All articles from section

I'm sometimes surprised how much material is wasted when people tie flies. Here are some tips on saving

A couple of pupa patterns tied with rubber cord tubing which is also used for stringing beads to make jewelry

Since I moved to a house several years ago, I’ve had a combined office and tying room, which has served me very well!

Want to get better results when tying flies? Don’t buy your way there. Tie your way there!

A short article about adding weight to a fly – and make it do what you want and stay where you put it

Tying in a feather and wrapping it … easy-peasy, right? Or maybe there’s more to it. This in-depth article looks at various ways to make a feather hackle.

This type of braid is found in electronics stores, but is a great new addition to the fly tyer’s arsenal of useful copper products

Monofilament of many kinds can be used as a fly material as it can be seen in this simple Knot Bug

... and then there's deer hair. And it can be many different things. It is not at all that easy to find the right kind for the many patterns with this fantastic material

We challenged artificial intelligence to create a fly pattern. It went fairly well ... and then again … not quite well.

Why go to the trouble of photographing a fly that is soaking wet? Well, in many cases it can dramatically alter the appearance of the imitation.

Satin ribbon can’t be used in as many different ways as organza, but it definitely makes some juicy looking fish snacks.

Some tyers tie different flies. Scottish Nick Thomas, now Wales based, is one of them. And he wrote a book about it.

A beginner's book that I'd actually recommend to beginners! Great pattern selection, excellent photography and nicely coupled to online videos.

Grizzly hackle is something which most tyers use all the time and which we all take for granted, but in my eyes grizzly isn't nearly as appreciated as it deserves to be

Large feather rooster saddles are different beasts. Here are some tips on buying them.

Simple is good. Not primitive… simple. And this is another fine book with simple fly patterns.

Italian fly tyer Giuseppe Finardi is intrigued by US Ora Smith's streamers featuring wings made almost exclusively from golden pheasant crest.

It’s hard not to like a completely free e-book with detailed descriptions on how how to tie 12 (and then some) different variations of the Humpy. 80 pages of knowledge, tips and inspiration on a single pattern!

Plain and simple bead chain is one of the cheapest fly tying materials around, but very useful and a great addition to many flies.

Fabien Moulin aims to tie some really good looking flies, and ponders a bit about how to improve as a fly tyer.

Some tips on getting your hands on good skin bits

I have recently had a pretty decent injection of fly tying material to my stock. I call it the mothers’ yarns because it came from my own mother and my mother-in-law.

This small DIY article shows you how to make a leather folder or jumbo-wallet for convenient flash storage.

Bob Popovics can rightfully be called one of the most innovative fly tyers today. And he keeps on sharing new methods in his latest book.

Fly tying material is often big, inexpensive pieces cut up and sold small at high prices. It's always worth looking around for alternative sources. You can find some really useful materials for almost no money.

A lot of flies - salmon tube flies in particular – use different discs or cones, and the market is full of them. Here's an overview of some of the many types.

Why would you Do It Yourself? The answer might seem simple, but it wasn't, once Paul Kalbrener started thinking about it.

This fall marks Mike Hogue's Badger Creek Fly-tying's 20th year in business. He never thought he would be in business that long.

Nice book - well written and beautiful put together with concise and detailed tutorials. The 2nd half features an interesting gallery of contributors' flies.

Jay Zimmerman's book "The Best Carp Flies" made me want to tie up some new flies

It all started with me being a bit sceptical about the colour of a hackle. It looked a bit too intense. English not being my first language, I would have called the colour of the hackle purple, but the pattern said mauve. Mauve? I've never heard of that colour before

The 3rd edition of AK bests all-time classic on tying flies as a boss.

Altogether a great little casting event in Copenhagen. Kudos to those who took the time to set it up

A simple method of preserving bird skins from birds like ducks. If you hunt or know hunters, there's a rich supply of materials, almost for free

Make your own large eyes for pike and saltwater flies using inexpensive materials and a little time. Some adhesive marker dots, a handful of waterproof pens and some LCR and you can start your own stick-on eye factory.

The quick guide to buying marabou feathers that are useful

Canadian Silver Tip Fly Company makes printed fly-tying materials with a high degree of realism and can supply wings, shells and much more, ready to tie with. We asked some questions.

The fly-tying market is brimming with prefabricated materials, and Danish Easy Shrimp Eyes is one of the companies who are making them. We have talked to the guys behind the products.

The soft hackle is supposed to be - as the name implies - soft. Soft hackle can come from many birds. Chickens, gamebirds like partridge, grouse and quail, pheasant and even crows and jackdaws.

Buying dry fly hackle without breaking the bank

Bucktail is a useful and inexpensive material. This is how you get the best

This article is about buying fly-tying materials

These new fish shaped foils from Bob Popovics are really great for making baitfish imitations. They come in several shapes and many sizes, and stick on the side of your flies, ready to be covered with resin.

Golden Pheasant must be one of the most versatile fly-tying materials you can get your hands on. The wealth of different feathers on one skin is simply overwhelming. And the skin is inexpensive too.

Zonker strips: what to look for when buying, and what to do when cutting your own

Now this is a pretty interesting product! Looks good, adds weight and seems to be easy to tie with.

