What You Wish You Knew Then That You Know Now

Letort

Letort

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Joined
Dec 14, 2008
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310
I got all my materials organized into clear plastic tubs, hooks separated by brand and use and have a perfectly clear bench. Having been tying for over 50 years, couple of thoughts came to mind during this process:
  1. An orderly bench and materials significantly improves tying efficiency. Having to paw through piles of feather to find scissors is not productive.
  2. I wish I had standardized on one or two brands of hooks. Having boxes of orphan hooks for patterns long forgotten is a waste. A 1x long nymph hook is the same regardless of who made it.
  3. Same with thread. Every recipe seems to have some unique style and color of thread. Have about 120 different threads, while black, olive and red in a couple of thicknesses would cover it for me.
  4. Keep a ruler and hackle sizer close to your bench. Key to turning out consistent flies and reducing waste is standardization.
  5. No matter how long you have been tying, watching others tie - either on line or in person, you will learn new techniques or new materials.
What are some best practices that you have learned?
 
I’m still in the beginning phase of tying flies, so I don’t have anything to offer in terms of advice. I’m excited to follow this thread though and pick up some tips 🍻
 
Letort said:
I got all my materials organized into clear plastic tubs, hooks separated by brand and use and have a perfectly clear bench. Having been tying for over 50 years, couple of thoughts came to mind during this process:
  1. An orderly bench and materials significantly improves tying efficiency. Having to paw through piles of feather to find scissors is not productive.
  2. I wish I had standardized on one or two brands of hooks. Having boxes of orphan hooks for patterns long forgotten is a waste. A 1x long nymph hook is the same regardless of who made it.
  3. Same with thread. Every recipe seems to have some unique style and color of thread. Have about 120 different threads, while black, olive and red in a couple of thicknesses would cover it for me.
  4. Keep a ruler and hackle sizer close to your bench. Key to turning out consistent flies and reducing waste is standardization.
  5. No matter how long you have been tying, watching others tie - either on line or in person, you will learn new techniques or new materials.
What are some best practices that you have learned?
Click to expand...
Agree with all of the above and would add:

-Pick a pattern that you want to learn and tie a bunch. You know you've got down it when they all look alike.

-YouTube is great, but you don't need to tie every variant of every pattern. It's easy to get overwhelmed with "must have" patterns. Look at the materials you have on hand and use what you've got to learn techniques. You probably don't need 10 brands of flash.

-Keep you tying materials organized, but also keep the flies you tie organized. That amazing fly won't catch dingus if it's in a shoebox full of other unknown flies.
 
I’ve been tying flies for over 45 years and I’ve squandered a ton of great fly tying materials over the years when I was younger. Research and learn how to skin out and properly cure animal and bird skins (deer, squirrels, rabbit - hare’s mask, pheasant, grouse, crow etc.) if you are a hunter it very rewarding to cure your own skins and use them for many years to tie your own flies. Also if you’re not a duck hunter try to make friends with one. The flank feathers off of mallards, teal and wood ducks are some awesome barred feathers that can be used in many patterns while tying.

I still have two old bunny masks that I skinned out way back in the day when I was just learning how to do it. I harvested those two rabbits in small game season way back in the 80’s. They are still in my “fur” bin and are still in good shape. I often use them today if I’m looking for some real vintage hare’s ear dubbing.
 
i'm pretty much self taught, prior to youtube, which can really shorten the learning curve these days. i tied tons of flies constantly learning little tricks and different styles. i enthusiastically recommend Charlie Craven's Basic Fly Tying book. I picked up tons of little tips and techniques that i hadn't in decades prior. Definitely upped my tying skills.
 
