tips - Part 1: Tools Primer

Those flies you tied look great.

Beginner Fly Tying Tips - Part 2: Three Essential Techniques

In total there are about 10 parts or videos.

Beginner Fly Tying Tips - Part 3: The Woolley Worm

Part 4 is the wooly worm and I think part 5 is a hare's ear nymph.

 

[MKern]

If I had to put a generic list of materials together to tie most basic patterns it would be:
Pheasant tail
Turkey tail
Nymph dubbing (haretron) in brown and olive
Dry fly dubbing (superfine) in pale yellow and light olive
Lead wire .20
Copper wire and beads
Lemon dyed mallard flank
Para post
Dry fly hackle in dun, ginger, brown, and grizzly
Marabou in brown olive and black
Hen hackle in brown, olive, black and grizzly
Peacock
Ostrich

Minus the dry fly hackle it's like $50 in materials. If you buy 100 packs of dry fly hackle your up to around $130.

 

[ThatGuy]

If you want to keep it cheap at first, just buy the materials needed for the flies you want to tie. For example... if you want to tie pheasant tails, you should be able to buy all the material for under 20 bucks and have enough material to tie a ton of them. Then when your ready for some hares ears, buy a hares mask or two...and so on and so forth. Over time you will end up with a good selection of materials to use.

If I were to do it all over again I would of never bought a kit. The only tools that I still use are the whip finisher and bodkin. There are materials that came with it that I still haven't used.

If you want you can PM me your number and I would be willing to help you out with what I can.

 

[BTRobertson]

Good tips guys so thank you very much. I like the idea of buying materials for tying a certain type of fly. For example, I have a list of supplies to tie olive, black, and brown wooly buggers, pheasant tails, and hair's ears (FB, BH, etc.) in a variety of hook sizes, and the total is just over $125 or so.

I'm not buying a kit. I've seen too many negative reviews on pretty much every one out there. I'm buying a Peak Trailhead pedestal vise package that comes with all the tools I'll need (and good quality ones at that). Then the materials. Should cost me about $300 initially, and that will give me enough to tie dozens of flies that catch trout in PA. Since I went to the class and did so well, I can make a better investment than a beginner tying kit that will be mostly inferior and might turn me off to it.

Thanks all!

 

[shortrod2]

BTRobertson,

PM sent

 

[gfen]

BTRobertson wrote:
If you guys have some standard recipes handy for the Pheasant Tail, Prince, and Hair's Ear nymphs, and maybe the Adams, BWO, Lt. Cahill, and other dries you recommend, etc., I would be greatly appreciative.

If you can build the list yourself, and you already know the subsurface flies you need, aren't you more-or-less halfway to your own answer?

As for dry flies, they're all basically the same. Only the colours change. Buy a grizzly saddle, and you'll have hackle that will always work even if its not by someone's textbook definition correct. Always works.

After that, buy some pale yellow, olive, black and grey dubbing. There, that's it. Something for a tail (deer hair, microfibbets, hackle pieces too long for proper hackling). If you're going to tie parachutes, some white poly yarn. If you want emergers, some light brown antron.

Again, people make this far more complex than it really needs to be.

 

[BTRobertson]

If you can build the list yourself, and you already know the subsurface flies you need, aren't you more-or-less halfway to your own answer?

Well sure, having a list of flies narrows it down and makes it simpler. I haven't answered my own questions by narrowing the flies I should tie down. There are several ways to make the same fly, so I was asking for recipes that work best, generally. I've seen recipes for the same fly vary pretty greatly - some hair's ear nymph recipes call for Mallard flank, others say Turkey wing (wing casing). Which is better? See the issue? Maybe it's more complex than it needs to be, but that's not my fault.

The biggest question I have about materials applies to hackle. It's insanely expensive, and there seems to be saddle and cape, narrow and soft, plus different colors. I don't want to buy a $65 cape/saddle if it's not the right material to use for a variety of flies. So it might be "more complex than it needs to be", but that doesn't change the complexity issue for a beginner like me. I'm trying to simplify. Do I buy a Whiting introductory saddle pack with four different colors? Do I buy their intro cape pack instead? Both? Since this is the most expensive material to buy, from what I've researched, I'd rather get it right than waste money.

So yes, I did the work of honing the list down to a few good PA flies, dry and nymph, and I'm wondering if there are better recipes than others, and the materials needed for said recipes. Not trying to make it complicated; quite the contrary.

Thanks ShortRod2 for the kind gesture. Talk soon.