Thursday 22 May 2008

Learning to tie flies

I have over the past 4-6 months been doing my best to get myself familiarised with the art of fly tying which for me is so therapeutic and relaxing that it has become just as important as my love of fishing ,and let me tell you their is nothing quite like a take on your own hand tied fly that you have taken your time to perfect to the best of your abilities and this is when your tying will become just as important to you and the desire to tie more patterns and learn different tying methods so as to extend your tying ability will kick in ,one thing i will warn you of and that's the likely case that your tying materials will eventually start to mount up just like fishing equipment and will slowly or in my case quickly eat away at the space in your house and if you are lucky enough to have a lovely wife you might not have one soon as it will drive her mad and all i get is those feathers smell horrid and oh my god whats that now you have in that bag ,all i can say is its all worth it and hopefully if you decide to go down this road you get the same buzz I've got out it ,their is so much to learn about tying flies from the history and the origin to patterns ,materials etc! and i love every minute so I'm hoping ill get the new vice i want for Christmas or even better my birthday that's sooner i want a c&r vice around 300 but I'm sure it will be worth it with a life time guarantee.
i have been tying nymphs , spiders klinks, and the odd salmon fly too I'm quite happy with my progress but if like me then i want to be the best or at least as good as the best and their are so many great tiers out their to give me pointers and that's just what I'm doing just now as i watch every step by step whether it be pictures or video with video being the best no doubt and the tips I've found on them are in valuable and things that have most likely took years to work out and we are lucky enough to have access to them as these people are kind enough to put their self's up on the Internet showing us how to better our tying so for me i give them a great big hand ,thank you guys and of course girls too as some of the woman tiers are fantastic too.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hi,
will enjoy reading your blog in future, as i fish a river system similar to yours in Manchester.
I have been flyfishing on flowing water for only a couple of months now but am thoroughly enjoying it and am now having thoughts about tying my own flies, rather than begging them off my friends.
Your set up of hares ear nymph and partridge and orange is one i have used many times finding that the nymph out fishes the dropper about 5-1.
Be carefull as blogging can be as addictive as fishing!