Fly Tying – 5 Reasons To Tie Your Own Fly Fishing Flies

I became addicted to fly tying my own artificial flies for my days on the water about 25 years ago. What a way to enjoy fly fishing even more than I did before.

Everyone, well almost everyone, that I take fishing eventually gets involved in fly fishing and then the next logical step for them is to start fly tying so they can save money.

Fly tying may look tough when you first watch it happening but once you start with just one step at a time and not look at the whole picture it’s way easier than I thought.

I tied my first trout fly in less than a half hour. The second was half the time and now I can tie that fly so it looks identical to the last one, almost 100% of the time.

Why Should You Start Fly Tying?

1. I started because I thought it was just really cool and I was right. Nothing like tying a fly and then catching a nice big trout on it. Well even a little trout is still a proud moment for the new fly tier.
2. My second reason was money. Back then I had a part time job and spent far more time fishing than I did working and I liked it like that. Tying my own flies was quite inexpensive so I could have all the flies I wanted for my little fly fishing day trips.

   My first fly was a little dry trout fly as I wanted to see the action on the top of the water. Later I tied a leech, all black. It took me about two minutes. I can’t tell you how many brook trout I have taken on that little fly. Well not that exact fly. I have had to tie many of them over the years.

3. Once you learn what you can tie flies with you will start collecting, just like I did. I like to go to the local parks where there are ponds. I always find feathers lying around that I can use.

   Don’t tell anyone but I have even taken feather and fur from fresh road kill. Well when you are making little to no money you get what you can when you can. I’ve even used the silver foil from cigarette packages people throw away, very reflective.

4. Make Friends. With the time you spend on the water you will likely run into other fly fishers. Pick their brain for tips and tricks about fly tying. Find out what they do that works. Watch what they fish with, if you can, as some fishers are very secretive.
5. Find family members that fly fish and get them to help you get started. It was my brother-in-law that got me started fly fishing. It seems that my entire family, but only the males, were into fly fishing. Today there are a lot more fly fishing women which is really great to see, although my wife still doesn’t care to fish.

Now start fly tying your own flies and then take someone fly fishing with you and see if they don’t start tying flies on their own as well. It’s just one of those things that seem to go hand in hand.

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Tagged with: Artificial fly • Fly fishing • fly tying

Filed under: fly tying

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