TIPS on FLY TYING

FIREY BROWN · TIPS on FLY TYING

Hi All

would everyone like to post their own little tips on how they tie their flies
and if possible put up some Photos,,no matter how trivial you may think
they are just post them anyway,,,you`d be surprised just how helpful
they could be to each of us wether you are experienced or not,,,

i will put up a few photos on some very basic steps (which will follow
soon) just to give you an idea,,,and/or if you have any questions dont
hesitate to get involved

Regards
FIREY BROWN

FIREY BROWN · tying tips

Hi Again

after deciding to post some tips i just thought to hell with it i may as well
try to cover as much as possible in one go and see where we go from
there,,,so i have the camera work already done to cover tying in a Rib, butt,and tail but there are 20 something photos so its gonna take a while to write the thread which i hope you will find helpful,,i should have it finished sometime this evening I HOPE

FIREY BROWN · Mistakes and Putting them right

ok im not gonna hang about here to much as there`s a lot to get
through,,when we tie flies it tell us in books to start a bed of thread
etc etc then tie in a rib and so on

here i will show how i first done it according to the books and
how i do it now,,,some of this may seem quite basic but its just
to show some of the methods i use,,,and a lot of the mistakes
that i constantly made for years,,,

here we are tying in 3 materials,,,a RIB,,BUTT,,and Tail so
lets crack on

this is usung 6.0 UNI thread and how it was tied from
a book,,,,, run thread to the hook bend

tie in a rib at the bend with 2 turns of thread
(notice on all the Pic`s im using BRIGHT materials
so they are easily seen)

trim the waste look what we have now

so because we see the little green bit sticking out
we always decide to take another few turns to
hide it RIGHT ? now look at what we have

so we have to wind back to tie in the butt
in this case BRIGHT ORANGE

now we trim the waste

so we decide again to try and hide the little orange bit
so we wind forward to cover it like this

now we have to wind back AGAIN to tie in a tail
i think you know where this is going
look at what we have,,and the tail is yet to be tied in

tie in the tail and

now we trim the waste and wind forward again
look at the large lump now,,what a mess and very
hard to make an even body from there im sure
you`ll agree

so in this part of the thread im going to use the exact same materials
but this time using 8.0 UNI thread its a little finer and makes for better
bodies or should i say even bodies,,and starting from different parts
of the hook to achieve this,,,i almost exclusively tie now with 8.0
and it works for me,,im not saying im right and everyone else is wrong
im simply saying it works for me

so lets try it again

wind the thread on to the hook
and in this and most of my tyings i ALWAYS count
EIGHT turns before tying anything in,,i`ll explain why
later on in the post

with the advantage of a Rotary vice i simply tilt the
vice like this ready to tie in the rib

tie in the rib UNDERNEATH with 2/3 turns of thread

flip the vice back to the right position and begin to wind backwards

we are about mid way back and already it looks much
much neater

we are at the bend of the hook and ready to trim the rib
at the start where it was tied in

try putting a pair of scissors into the rib and no matter
how fine they are its awkward to cut it off nice and neat
AND you will eventually ruin your good scissors

so here`s a much better way,,simply grip the wire with a
pair of hackle plyers like this and jiggle around

now look how neat it is,,,NO scissors can achieve this and
its quick and simple to do

time to tie in the ORANGE butt again,,take 2 turns and tie
in like this

all we have to do now is wind forward to bind it all down
it can be done in wide open turns like this

or close turns like this,,its your choice,, but it looks neater

now trim the waste and see how the fly is shaping up
see how its now ready to tie in the tail

i take the tail and measure where i want the tail to stick out
BUT tie it in from where we left off in the last Photo and begin
to wind back towards the bend

once we have reached the bend this time using OPEN turns)
we have something like this,,and its ready to trim the access
from the point where we tied in the tail

rather than use scissors again i prefer to take each fiber as
they are fragile enough to simply nip out by hand like this

look at the nice slim shape to the fly and from here you can
make your body whichever way you feel,,you`ll also notice
that every time i went towards the eye of the hook i ALWAYS
stopped where i first tied in the rib,,thats where i had planned to
tie in lets say a Hackle or Deer Hair and that little gap is kept
for that purpose

i think you`ll agree its better than our first attempt which
turned out like this

All comments/queations welcome

Regards
FIREY BROWN

fossil-fish

Greatwork FB, obviously a lot of time and effort on your part, thank-you.

Seems like common sense really, but excellent to see it laid out so plainly with your supberb photographs.

Apart from the ugly bump at the tail, you can really see the difference the finer thread makes.

Very Happy