Gaining Skill

[L_soult]

I've been tying for about a month now. Here's the first one I made that was decent enough to share on the forum. I know it's not top quality, but its a far cry from where I started.

It's meant to imitate a bug (?) I saw on my local stream today.

 

[L_soult]

Another angle.

 

[FrequentTyer]

It is good to see that you are tying, and are thinking creatively about your flies. But one month is probably too soon to be developing new patterns. I suggest picking some standard patterns that you know work on the streams you fish. Keep tying them until they are consistent and look like pictures you see on the net, or better like samples you got from the fly shop. I know its boring, but it is the only way I know to master the basic fundamentals, and that gives you the tools to be creative.
Keep tying,
Mike.

 

[Fishidiot]

FrequentTyer wrote:
It is good to see that you are tying, and are thinking creatively about your flies. But one month is probably too soon to be developing new patterns. I suggest picking some standard patterns that you know work on the streams you fish. Keep tying them until they are consistent and look like pictures you see on the net, or better like samples you got from the fly shop. I know its boring, but it is the only way I know to master the basic fundamentals, and that gives you the tools to be creative.
Keep tying,
Mike.

Some good advice here.

Nice tie nevertheless - have fun and keep at it.

 

[L_soult]

Mike-

Thanks for the advice. I agree that you need learn to walk before you can run. As you know its really expensive to get started. I dropped over $30 to make some woolly buggers.

Delta D recommended I go to Elk Hair Caddis next so I thought about buying the Cabellas Gunnison Fly Tying Materials Kit for $25. Seems like a good deal for what it comes with. Any thoughts or recommendations on a different kit?


I just got a copy of The Art Of Fly Tying. It has some really good stuff in it.

Thanks Again.

Launce

 

[FrequentTyer]

Launce,
Kits can be hit or miss, and almost always have lousy hackle. I think they can be good for beginners that need tools because you can get by with most of the tools. I still use a kit hair stacker that is about 15 years old. But trying to learn to tie with bad material puts you at a disadvantage. Fortunately, most material is pretty inexpensive if you stay away from hackle, and there are a lot of no hackle patterns that fish as well if not better. For example, the elk hair caddis is a great suggestion, but a pack of cdc and a patch of elk hair will cost less than $10 and allow you to tie a lot of cdc and elk caddis. Throw in a $3 pack of rabbit dubbing and you can tie the mouse caddis (look for Davy McPhail's youtube video, he uses mink, but rabbit works and it is a killer pattern).
That's my general opinion. The kit you are looking at looks like it has a nice variety and the included patterns look like they would be useful. So I guess you could do worse if you decide to go that route.
Mike.