fly tying

How To Tie Flies

For me, tying flies is an important part of our passion. The “fishing withdrawal” in the winter can be soften by filling up the fly boxes. New ideas and patterns of the previous season are included.

I look pragmatically on tying flies and minimize all binding steps witch are not necessary for the model. In my experience it is to rely on the fishing efficiency much more important to serve the fly as perfectly as possible to a real imitation. But without some basic rules and I do not tie flies. In particular, I make sure that my fly

  1. is true to the size, i.e. the size of the flies reflect the insect imitated;
  2. true to the form, i.e. the body shape and the ratio of body, wings and tail should be tied so that they imitate the insect is as similar as possible;
  3. is tied with sparse wing ans tails are attached, so that these legs protruding from the hook material can be bathed in light;
  4. has true colors, that is the color like that of the imitated insect similar.

The order of 1) to 4) reflects also the importance again, I attach the property of a fly.

General Fly Tying Tips

The fly should consist of high-quality materials and are tied durable. It is annoying if they regularly bend of the hook, the tying material breaks down or dissolves itself from the hook. The savings, which were thought to have by the choice of low-grade material is offset by the relatively high consumption of flying again. Using a few simple tricks can fly Binds make much more durable and dimensionally true:

  • High-strength binder twine used.
  • The body of the fly consists always with a string / wire rib (rib = Conventional-spiral). This gives special dubbingbodies a very long life.
  • To tie so that the twine crosses the keel of the hackle and the keel so fixated on the body.
  • By the same fly pattern tie successively more before another sample is begun. By the repeated tying steps to characterize the binding movements better.

Flies should always be bound economical and sparse (no “overdessing “). On the one hand it increases the value of each imitation fly enormous, because it absorbs little light and on the other hand less air resistance caused when throwing is what can lead to twisting.

The Dry Fly

Tying a dry fly the highest standards of tying abilities are required, because they are tied on very small hooks (e.g. Gr. 24 for ant imitation). I recommend to the economical use of materials, but it should have good swimming properties.  I knew many fly fishermen who use only to a few standard dry fly patterns and thus have great success. Also, I am more and more to increase access to confuse many fly patterns rather than the fishing opportunities. D I therefore recommend:

1. Three basic patterns are enough. They are

  • The mayfly (ephemeral), which are bound with palms, possibly with raised wings and tail.
  • The caddis fly (Trichoptera), which is bound to scale back wings and no tail. This also imitates the less common stoneflies (Plecopteren) quite well.
  • The Emerger

2.  The three basic pattern above in different sizes and shapes hold. Often the fish rise only after a fly in a certain size.

The tying beginners I give the following tips:

  • Start with larger dry flies (mayflies).
  • From the beginning, leave enough space for the head of the fly schedule (a common mistake among beginners is that the head of the fly is sized too small for the final node then there is no room in front of  the eye of the hook).

The Emerger

A special type of dry fly is the “rising fly”, called emerger. Emerger are larvae capable of being driven to the surface to produce insect flight there to be. During this metamorphosis, the larvae drifts motionless in the water film and are a favorite prey of trout and grayling.There are situations at the water, the fish takes exclusively emergers. Therefore any fly fisherman should have some with him. As a emerger I mainly fish nymph flies in very simple form, behind the head it has a styrofoam ball.  The styrofoam ball is surrounded of a piece of nylon stocking and tied the stocking neck on the front third of the hook.

The Wet Fly

The Weighting Of Wet Flies

Fly fishing has arisen the need to fish with virtually weightless bait fish. Accordingly, the tackle has been developed. There are many situations in the fish water, which brings only a deep fly a bite. To get to the depth, there are basically two options:

  1. the fly is weighted
  2. A Sink (tip) -flyline is used, or a lead shot is attached to the rig.

I prefer both possibilities into account.  The weigh of my wet flies is only so large that this tackle can be cast comfortly: so that the more a wet fly is weighted, the larger  the centrifugal force at the end of the leader, that describes a wide arc bound to fly. This often causes the leader in the grass or on branches, or even in the clothes of the flycaster. The importance of the flyline appears as a casting weight of wet flies increase in the background so that it would be better placed on a light spinning rod (the latest from here fishing for me is not longer fly fishing!). Heavy weighted flies also have the disadvantage that they lose their balance and movement characteristics living in the water and thus one of the main advantages of the fly over their own heavy lures. As a rule for the maximum specific gravity of fly I recommend:

=> max Fly weight [grams]  ~ 1 / 25 of the flyline weight of the first 9.14 m (is about [AFTMA] ² / 75)

Example: flyline class = AFTMA 5th,  Then a recommend maximum specific gravity of the fly out of 5 ² / 75 ~ 0,35 grams (the weight equivalent Tungsten beads with a diameter of 3.3 mm).  If I want to fish very deep, I use sinktip flylines or my ‘bulb’ in combination with slightly complained flies.

For the weighting I use in most cases lead wire. I wrap this exclusively to the front third of the hook shank. Thus the mass of the hook bend, which can fly high in the water are upside is balanced. With this type of weighting is to fly straight or slightly top-heavy, what the movement of the wet fly – is an advantage – especially of the streamer.

Tips For Tying A Wet Fly

Especially for the binding manner of wet flies, I can recommend the following tips:

  • Use for the (back) wings that are longer than the hack leg, rigid material (a soft material, the long arm wrapped around the hack often bow).
  • A loop of nylon, which juts included on the hook shank of the hook bend (extension of the hack leg) and is situated below the soft flying tail, prevents The summit wrapped around the hook bend (very effective in Wooly Bugger).

Tube Flies


Since I first tied tubes flies and fishes them, these flies are resistant to my portfolio. I tie not only salmon flies on the tube but also predatory flies (pike, perch, etc.). The larger the fly pattern, the greater the benefits of tube flies over the classical bound onto the hook shank fly:

  1. It can be used very long and soft back wings, without this when throwing around the hook bend twist.
  2. The lever arm of the hook shank is eliminated and the probability drops significantly, that can nullify a fish hook.
  3. The hook of the tube fly can be replaced

To tie those flies a tube adapter is required, which can be clamped in the normal Vise. The tying manner is almost identical to that of a classic wet fly.

Finished tubes are not cheap. A visit to the hobbyist shop can save your wallet considerably if you can find flexible (but soft) plastictube with matching diameters.

Please use barbless hooks!

A nice thing about our passion is the fairness to the creature’s fish. This also means that we have the option after the catch, to release the fish in his element again. Condition for a promising reset is that the fish is unharmed. Here fly fishing gives best conditions, because the fly is sitting almost always in the front foot area of the fish. The barbless flies reduces the risk of injury on the fish.

Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Copy Protected by Chetan's WP-Copyprotect.