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Getting started in fly tying

How To Tie A Fly

Your first fly for acquiring general instruction in fly tying is the Woolly Bugger. This fly will catch all kinds of fish and is relatively easy to tie. Take a look at the recipe that follows. You'll note that the materials listed are those that we told you to pick up at the end of the materials section. The order in which they're listed usually reflect the order in which they're used.

The Woolly Bugger

Hook: a 3XL streamer hook, size 6 or 8

Thread: 6/0 black

Weight: .030 lead wire, about 10 wraps applied to the front half of the hook

Tail: marabou, tied so that the tail is no longer than the hook shank

Body: medium or large chenille

Hackle: saddle hackle palmered forward over the body.

What follows are directions interspersed with terms you will hear throughout your fly tying career.

Preparation

1. Clamp the hook in the vise at the hook's bend. The point should be exposed and the hook shank should be horizontal. Bend: The rounded part of the hook and the transition between the shank and the point. Shank: The straight part of the hook from the eye to the bend.

2. Attach the thread using a jam knot. Starting near the eye, and wrapping over and away from you, wrap the thread around the shank three times, spiraling toward the eye. Continue wrapping over and away from you while you change directions and wrap toward the bend. After three or four turns trim the excess, called the tag. Tie-in-point: On the shank directly opposite the barb, and where most materials are attached. Barb: The part of the hook point that sticks up, thereby making it difficult to remove from the fishes' mouth, or your thumb.

3. Wrap the thread to the tie-in-point. Angle the bobbin when you get to the hook point to avoid cutting the thread on the point. This thread base will promote better adhesion of the materials to the hook. Tie in: Three turns of thread are used to lash materials to the shank. All materials are wound over the shank away from the tier. NOTE: To weight your Woolly Bugger, follow this procedure. Cut a four inch piece of lead from the spool. Starting at the midpoint of the shank, wrap forward towards the eye in tight turns. Leave plenty of room near the eye for tying off the other materials and finishing the head! Criss-cross the lead wire with several turns of thread to keep it from spreading apart.

Tying in the Tail

4. Use the controlled slide to tie in tail materials at the tie-in-point. Using your materials hand, hold the fibers at a 45 degree angle underneath the hook shank. Make one turn of thread around the fibers, tightening the thread and aligning the fibers on top of the shank. Place the 2nd wrap of thread directly on top of the 1st. Successive wraps can be wound toward the eye. Trim the excess. NOTE: If you marabou is short, use the tip of one feather for the tail. If the marabou has a long quill at the center, cut about an inch of the fluffy marabou from the quill for use as the tail. Quill: In this application, the stem of a feather.

Attaching Materials

5. All materials must be prepared for their tying application. Cut a 4 or 5 inch piece of chenille and pull the fibers from one end to expose an 1/8 inch of the threads at the center. Position these threads underneath the shank at the tie-in-point. Using the controlled slide secure them to the shank with three turns of thread.

6. Select a saddle hackle. At the base of the quill you'll find some fluffy, marabou-like fibers. Cut the quill above this fluff to eliminate them. Holding the tip of the feather with your tool hand, gently stroke the fibers down to expose the quill. Holding those fibers back with your materials hand, position the exposed quill underneath the shank at the tie-in-point. Use the controlled slide to secure the feather to the shank with three turns of thread.

7. Trim the excess and advance the thread to the tie-off-point. Tie-Off-Point: Just before the eye of the hook (roughly the length of the eye) which leaves enough room to tie off materials and wrap a neat head without crowding the eye.

Winding Forward

8. Wrap the chenille forward to the tie-off-point (wrap over and away from you) in even wraps so the turns of chenille intersect. When you reach the tie-off-point, hold the chenille up with your tool hand. Pick up the bobbin with your material hand and tie off with three turns of thread. Trim the excess. Palmer: The hackle is wound over the body material, usually from the bend to the tie-off-point.

