Learning how to tie flys can be intimidating. There’s a large number of tools, materials, and fly patterns available, where to start? I recommend picking two or three flies and going from there. These flies will vary based on what species you plan on targeting.
I’ve listed some easy fly tying patterns here. The flies below are all effective for fishing the target species their listed under. Each fly is also suitable for beginner just learning to tie flies, and teaches commonly used techniques used in many different fly patterns. I’ve included a link to a video on each fly that explains how to tie it, in addition to a material list for the fly.
If you’re wondering what tools you’ll need to learn how to tie flies, they are listed here.
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Trout
I started this list off with trout. These patterns work well for all salmonids. There are wet fly patterns for trout listed (a nymph and streamer pattern), in addition to a dry fly pattern.
- Hares ear nymph
- Hook size: 8-18 (start with 12)
- Rib: Fine copper wire
- Body: Natural hares mask dubbing
- Tail: Pheasant tail or squirrel tail
- Wingcase: Pheasant tail
- (Optional) Weight: brass bead and/or non-lead wire
- Woolly Bugger
- Hook size: 4-10 (I’d go with 8 to start)
- Rib: Fine copper wire
- Body: Chenille
- Hackle: Saddle hackle
- Tail: Marabou
- (Optional) Weight: brass bead and/or non-lead wire
Smallmouth or Largemouth Bass
Bass tend to like larger flies than trout or salmon, and you’ll be fly tying alot of streamer patterns. Crayfish, baitfish, and top water patterns are all solid choices when targeting bass.
- Woolly Bugger
- Hook size: 4-10 (I’d go with 8 to start)
- Rib: Fine copper wire
- Body: Chenille
- Hackle: Saddle hackle
- Tail: Marabou
- (Optional) Weight: brass bead and/or non-lead wire
- Clouser Minnow and also this video from Bob Clouser (creator of the pattern).
- Hook size: 1/0-8 (Start with size 6)
- Eyes: Small dumbbell eyes.
- Lower wing: White Bucktail
- Upper wing: Chartreuse bucktail
- Flash: Krystal flash (go with white/pearl for your first flash, it can be used with a variety of other colour combos)
- Gurgler
- Hook size: 2/0 – 8 (Start with size 6)
- Tail: Bucktail
- Underbody: Crystal Chenille (or even some variety of white dubbing)
- Overbody: Craft foam
- (Optional) Flash: Your choice. Krystal flash and/or flashabou are both good choices.
Inshore Saltwater fishing
There’s a large number of species (snook, sea trout, redfish, tarpon, bonefish, striped bass, flounder, I could go on forever) of fish that are found inshore. Typically baitfish patterns work well for most of these species, and that’s mostly what I’ve listed below. Once you get a bit more experienced fly tying, crab and shrimp patterns are also very effective.
- Seaducer
- Hook size: 6/0 – 4 (Start with size 2/0)
- Tail: Saddle Hackle
- Collar: Saddle Hackle
- (Optional) Flash: (Flashabou or Krystal flash)
- Lefty’s Deceiver
- Hook size: 6/0 – 6 (harder to tie at smaller sizes, start around size 2/0)
- Tail: White saddle hackle
- Bottom collar: White bucktail hair
- Top Collar: Chartreuse bucktail hair
- Body: Braid or chenille (silver or pearl)
- (Optional) Flash: Krystal flash and/or flashabou
- (Optional) Beard: Red Krystal flash
- (Optional) Above top collar: Peacock hurl
- Clouser Minnow and also this video from Bob Clouser (creator of the pattern).
- Hook size: 1/0-8 (Start with size 6)
- Eyes: Small dumbbell eyes.
- Lower wing: White Bucktail
- Upper wing: Chartreuse bucktail
- Flash: Krystal flash (go with white/pearl for your first flash, it can be used with a variety of other colour combos)
- Gurgler
- Hook size: 2/0 – 8 (Start with size 6)
- Tail: Bucktail
- Underbody: Crystal Chenille (or even some variety of white dubbing)
- Overbody: Craft foam
- (Optional) Flash: Your choice. Krystal flash and/or flashabou are both good choices.
What Materials do I need when starting out?
Hopefully the above list helps you out. Basically buy whatever materials are listed as necessary for the flies you want to try to tie.
From a quick look over of the list above, we can see that a number of materials jump out as “must have” though. Some of these are chenille, various hackles, copper wire, and bucktail hair. These are good purchases regardless of what flies you intend on tying, as they’re used in a large variety of fly patterns.
Many new fly tyers make the mistake of buying every material listed for a large variety of different flies they want to tie. This quickly results in a large collection of opened material packages that are barley touched. Many of these fly tying materials may have only been used for a handful of flies. As I mentioned earlier, focus on getting good at a handful of patterns first, then go out and buy the materials needed for new patterns.
Many materials can be substituted for other materials (flash is a good example of this), and it’s often not required to have the exact material listed for a fly. So before you add new material to your shopping list, look at what you have already.
There are a number of cheap (and free!) ways to get fly tying materials. Worth a look if you’re on a budget.
What should I not cheap out on?
There are two main things you shouldn’t ever cheap out on with fly tying. The first is hooks, the second is dry fly hackle.
Dry fly hackle is feathers specifically meant for use with dry flies. They come on either the cape (neck) or saddle(back) of the rooster. I’d recommend starting with a cape. The cape has a wider variety of feather sizes, so can be used for a wider variety of flies. I’d start with a grizzly coloured cape, but brown is a solid choice as well (especially if you’re going to be tying alot of caddis fly patterns).
If you don’t plan on fishing with you’re first flies (which will probably be the case), don’t spend a ton on hooks. Once you start tying flies that you are comfortable fishing with however, you’re going to want to spend the money on quality hooks. There’s few things worse in this world than losing a fish because you bought low quality hooks that either bent or snapped while fighting a big fish.
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