I am as likely to sit down and tie six different flies as I am to tie six of the same pattern. Speed is not a concern, but I don't want to waste my time either. There are things I can do to make my life easier which may be different from a professional production tyer.

Dutch Hans Weilenmann tells the history of the use of CDC feathers in fly tying, covers the different types of feathers and their use and lists both CDC tying tips and a bunch of CDC patterns.

Some of these flies are among the most well known of any genre of fishing flies others are a little on the obscure side. Some are simple and some are a bit complicated. I like 'em all. They all have their place on the water, and they all have a story to tell.

I have always thought that complex flies were a menace. On one side I can be fascinated by a meticulously thought out imitation with many materials and intricate tying steps, and I sometimes enjoy tying such flies for fun. But on the other hand I hate tying them when I just need to fill my boxes.

Some things make no sense, but we do them anyway - like driving 3 hours out and 3 hours home to go shopping.

And I mean really, really different. Really!

If you think that a tube for a tube fly is a cylindrical piece of plastic, then you are in for a surprise. This article will present more tube styles than most fly tyers ever imagined, and probably teach even seasoned tubers a thing or two.

I'm going to work this review backwards and do the complaints first.

Ok - so - how happy was I to see that someone finally convinced Scott Sanchez to write a book? Not being an Montana insider, I was not entirely familiar with his tying, but his reputation as a excellent fly tyer extended far beyond that mighty state's borders. While I've seen a few of his magazine articles and his contributions to the works of Jack Dennis, I was intrigued at the possibility of what he might be able to do with an entire book of his own.

I'll save you the suspense. This is a great book.

Why are synthetics so ridiculously expensive?

Tied my first Clouser Minnows ever a few minutes ago. What a fly!

I'm loving this stuff

Ian Moutter, author of Tying Flies in the Paraloop Way, returns with his second book: Imitative Fly Tying. Whereas his previous book was an exploration of fly tying techniques, this book is oriented toward those who want to apply those techniques to different fly patterns. As the name would suggest, the intent is to create patterns that are imitative in nature - that is mimicking natural food forms that a fish is feeding on. In this case, the fish are cold water species - namely trout or grayling.

A history of CDC in fly tying, as well as a wealth of patterns and techniques.

Make your dry fly dubbing in bulk quantities while washing your clothes! It's that easy! Harvest the fibers that come from you tumble dryer and prepare it for fly tying. Read the whole story by Steve Schweitzer here.

Prime Jungle Cock necks are rare to come by. Learn how 'upgrade' fishing quality JC necks in this article.

Almost everyone has the right stuff at their tying bench to make a great batch of dubbing. But not many people know they have everything they need to make an outstanding seal's fur dubbing substitute. This dubbing is a viable replacement for SLF, angora goat and seal's fur, and the trick to making it is so simple it will amaze you!

I've developed a habit instilled in me by my salmonfly tying mentors. When evaluating the salmon fly dressings of others, I look at the floss work first. It is a key characteristic that determines and shows the skills of the cream of the crop.

Siman Ltd. has taken the Turbo dubbing twister a step further with this tool, which enables you to easily make your own dubbing brushes - stiff or soft and from almost any dubbing material.

I have some remote relatives in Boston who occasionally sends over christmas gifts to my kids. This year the gifts were packed with some particularly interesting string. This string was braided in the colors red and green with some shiny material laid in. It said "flies" all over it! I scavenged the remains from the unpacking and stoved it away between my fly tying materials.

This small section with advice on dyeing fly tying materials was made after a discussion took place on the European fly fishing mailing list. The text was put together from input from several people of this list: Graham Ward, John Davies, Pat Orpen and myself.

One of the things most often asked by neophyte streamer tyers is what types of hackle are best suited for streamer wings. The short answer is... there is no single source best suited for streamer wings. The long answer... well... I'll ramble on about it for the remainder of this essay!

Making your own or improving store bought dubbing. I recommend that all dubbing be passed through a coffee or spice grinder prior to using. The grinder tends to separate and air out the fibres providing a lighter product than would be normally accomplished by just using the blend out of the bag.

Some thoughts on hackle ... or living with less than the best

When I talk about hard hair I both mean hair that's hard - like squirrel and polar bear - and hair that's hard to tie in on the hook. We all know the problem: not only is squirrel wings hard as #"¤%&/ to place properly on top of the shank, but they also sometimes seem to fall off for nothing.

How to tie a nice, even, ribbed tinsel body. Here's one way. The description assumes that you want a silver body. If you want gold, just replace 'silver' with 'gold' below.

The hook is the foundation on which a good streamer is built. When streamer anglers meet, quite often it's the subject of heated debate! I've listed a variety of the streamer hooks available on the market today (and some no longer available) in the table in the article.

One of the most difficult things for today's streamer tyer to find is suitable hackle for winging Rangeley Style streamers.

When stacking materials it is important to consider it as consisting of more than just one process. There are several steps involved: material selection, cleaning and preparing, selecting the right tool and performing the stacking process itself.

In the most simplistic terms, a flytying kit must only have the tools and materials necessary to tie the flies you may use on a single trip or a single river. However, like most of us, a travelling flytying kit consumes more space than 26 high-schoolers crammed in a Volkswagen Beetle.