Letort said:
I got all my materials organized into clear plastic tubs, hooks separated by brand and use and have a perfectly clear bench. Having been tying for over 50 years, couple of thoughts came to mind during this process:
  1. An orderly bench and materials significantly improves tying efficiency. Having to paw through piles of feather to find scissors is not productive.
  2. I wish I had standardized on one or two brands of hooks. Having boxes of orphan hooks for patterns long forgotten is a waste. A 1x long nymph hook is the same regardless of who made it.
  3. Same with thread. Every recipe seems to have some unique style and color of thread. Have about 120 different threads, while black, olive and red in a couple of thicknesses would cover it for me.
  4. Keep a ruler and hackle sizer close to your bench. Key to turning out consistent flies and reducing waste is standardization.
  5. No matter how long you have been tying, watching others tie - either on line or in person, you will learn new techniques or new materials.
What are some best practices that you have learned?
Click to expand...
Thanks for the suggestions, @Letort. This is an interesting topic, and I hope others will add to it and keep it going.

I’ve been tying for going on 70 years - yikes! - and one thing that I wish I knew then that I know now is that I wish I could remember some of the things that I knew then! 😃.

Seriously, I wish I would have kept more written records. About 50 years ago I dyed quite a bit of fox, rabbit, seal, and (I think muskrat) fur, and I bleached a fair amount of peacock quills, etc. One of those dyed furs which I think was muskrat, and not so easy to dye, produced an orange fur that made a killer dry fly, but I later lost a lot of my fly tying materials in a fire, and haven’t been able to figure out how to reproduce that color. I have some other examples like that - if only I would have kept a written record.
 
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Dont be afraid to tie flies in a different way from what the "recipe" calls for.
My first few years tying, I usually followed the pattern formula to a tee.
Then I started getting my own ideas of how to improve things, and started doing some tweaks.
Has definitely paid off IMO
 
I tie pretty much everything with Unit 8/0 nowadays or Gordon Griffith 14/0. Would of saved a bunch of money on thread over the years. Small thread makes your flies look way better. If I could of started over again, I probably would buy Semperfli/Veevus in a tiny size and only used that.
 
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6/0 thread was the standard for most flies when I started out.
Now, I use 8/0 on everything smaller than #14.
Less bulk is better.

I also tended to use as much material as I could cram on my flies when I first started.
Figured out later that less is better.
Sparse flies seem to work nicer - at least for dry flies
 
Buy a pack of single edge razor blades. If a fly is just decent, cut off the materials and tie again. Same with last season's flies, the ones you didn't use because you have no confidence in them.
 
Don't try to match every conceivable fly out there and cover every conceivable situation. Majority of the "good" fishing and major hatches in PA are mid April to mid June. When we do most of our fishing. NEPA at least, one can cover all the bases with about 10 flies. Your experiences friends fly shops and research will tell you what you need.

Keep pairing down your fly box and think a minimalist approach. You don't need an adams fly in sizes 10 to 18. A 16 is about perfect. Similarly you dont need 4 different styles of the same pattern ie, BWO parachute, comparadun, Catskill, fan wing etc.

You will spend more time fishing and less time changing flies, rummaging thru your many cluttered boxes, less time at the bench and save money on material and or fly shop flies.
 
Some that come immediately to mind:
  • Buy more Matarelli tools.
  • Magnification & great lighting at ANY age makes things easier and flies look better.
  • Less wraps is better regardless of the thread size. Learn how to conserve.
  • Don't buy a Petitjean Magic Tool, you will never use it... 😉
  • Hackle gauges rock!!
  • Tie well in advance. Trying to tie two this and that the night before a fishing trip SUCKS!!
  • There is fun in collecting, dying & bleaching, but pre-packaged stuff has it's advantages.
  • Keep only the tools & materials required for the current pattern being tied on your desktop.
  • Buy a couple of LAW vises, and stash them away for 30 years.
  • Organize!!
  • If you find a packaged material you like and will use, buy a lot because it WILL be discontinued.
  • Don't tie three of this of two of that. Tie 6 -12 of every pattern/size. Your flies will look better.
  • Latex as a fly tying material, sucks.
  • Don't buy every hook listed in the recipe, (essentially #2 on Letort's list).
  • For every angler with bulging fly boxes, there is another with one small box filled with Adams...
  • Some of worst fly tying materials ever are touted as some of the best. (see Latex above).
  • Permanent markers... aren't.
  • Buy the flies that take forever to tie and spend the time saved on tying what you use the most.
  • Don't bother with pre-treating dry flies after tying because you WILL give up the practice...
 
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