Getting started in fly tying

[waksupi]

When I was young, I managed to cobble together some flies that caught a few of the dumber fish. Now that I'm retired, I'm getting back into fly fishing, and want to do some more serious tying.

I wonder if any of you have a fly tying kit and materials you don't use anymore, and would care to part with? I'm looking for a set up with a rotating vise. Let me know what you have, and a price.

I'll probably be concentrating mostly on woolly boogers, as they were always my go-to fly for consistent catches, although I will also want to do some dry flies.

[popper]

Mine is inexpensive minimal vise, a couple winding spool tools and a knot tyer, whipper. Flyshack has always given decent price. Hooks are major cost. Super glue to finish. Could send you a bunch I tyed for free.

[Johnch]

I also tie flies
Sorry I don't have extra stuff to help you , as I have passed along my extra stuff to other starting locals wanting to start

But I found most of my stuff I needed to start as used
I put the word out at the 2 gun clubs I shoot at that I was looking to start fly tying

Within a week I had several people either offer me stuff , free or cheap
Or give me people to talk to

BUT I bet I had sort through Boxes of free junk given to me
To find the good stuff I needed

Also talk to local waterfowl hunters for free feathers , as I trade with a number of people for feathers of birds I will never get to hunt
Talk to hunters that hunt small and large game that you don't
As last year I was given some Black Bear hide and pheasant skins ( not Ringneck Pheasant )
I have given away a number of Hen Ringneck Pheasant skins as a hunt club I am a member of releases them for us members to hunt
Taste great , make great flies , BUT are really LOW IQed

Also watch the road ( if married get her to help )
As this winter I got a road killed red fox and a mink

Hope it helps
John

[garandsrus]

I saved Wood duck capes for a couple guys that tied flies. They seemed happy with them! I have thought of tying flies but need another hobby like I need a hole in the head.

[waksupi]

Mine is inexpensive minimal vise, a couple winding spool tools and a knot tyer, whipper. Flyshack has always given decent price. Hooks are major cost. Super glue to finish. Could send you a bunch I tyed for free.

Well, I certainly wouldn't turn down any flies. Do you mean Fly Shack has the kits for the job?

I have quite a few different types of furs, hides, and some feathers, so I'm not starting totally from scratch.

[Brokenbear]

Well you are in the right part of the country to have folks near by who tie flies ..and who have quit doing so ..who then sell said "stuff" in garage sales, yard sales and/or list them in the free papers (trader/bargain papers) in racks around quick shops/grocery stores OR ......

do this:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Supreme-Rotating-Fly-Tying-Vise-Heavy-Duty-Rotary/252404785572?hash=item3ac47f61a4:g:l7EAAOSwOkFZkEH t

Then this:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/18-Piece-Fly-Tying-Tool-Kit-w-case-KT118/252138588153?hash=item3ab4a187f9:g:sHgAAOSwSKtafxk 9

And then get on with it ..I urge you not to buy an all inclusive kit with feather/hair/dubbing etc. as the kits of that nature I've seen could only have been designed to build a fly to troll for crocodiles in Australia !

Use you local fly shops to learn the local colors/patterns/presentations etc. of the food chain in your area .. which will lead you to making much better informed purchases of said materials as well as lead to much better stream success ..trust me ..a successful Wooly Booger in Missouri's Spring fed rivers WILL differ ever so slightly from the one you will want to tie and present in your home waters of Montana

Have fun ..stay safe
Bear

[unclemikeinct]

Wow Somers is out there & up there. I've never fished that part of the west. That said, to tie a few wolley buggers & just a few dries. You don't need a high dollar vise. Spend your money on good basic tools & high quality materials. Plus the stuff you can get for free. I used to teach kids how to tie on a budget.. PM me if you want to see my kit. I've been doing this for 50 years. PS: I can/have fooled the trout in the Green River Utah. Uncle mike in Ct261372 That is called by the locals a sand shark, he is in a swirling back eddie. I caught him, about 21 " Proudest dry fly catch of my life.

[wrench]

Good luck on your fly tying adventure! I also don't have anything to sell, but will echo the advice on getting stuff free/cheap.
A little story-when I started fly fishing years ago, I got really tired of buying flies for $2-$3 each. I thought, (sort of like bullet casting;-)), hey! I can do that!
I bought a vise, bobbins, fur, feathers, rubber legs and eyeballs. Hooks, thread, chenille, more fur and more feathers, more thread, more hooks...you get the idea.
Now I can tie my own flies for only $4-$5 each:twisted:

[MT Gianni]

I am surprised how much I used foam when I started tying. Don't over look craft sections for foam sheets.