9. Attach your hackle pliers to the quill at the point where you cut it. Without applying too much tension, wind the hackle forward to the tie-off-point in evenly spaced turns. Be careful not to cut the quill on the hook point. Ideally, the quill would be buried between the turns of chenille and would be long enough to complete one or two turns in front of the body. Tie off with three turns of thread and trim the excess.

10. Thoroughly cover the excess material near the eye with enough wraps of thread to produce a neatly tapered head. Finish the head with a double hitch. Double Hitch: Pull 3 or 4 inches of thread from the bobbin. Loop the thread around your materials hand index finger and back to the shank. Make one and a half turns of thread around the shank at the fly head. Let the bobbin hang. Using both hands, swing the loop around the eye of the hook so the top thread stays on top of the shank and the bottom thread stays below the shank. Close the loop by gently pulling with the bobbin.

Recipe - The Fur Nymph

If I had just one fly for the early season it would be a fur nymph in about three different colors: black, reddish brown & natural hare's mask. This fly, in these colors and a variety of sizes, will imitate a wide range of mayfly and stonefly nymphs and, with a little grooming, will double as a scud or caddis larva. Weighted heavily it will bounce along the bottom and unweighted it can be fished just under the surface. By substituting a little foam for the wingcase you can even turn this fly into a floating nymph.

Here's your shopping list:

Gold-Ribbed Hare's Ear Nymph

Hook: 1XL sproat bend nymph hook, sizes 12-16

Weight: .020 lead wire for a #12 or #14, .010 for the #16 (The lead wire should be about the same diameter as the hook wire.)

Tails: pheasant tail fibers, or brown hen fibers

Body: natural Hare's mask dubbing (Could be enhanced with squirrel fur, SLF or antron.)

Rib: small gold, oval French tinsel

Wing Case: turkey or goose quill, peacock herl or pheasant tail fibers

Directions:

1. Clamp the hook in the vise so the point is exposed and the shank is horizontal.

2. Attach the thread with a jam knot and advance the thread to the bend.

3. Grasp 8 or 10 pheasnt tail fibers and stroke them perpendicular to the shank. This evens the tips before cutting them. Use about 6 or 8 fibers for a #16.

4. Measure the fibers against the hook shank. The tails should not exceed the length of the shank. Tie them in at the tie-in point using the procedure for tying in tails.

5. Starting at the mid-point, wind lead wire on the hook shank, leaving room near the eye to tie off materials and finish a head.

6. Secure the lead by building a shoulder of thread at each end of the lead wire. Complete this procedure by wrapping the thread over the wire several times.

7. Tie in the rib at the bend.

8. To dub the body, start with a tiny bit of the dubbing fur. The amount of fur should be so small that you can barely see it. Hold it next to the thread and, using your thumb and first finger, twist the fur onto the thread.If you do it right you should hear your finger and thumb rubbing together. Repeat this process until your dubbed area is about 1 1/2 inches long. Now begin to thicken this area by adding more dubbing using the same technique until you've created a rope of dubbing a little under an 1/8 of an inch thick.

9. Wrap this "rope" forward to the midpoint of the shank. Wrap over and away from you. Pull off the excess fur.

10. The tinsel should be counter-wrapped to strengthen the fur dubbing. To counter-wrap, wind under the shank and toward you. Counter-wrap the tinsel to the mid point and tie off.

11. Tie in the wing case material on top of the hook shank at the mid point. If you're using goose or turkey quill cut a slip 1/4 inch wide from the feather and tie it in with the dark side down and the tips forward. Or, use 6 or 8 peacock herls tied in with the tips forward.

12. Using the dubbing procedure outlined in step 8, create another rope of about the same dimensions. Wrap forward to create the thorax. At this point you can always add more dubbing if the thorax seems a little thin. Leave enough room near the eye to tie off the wing case.

13. Pull the wing case forward and tie off. Clip the excess and finish the head. Using your dubbing needle, pick out a few fibers on each side of the thorax to simulate legs.