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.

Time for a rain dance

An earlier season photo from march behind Yorkhill

The river is running low and clear at the moment which is in turn making the fishing difficult as i find fish are very easily spooked in the kelvin when conditions are like this ,however while at the river yesterday i did notice quite allot of yellow May's on the water and that was bring about rising fish that were slashing at the surface drowning the fly then taking them below the surface film ,well this is what i think they were doing and i never had any imitations in my box but did manage to get a couple on a blue dun size 12 and 14 as well as managing a couple more from the lower part of the river behind Yorkhill hospital on a 2 fly set up using a pheasant tail nymph on the point and a partridge and orange on the dropper, the river is in desperate need of some rain and for one i will be doing a rain dance in the hope that the rain will come ,so come on all yea fly fishers get out yer bongos and your ankle bells and do a rain dance tonight as it looks nice and overcast at the moment so I'm hopeful.

My choice 12 flies for the kelvin

Blue winged olive Greenwells glory Elk hair caddis




Black pennel Black spider Bloody butcher Invicta


Phesant tail nymph Hairs ear nymph Greenwells nymph

Wooly bugger

Flies for the river kelvin ,a beginners choice.
If i had to make a choice of 12 I'm sure it would be 3 drys 4 wets 3 nymphs 2 streamers, first of all the drys my first choice would have to be the one i catch most fish on when using a dry and that's the dark olive in sizes 14 and 16 fished on a tapered leader of around 8ft which i make myself secondly would be Greenwells glory which covers quite allot of hatches in sizes 12/16 also fished on a tapered leader size 8ft with my last dry i would be silly not to have an Elk hair caddis pattern which on its day out fishes most others for me anyway , these are the choice of someone that has only fished the river with the fly for just over a season ,more experienced members may very well have a much varied choice of dry fly and even may frown at some of my choices, but onto the 4 wet flys i would like to have in my box would be as follows first choice would be ,and i will be sneaky here and say a spider pattern with my second choice being a Black Pennel and 3rd a Bloody Butcher and my last the Invicta which is a palmered pattern also capable of catching sea trout which frequent the river now to the nymphs well theirs 2 must haves and that's the pheasant tail and the hairs ear both ribbed and which are great point fly when using wets and also i would choose alongside these Greenwells nymph these all catch fish regularly and are enjoyable to fish, then their are the last 2 which i hope I'm right in classing as streamers and they would have to be woolly buggers for use when the river is quite high and has a little colour in it as i have had some of my best fish on these ,i would chose one black and one brown both weighted with lead or copper prior to tying ,using these patterns will bring you fish on the kelvin and in the near future when more confident with my tying ascetics i will do a step by step for all the patterns i use on the river so until then have a great time fishing and tight lines everyone.