[country gent]

Janns net craft in Maumee Ohio stocks a lot of fly tying equipment, accessories and supplies. I believe they will do mail orders also. I tied glies for several years and the woolly bugger is a simple easy favorite of mine. A very easy fly to tie. Works great on pan fish in farm ponds.

Me and a friend tied some weighted streamers and used them on a secluded spot on the river during the walleye run. What a blast with the heavy current and big fish.

Janns has a website and is a pretty complete shop. Fly tying, rod building, casting, making rubber tails, lures, They cover about all of it.

[waksupi]

Living where I do, people with used equipment think it's gold! This will give me something to fill in spare time, while I'm saving all the money, like I do casting bullets!

[popper]

Stuff you need. Vise is cheap China or India.
261401
261402
Chenille from hobby store, hackle(feathers) some times from ducks at pond. Foam from floppys she gets when toes done - white is good. tungsten heads (weight) gotta buy but some use bead chain separated.
Weighted buggers. On Tenn. river in a rubber boat with 2hp gas motor. Find catalpa tree where the worms are dropping into the water. Need weighted bugger as small fish boil the surface but big ones below. Otherwise, no weight. Use weighted nymphs below the dam at table rock.
Oh, GSP thread is STRONG but not cheap - for big teethy fish. The 2 prong tool is handy for making fuzzy bodies on buggers.

[Wayne Smith]

Interesting, Ric, I did the same thing as a teenager. Got everything from Herters, all the tools and everything else. I tied panfish flies and poppers for the farm ponds. Also tied some midges, size 20 and 22 hooks - I could see then!

[GhostHawk]

Waksupi, I just upgraded my vice to a peak spartan.

My old vice does rotate, but it was a chinese 80$ knock off of a much more expensive vice.
I mostly retired it because the screw that adjusts the jaw seperation for the size of hook broke. I was able to cobble a replacement but it is not perfect.

If you are interested I have 2 vices, bobbins, whip finish tools, feathers, thread, that I could put together a pretty good starter kit.

A lot depends on what you want to tie, and for what. Not a lot of trout around here so I tend towards panfish jigs and some mid to large size flys. I'm finally getting to where I can make a pretty good looking bucktail minnow. But a lot depends on what size hooks you want to tie on, and you need to look at materials so that they scale to that size.

Youtube is your friend.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChBe08TywiYfR5M_3P2dBig?pbjreload=10
Jim taught me TONS. Basic techniques, and then build on them to make more advanced stuff.

Gunnar is also very good, but he tends toward much bigger stuff than I think you'd find use for.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC39CXkqNdSX98adw6YdyvdQ?pbjreload=10

He does have a playlist of 25 video's of trout streamers.
And his spinning tackle jigs were a huge influence on me.

If you'd like to talk, PM me, we'll work it out.

[Winger Ed.]

Janns has a website and is a pretty complete shop.

They have a big on line presence.
I buy odds & ends from them, and couldn't be happier with 'em.

Their paper catalog is almost 1/4" thick and its almost all lure and fly making stuff.

[country gent]

A very usable fly tying vise can be made from a long set of tweezers and wood dowel and a wood bock. A square base from 2X4 or 2X6. A length of wood dowel set in the base. then drill a hole thru the dowel so the tweezers only sidle about half way thru. Tweezers slide in and out to open and close. a round hole allows them to rotate

[popper]

Long handle hemostats worked for wooly buggers, for about 2 days! Davy knot is great for tippit tying. One of the biggest largemouth I've caught was on a bare hook with bowtie foam wings. Never saw the fish, just sucked it down. Turtle, ducks, catfish, trout, gills, bass - something works for them all. Even Buffalo - that was a weird 10# fish a kid helped me haul onto the bank - yes I was worn out, like stopping a freight train.
Thinking lassoing those river bank rats?

[waksupi]

Waksupi, I just upgraded my vice to a peak spartan.

My old vice does rotate, but it was a chinese 80$ knock off of a much more expensive vice.
I mostly retired it because the screw that adjusts the jaw seperation for the size of hook broke. I was able to cobble a replacement but it is not perfect.

If you are interested I have 2 vices, bobbins, whip finish tools, feathers, thread, that I could put together a pretty good starter kit.

