What should be the first fly I start tying?

[passionfly]

I was thinking zebra midges because of their effectiveness and simplicity which is good for a beginner like me, but hook size would be problem.

 

[PaScoGi]

Zebra Midge for sure. Tim Flagler has a nice playlist divided into categories on his you tube page. You can tell by watching his videos which ones are hard and which ones are easy for beginners.

I started with a zebra midge, then went to pheasant tail, then went to elk hair caddis. Then went to partridge and orange and so on. you will find each fly teaches you a different skill.

His tips and tricks playlist is the best thing on the internet in my opinion. He keeps those videos to 1 minute or so.

But yeah start with a zebra midge. start with a big hook and once you get the hang of it you can tie smaller.

 

[JimNovo]

I second the vote on the zebra midge. It will let you practice some of the basic skills like starting thread, tying in material, building shape with thread and whip finishing. No need to start with a size 20….a 14 will be just fine.

From there, a hares ear will add skills like using dubbing and tailing materials and even tying in soft hackle.

 

[passionfly]

I second the vote on the zebra midge. It will let you practice some of the basic skills like starting thread, tying in material, building shape with thread and whip finishing. No need to start with a size 20….a 14 will be just fine.

From there, a hares ear will add skills like using dubbing and tailing materials and even tying in soft hackle.

Yeah, I was definitely thinking about a hare's ear and maybe a pt after that

 

[tomgamber]

First Fly to Tie

As I know many of you have been tying as long (or longer!) than me, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this one: What fly do you recommend for a beginning tier? Over 30 years ago, that fly for me was the Olive Woolly Bugger. There were a few techniques, it looked cool, I had no idea what the...

www.paflyfish.com

 

[hooker-of-men]

Zebra midge in a bigger size is good. This is also good (and more fishy than a midge for me):

Once you're a bit comfortable, I personally found buggers good practice for doing a handful of techniques - hackle, adding flash, wire counter wrap - at a bigger scale.

 

[poopdeck]

Hares ear, PT and elk hair caddis. nothing Difficult about tying a fly.

 

[whheff]

Ptail, zebra midge and walts worm will catch just about everything and they are easy to flies to ty.

As a new tyer, strive for consistency. If you master proportions now you will have that skill set when you ty more intricate fly patterns.

 

[BruceC2C]

San Juan Worm
Choosing that was BIG help developing my confidence and basic skills.

 

[Bamboozle]

I was thinking zebra midges because of their effectiveness and simplicity which is good for a beginner like me, but hook size would be problem.

All good pattern suggestions.

The bottom line is to tie flies you'll USE and have confidence in already because there is nothing that feels better (well, maybe there is... ) than catching fish on your own creations.

Another suggestion I can offer unrelated to pattern is to focus on the pattern you choose by tying more than 3 or 4 because you are anxious to tie something else.

Nothing helped my fly tying more than to tie a minimum number of a pattern (in my case a dozen) in a given size before tying a different pattern or different size of the same pattern.

This allows me to get my hooks & materials organized and the repetition gives my flies consistency in proportions meaning the way they look. This little discipline helps to hone my skills and results in better looking flies and with that, the confidence that my creations will work as good as any fancy store bought flies...

In addition to all of that, since I never carry 12 of each fly, I always have spares.

Good luck!

 

[dryflyguy]

For dries, terrestrials are fairly easy to tie.
And quite effective throughout summer and fall.

 

[Dr.J 1952]

I've been tying flies for thirty years now. I had the good fortune to take classes from a great fly fisherman and tyer. I also spent four or five years helping him as an instructor. He would tie the same patterns but would change the technique year to year. I've only bought flies once in that time mainly just to see how a fly was tied. My advice, if possible, is to take some lessons or have an experienced tyer show you a few things. This will save you a lot of time and enhance your skills. I tried tying on my own and it was frustrating. After a few lessons, things really clicked. With lessons, I not only learned tying, but I also learned a lot about materials. Wooly Buggers are a good way to start as you will incorporate several techniques. A Hare's Ear is a good generic nymph and that will help you tie most nymphs. As far as Mayfly dries go, I only tie parachute and comparadun patterns. Any dry size 18 and smaller, I use a thread body. I tie parachutes down to size 22. As someone said before, start on larger hooks, like a size 12 for a Hare's Ear. Definitely tie several of the same pattern to get the hang of it. Junk flies such as green weenies, honey bugs, sucker spawn (crystal meth) San Juan worms, etc. are easy and quick to tie and work well on newly stocked trout. I learned to tie glo bugs with Glo Bug yarn which can be a little tricky. I now use McFly Foam and it is a lot easier. As the previous poster said, proportions are important. I would add to that, be careful of not crowding the eye of the hook. You can also tie a size 14 fly on a size 12 hook if that helps as long as you keep the proportions the same. Tie flies for where you plan on fishing. I have flies tied for Spring Creek that I don't use on most other streams. I fish an average of 10-12 different streams a year and so a tie a large variety of flies. Wet fly/emerger patters are easy to tie and good producers. Depending on how far you want to go, fly tying can become obsessive and expensive. There isn't much in the way of materials that I don't have even for Euro flies. Mainly now, I buy hooks, beads or thread. Good luck to you. And put some mothballs in with your feathers and furs! LOL

 

[passionfly]

