Beginning Fly Tyers
Fly tying tip: Tie lots of flies in the winter!!
Here in Utah, winter finally decided to show up, along with some storms. Its been extremely cold and windy as of late. Even if I consider myself a hardcore fly fisherman, there are still days when its time to leave those waders hanging up in the garage and sit down at your vise. With that said, January is a great month to fill up the spaces in your fly boxes. Its also a great time to work on some new patterns. If you have plenty of your confident patterns tied up and ready to fish, you can spend some time tying up some patterns that you have been thinking about tying, but never had time to tie them.
Taking advantage of this cold month to catch up 0n your tying, you won’t have to be always trying to catch up the rest of the year when you are fishing more.
If you love to fly fish, but don’t tie flies yet, this is a fabulous month to get started. We have plenty of simple, yet effective patterns on our website that will get you started in the right direction, and still catch plenty of fish.
Don’t waste this month away! Get out on the river when its possible, and get those flies tied up now so you can spend more time on the water when its nice and warm!!!!
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Tungsten Cased Caddis
Cased caddis are an ever present food source in many rivers and streams. Most commonly I see them stuck to sticks and other debris that I have snagged my flies on.
Another common place that they turn up is the stomach’s of trout. There are many times during the year that fishing is tough, and it is usually at these times that I fish cased caddis patterns, namely the Tungsten Cased Caddis. Another great time to fish this fly is early in the morning before the river has warmed up for the day. This is the easiest fly I tie, and it catches fish like crazy!
The trick to this fly is finding green (emerald) anodized tungsten beads. Below is a link to the a New Zealand fly shop that has great prices on tungsten.
The FlySite Tungsten Beads
I buy most of my tungsten from then because of their cheap prices and fast shipping. However, if you don’t want to wait a few days many fly shops are now carrying them.
Recipe:
Hook: TMC 3761 or Dai-Riki 730, or Daiichi 1560 Sizes 12-16
Bead: Anodized Tungsten Emerald
Thread: Black 8/o
Body: Peacock Herl
Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear
What would a fly tying web page be like without a hare’s ear video? Well here it is, one of the best fly patterns ever made. It is not too complicated, and catches fish like crazy. This is definitely a fly that every fly tyer and fly fisher should be familiar with. Here we demonstrate a standard hare’s ear tied on a curved hook with a partridge tail instead of fibers from a hare’s mask. You can add legs, flash, or alter it however you can imagine to get other useful variations. One example of an awesome hare’s ear variation is the Two-toned Surveyor, which also catches it’s fair share of fish. Please contact us if you have any questions on the hare’s ear video, or any of our other fly tying videos.
Recipe: Hook: Dai-Riki 135 (Scud Hook) size 10-18 Bead: Gold, brass or tungsten for weight Thread: Camel 8/0 Tail: Partridge fibers Rib: Gold Tinsel Abdomen: Tan hare’s ear dubbing Wing Case; Turkey Quill Thorax: Tan hare’s ear dubbing1 Comment »