Beginner Trout Flies

Skillbillie

Skillbillie

New member
Joined
Oct 7, 2013
Messages
25
Hi All,

Hope everyone had a good holiday. I am wondering if anyone can give me a few suggestions of what flies to tie. I have never tied any, but I recently purchased a vise and the majority of the tools needed. I have roughly $100 to spend on materials and hooks. Are there a few basic flies that are easy to tie and have overlapping materials so I can tie multiple patterns. I am planning on buying the materials for wooly buggers, green weenies, and walts worms to start off, but any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I am also in SEPA so I would be looking for effective flies in this area. Thanks in advance for the help!!
 
First fly I learned to tie was a green weenie. Good fly to practice thread management, pinch technique, wrapping materials and finishing the head of a fly. Next fly I learned to tie was a hare's ear. That taught tying in a tail, dubbing and adding a wing case to a fly. Next was a woolly bugger which then gave experience with palmering hackle.

I'd suggest you work on these three first. After you feel comfortable try a pheasant tail and maybe some sort of caddis pupa. When you're ready to try a dry fly start with an elk hair caddis and then a winged fly like an Adams.

If you can master these flies you can move on to just about anything else.
 
A black ant was one of my first patterns that I learned. A little black, cinnamon, or red dubbing and then some palmered hackle in a similar color. Easy and super effective pattern.
 
+1 McSneek, I'd also recommend tying the Caddis larva 12-18(dark olive, light olive, tan, w/ without bead heads) , it's as easy as the zebra midge to tie and just as effective
 
The three flies that I really started out on was a zebra midge, pheasant tail nymph, and I believe a green weenie. These are all very effective flies that don't take too many materials and are all easy to tie. Good luck and welcome to the tying club.
 
Couple of dries: Olive comparadun, CDC and elk, foam ant/beetle. All tied on few materials, all very effective in SEPA and just about everywhere else...
 
LeTortAngler2 wrote:
+1 McSneek, I'd also recommend tying the Caddis larva 12-18(dark olive, light olive, tan, w/ without bead heads) , it's as easy as the zebra midge to tie and just as effective
Click to expand...

+2 McSneek and these^

GenCon


Side note, Volksnurse. Thanks again for the sissors you gave me at the tying jam. Work well.
 
The gentlemen that replied already have a great deal more knowledge than I do, so I will not suggest flies.

What I do suggest is that you decide which of these you are going to tie and buy only the materials required to tie them. Follow this pattern and you will not wind up (as I have :) ) with a lot of materials on hand that you aren't using YET.

Good Luck with your new hobby.

Dave
 
find the book midge magic....tie some simple midges, great info! include some red!

Griffiths gnat treated me well and is easy to tie!

Learn to tie in stages. one step flies...two step flies... learn how to build off each one.
 
Buy materials for flies that YOU WILL USE. Don't worry so much about how many patterns you can tie with a given assortment of materials, but rather that you will actually use those flies which you can tie. It's more economical and useful to have two flies that you will use than ten that you will not.

Kev
 
Letort hopper,ant,cricket
work all over the country.
 
Zebra midge, als rat, green weenie. That will use up about 15 bucks.
 

Rather than "easy flies," why not buy the materials for the 4 or 5 fly patterns you use most often, then learn to tie them.

After you tie a dozen examples, they'll all be easy. Instead of blowing half your wad on materials you may never use again you could be making things you want to use.
 
That's what makes the zebra midge, als rat, and weenies a good choice. The material will get used for plenty of other patterns and the midges, rats and weenies fish well during the winter and early spring.
 
gfen you truly have a way with words LOL!

I'd add a killer bug to that list, simple 1 or 2 step fly (adding a wire underbody) that fishes as good as walts did for me anyways. Dubbings not hard at all but wrapping yarn is a hole lot easier.

The idea I have and how we taught is to build as a fly tier. Learning to tie in, knots, proportions, use of tools, than move on to something slightly harder. 6-8 different patterns or so and you can tie most things well, or at least be able to understand the principles of basic fly tying to achieve results. It worked well for us.
 
gfen wrote:

Rather than "easy flies," why not buy the materials for the 4 or 5 fly patterns you use most often, then learn to tie them.

After you tie a dozen examples, they'll all be easy. Instead of blowing half your wad on materials you may never use again you could be making things you want to use.
Click to expand...
Agreed, this is good advise. And remember, that the first few attempts, while they may seem awkward or out of proportion, will still catch fish.
(Heck, more than some of mine are still awkward and out of proportion 30 years later, but they catch fish...)
Mike B
 
Do you want to be a fly tyer, or do you want to restock your fly boxes? If the just the latter, then just buy flies. You will save money.
If you want to be a tyer AND restock your boxes, then buy Craven's Basic Fly Tying book and start with the first pattern tying through the book until you reach the end. I like this book for several reasons; the patterns are all standard fish catchers, the materials are all basic and will be used on many patterns, Craven explains the materials and what to look for when shopping, and he focuses on technique. Most importantly, armed with the skills you will learn from this book you will be able to tie anything.
Mike.
 
Thank you everyone for the input. Taking everything posted into consideration, I just ordered materials to tie some weenies, wooly buggers, and hares ear nymphs. Hopefully with a lot of practice I'll be able to post some pictures! Thanks again.
 
It's more difficult for me to post pictures than tie the flies.
 
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