I've been tying flies for thirty years now. I had the good fortune to take classes from a great fly fisherman and tyer. I also spent four or five years helping him as an instructor. He would tie the same patterns but would change the technique year to year. I've only bought flies once in that time mainly just to see how a fly was tied. My advice, if possible, is to take some lessons or have an experienced tyer show you a few things. This will save you a lot of time and enhance your skills. I tried tying on my own and it was frustrating. After a few lessons, things really clicked. With lessons, I not only learned tying, but I also learned a lot about materials. Wooly Buggers are a good way to start as you will incorporate several techniques. A Hare's Ear is a good generic nymph and that will help you tie most nymphs. As far as Mayfly dries go, I only tie parachute and comparadun patterns. Any dry size 18 and smaller, I use a thread body. I tie parachutes down to size 22. As someone said before, start on larger hooks, like a size 12 for a Hare's Ear. Definitely tie several of the same pattern to get the hang of it. Junk flies such as green weenies, honey bugs, sucker spawn (crystal meth) San Juan worms, etc. are easy and quick to tie and work well on newly stocked trout. I learned to tie glo bugs with Glo Bug yarn which can be a little tricky. I now use McFly Foam and it is a lot easier. As the previous poster said, proportions are important. I would add to that, be careful of not crowding the eye of the hook. You can also tie a size 14 fly on a size 12 hook if that helps as long as you keep the proportions the same. Tie flies for where you plan on fishing. I have flies tied for Spring Creek that I don't use on most other streams. I fish an average of 10-12 different streams a year and so a tie a large variety of flies. Wet fly/emerger patters are easy to tie and good producers. Depending on how far you want to go, fly tying can become obsessive and expensive. There isn't much in the way of materials that I don't have even for Euro flies. Mainly now, I buy hooks, beads or thread. Good luck to you. And put some mothballs in with your feathers and furs! LOL

Thank you so much for your sharing your experience!

 

[tomgamber]

My first answer is a wooly bugger. My second answer is tie whatever will catch you fish at that particular time of year. Tie it, go use it. Boom. An addiction is born.

 

[Facemelted]

Zebra MIdge is a good first timer pattern for sure. I would urge you to learn spiders and soft hackled wet flies as well. It will force you to learn proper proportioning, which is very important IMO.

 

[Sylvaneous]

Definitely Walt's Worm. You want them to be 'buggy' but not look like a mess. You want to get that conical or 'carrot' shaped body right. YOu need to learn about dubbing, both the stuff and how to do it. Today, 25 years on, I'll spin some dubbing on a thread and think "Well THAT looks like sh!t" See how easy it is to pull your fly apart. I'm famous for durable flies (amongst peers, that is.) Commercial ties too frequently fall apart. You want to get your thread tension (force) right. Learn how the thread torque can twist materials around the shank. It's good and bad, situation depending. I was started on the Al's Rat. (Get the taper right. Just a touch of muskrat. Jeezus, I was SOOO LUCKY I had those guys to learn from!) It'd be best if you could get a tutor. I had some instruction from some serious notables, but I also learned a lot from guys who just really knew their sh!t. Rick Heiserman, Al Miller, ****...I don't think I ever knew his last name, but he had a real affinity for tuquoise. John Sniscak , who showed me a kind of double hair winged parachute for Drake dries (not my friend, John Sniscak, ANNOTHER John Sniscak, if you can believe it. And YES , they met.) so get help.

 

[WWKimba]

I know some will say that this is sacrilege, but a mop fly is a nice starter pattern and here is why. First, it's a simple pattern AND it catches fish! Next, you can practice a few tying techniques in tying this pattern and its variations - thread control; proper proportioning; avoiding crowding the eye; noodle dubbing, touch dubbing, loop dubbing, and split thread dubbing techniques (depending on the pattern variation you use). It can be tied with or without a bead head.

Another tie that was actually designed for a newer tyer is the Fold Back Nymph. This is a 2X2 (2 materials or less and 2 minutes or less to tie) designed to avoid crowding the eye of the hook - a common problem with newer tyers. Why is it a good beginner pattern? Well, it uses only 2 fly tying materials, and each are "pantry" tying items (common materials used in many patterns). Also, you can tie it on most style nymph hooks in many sizes and in many colors. And. it is designed to avoid crowding the eye. Lastly, it helps develop your sense of proportion.

Here's a picture:

What you'll want to do, no matter which pattern you start with, is to find a set of patterns that 1) reinforce what you learned on past patterns, and 2) introduce you to a new technique to master. Also, plan on tying a MINIMUM of a dozen flies. This will help develop your small muscle memory and your tying eye. After this look at your ties and find the one that best represents the pattern then set this one to the side and use it as a template and try to tie 12 more flies that look just like the template. After this you'll have a bunch of flies you can go out and fish with and, if there are some that are TOO UGLY, simply take a razor blade to the fly and reuse the hook! The material you cut off is not wasted - it is a cheap cost for your training and development.

Lastly, and this should've been listed first, what do you like to fish for and with? The species or family of fish (trout-rainbow, brown, brook...., bass or sunfish, carp...), the water (ponds/lakes vs. streams/rivers vs. salt/brackish), and the method (dry flies, wets, streamers, nymphs,...). These questions will lead you to patterns that you can not only tie but USE.

I hope this helps.

Kim

 

[JoeE]

I never tie down. I have no problem tying 24’s (with glasses) but I can’t start with 12’s then tie 18’s just something about it for me they just don’t turn out the way I want them. There is nothing wrong with a zebra midge to start. Question for me are you tying fur, thread or biot body. I do like a goose or turkey biot body midge.