Martyn White | Thursday, 9 November 2023
Paul's page about starting fly tying came about the same time as I started helping someone who's just moved to Okinawa get started tying flies. My mate Chuck has also decided to join the next flats trip and has been looking for advice on tying his first box of flats flies.
Getting started nowadays seems to be both easier and harder than it used to be. The internet means that there is a near limitless amount of information on patterns, techniques and materials, which is great once you have a bit of knowledge but can be intimidating for the newcomer and also difficult to navigate. This is true both for total newcomers and people trying to branch out into new areas. The main thing I think, is that it pushed folk to rub before they can crawl, which is exatly the problem Steve is having, he'sbeen buying all sorts of materials without really knowing what he needs and then trying to tie fairly complex flies but doing a bad job of them. Chuck at least has been tying for a while, but is also essentially in the dark about what he needs to buy/tie to put his box together.
Handily for me they're both looking to tie the same kind of stuff and Chuck only really needs a fly list and a few samples to copy with some notes on the materials. For Steve it's a bit different because we need to look at getting material that's useful for saltwater flies and can be used to tie some simple patterns that a beginner can tie and go out and fish with confidence. Aside from hooks, thread and dumbbells I've basically got his material list down to 6 materials; craft fur, bucktail, sparkle yarn, rubber legs, cactus chenille and crystal flash. This will let him tie a selection of effective but simple flies that will also help develop all the skills he needs to tie more complex patterns in future.
The initial list is something like;
Lefty's craft fur shrimp (POD)
Fleeing crab
Clouser
Bucktail Deceiver
Bug ugly
All fish catchers that are very manageable even for beginners, that can be adjusted and added to once Steve is more confident at the vice. Importantly they'll let him work on tailing, dubbing & dubbing loops, X-wrapping, winging, balancing material, learning and selecting different hair for different purposes and other skills too.
Really, a different material list this short would work for pretty much any type of tying beginner- grizzle hackle, silver wire, pearl tinsel, a foam block, a couple of colours of marabou and a sealfur dubbing box would have someone well set to tie a range of patterns for trout in lakes and small still waters, for example.
As a final note, my most important piece of advice for Steve was to ignore anyone who starts banging on about whipfinishing and how it should be done, regardless of whether they're pro-tool or pro-finger they're almost certainly wrong but tend to have in common that their flies make you wonder if they can even tie their shoes.