A lot depends on what you want to tie, and for what. Not a lot of trout around here so I tend towards panfish jigs and some mid to large size flys. I'm finally getting to where I can make a pretty good looking bucktail minnow. But a lot depends on what size hooks you want to tie on, and you need to look at materials so that they scale to that size.

Youtube is your friend.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChBe08TywiYfR5M_3P2dBig?pbjreload=10
Jim taught me TONS. Basic techniques, and then build on them to make more advanced stuff.

Gunnar is also very good, but he tends toward much bigger stuff than I think you'd find use for.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC39CXkqNdSX98adw6YdyvdQ?pbjreload=10

He does have a playlist of 25 video's of trout streamers.
And his spinning tackle jigs were a huge influence on me.

If you'd like to talk, PM me, we'll work it out.

Thanks for the offer and tips, I already have the equipment covered. I'm going through to see what hides I have for hair, then I'll try going to the park where there are a bunch of ducks to collect some feathers. I know I'll need to round up some maribou, and hit the hobby shop for chenille. Maybe shoot a turkey....
There are a few things I will need to buy from the local shops, but scrounging suits my cheap genes.

[unclemikeinct]

The Dry Fly hackle necks are the killer. Big Money for quality rooster neck feathers.. uncle mike

[Johnch]

Oh I forgot to add
After you see what colors you need

Watch for the right color chickens in peoples yards

As last year I bough 2 laying chickens at 2 different places for like $2 and $5 each
I just wanted the feathers mostly from the neck

The rest of the chickens ended up in the slow cooker and then in some kind of stew or soup

LOL If you have a place to keep them
I know several guys that keep chickens for both the eggs and pluck a few feathers when needed for flies

John

[unclemikeinct]

Hey John, you telling me hen neck feathers can be good for Dry Flies ??? I'll have to try a few out in my ties ? Plenty of laying hens around here.. Help me out.. uncle mike

[Randy Bohannon]

To make quality flies you need quality material that will hold up to more than one fish. Spending the time to tie flies with crappy material is an endeavor in futility . Rooster hackle for fly tying is one those materials don’t scrimp on ,buy quality hackle worth the price and your time. You will need it for the #16-18 dries that are prevalent from now until the frost hits hard .

[Sig]

The Dry Fly hackle necks are the killer. Big Money for quality rooster neck feathers.. uncle mike

The prices on all feathers went through the roof when everybody wanted to look like Steven Tyler with them in their hair. Craft stores can be a great source for materials on the cheap. Good lighting & a magnifier are essential for me.

[GhostHawk]

Whiting Farms for hackle. They have LONG hackles all the same size from top to bottom.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Whiting+farms+100s&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

http://whitingfarms.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/WF-Whiting100HackleSaddlePack1.jpg

I have used both the 100's and this from them.
Soft Hackle with Chickabou patch.
http://whitingfarms.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/WF-WhitingSoftHacklewithChickabou1.jpg

I paid 18$ for a whole drark grizzly brown. There are a LOT of good feathers on there.
Smaller on the edges, larger in the center.

[gwozdz]

A very under rated fly is the Hornberg. It's best to get a duck hunter friend save you the barred flank feathers from the left and right sides of a male mallard (in separate bags). I can be fished wet or dry and rainbows can't resist them.

[bedbugbilly]

When we were kids, my brother got interested in fly tying and orders a "kit" from the Herter's "wish book" - it had a cheap vise and he eventually upgraded to a nicer one. I tied a few flys and even caught some fish in a river that I used to go to on my bike to fish in. At the time, he bought supplies from Herters and supplemented with quail and pheasant feathers, deer hair, etc. that were the results of hunting.

waksupi - your post brought back some good memories and if I had anything for fly tying, I'd send it your way but I don't - but I sure wish you luck in getting in to fly tying as it has to be a fun and relaxing hobby.

I don't know if it's feasible or not - but it would be nice if a place or a threads could be established here - in the outdoor section? - and all of you who tie flys could post photos of some of your endeavors - you could even set up a "fly exchange" among the group.

Best of luck to you land enjoy your retirement!

[unclemikeinct]

I concur on the effectiveness of The Hornberg pattern. Tie it or buy it in many sizes, From say size 12 or 14 Wet Fly, Up to size 4 or 6 standard in Streamer size. Here in the east I use about a size 10 or a size 12 3 x long shank hook. Uncle Mike In Ct