As winter creeps in it often means a drop in opportunity for fly fishermen. That depends on where you live, of course, but for many of us, river time becomes vise time. If you’re new to fly tying, though, it can feel like a daunting skill to master. The truth is, I can’t teach you how to tie flies effectively via an online column or podcast. It’s simply a process that requires too many visual aids, some of the best of which can be found on YouTube. But what I can do — with a little help from a friend — is suggest a few fly styles that you should learn first. Why? Because they provide all the necessary techniques that will apply to almost any freshwater fly you want to create.
My old buddy, veteran trout guide, and owner of Cross Current Outfitters, Joe Demalderis, has been spinning up bugs a lot longer than me. He’s narrowed down some key patterns that will help tiers quickly master necessary mechanics and, no, we’re not talking about making egg flies and San Juan worms. We’re talking about traditional, proven trout bugs that will catch fish anywhere, and that tying will get you primed for when you’re ready to level up your vise game.
Listen to this week’s episode of the Quick Strike Podcast on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
The Wooly Bugger
There’s not a beginner’s fly-tying kit on the planet that doesn’t come with the materials and instructions to tie a simple wooly bugger. Not only is it a great starter pattern, but it’s a versatile fly for everything from trout to bass to panfish that can imitate everything from a crayfish to a hellgrammite to a minnow. But of all the techniques used to create this fly, Demalderis says one of the keys things tying a bugger teaches is simply how to handle materials
“A bugger has a marabou tail, chenille body, and hackle feathers wrapped over that body,” he says. “Countless flies incorporate these same materials. But when you’re new to tying, you must learn how to control these different materials in your hand before you ever wrap them onto the hook. You’re dealing with these light, fluffy materials that can get messy, but the wooly bugger is a big fly, so you’re not using small amounts of them, and the longer and thicker the material, the easier it is to control.”
Demalderis adds that palmering hackle is a critical skill taught by the wooly bugger. You’re trying to wrap a feather forward and create even spacing up the fly’s body to create its signature wispy appendages. Once you can master the mechanics and spacing on a large bugger, making tighter wraps in the more confined space of a small dry fly becomes much easier.
The Traditional Adams
The Adams is easily one of the greatest dry flies ever tied, largely because it mimics almost every insect. See trout rising but don’t know what they’re chewing? An Adams will likely match whatever’s on the menu closely enough that you’ll score a take. A parachute Adams is particularly popular, but if you’re just starting out at the vise, Demalderis recommends diving in with the traditional split-wing style of this famous bug.
“You need to learn how to tie a tail on a dry fly properly and put dubbing on your thread to create the body,” he says. “An Adams will also teach you how to taper that dubbing on the hook shank properly. You’ll also learn how to split a feather to create a wing. All these steps will apply to almost any dry fly you want to create, but while you’re practicing, tie Adams because you can never have enough of them.”
Most importantly, tying an Adams will teach you to control stiffer dry fly hackle feathers in a tight space. You’ll need to apply proper tension and use tools like hackle pliers, which can be useful for wrapping hackle on any fly from micro dries to pike streamers.
The Hare’s Ear
Like a wooly bugger, the hare’s ear nymph is extremely versatile. By altering the size and color, you can imitate a wide range of aquatic insects in their larval stage. They’re also useful whether you fish with traditional floating fly line or dabble in more modern tactics like Euro-style nymphing. Though nymphs are generally less complex to tie than dry flies, the hare’s ear requires so few materials that once you’re comfortable making them, you can knock out a dozen in no time.
“A hare’s ear with a gold rib is a great learning fly,” says Demalderis. “It’s going to teach you how to tail a nymph, which is a bit different than tailing a dry fly. It’s also going to teach you how to taper a dubbing body, create a thorax, and add a wing case. Finally, you’ll learn to wind a rib on, and once you have that you can rib any fly whether it’s with wire, Mylar, or tinsel.”
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The bottom line is that skills required to create a hare’s ear provide the foundation for any nymph. Yes, you may have to learn how to incorporate rubber legs for specific stonefly nymphs, or create split tails for Prince Nymphs, but the skills acquired via the hare’s ear recipe get you 90 percent of the way there.
The post Quick Strike Podcast: If You Can Tie These 3 Flies, You Can Tie Anything appeared first on Outdoor Life.
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