Fly tying for beginners

[wingman]

I was just looking thru my photobucket pics and found this one that I thought might be of some interest. I bought 'Fly tying for beginners' by Peter Gathercole near the end of last year and was working thru some of the patterns in the book and these were my efforts up until i got a letter from the bank manager i think what i'm really trying to say is that although its a great book for learning etc, you can end up spending a small fortune just getting through 30 or so patterns (there's 50 in the book), but ok if you intend to spread it out over a few years I guess and not try and tie them all in a few months like silly me did and paid the price (please note that I had no materials whatsoever before I bought this book and the cost of making the flies shown came to over £500 and i still have all the receipts to prove it, they make interesting reading I can tell you).



Thanks for looking and all comments welcome.

cheers

mark

[arkle]

Mark, maybe you should go to the golf course or wherever your bank manager hangs out, drag him away kicking & screaming then take him fishing. On the return journey, casually drop into your place & tie up a few flies for him.

[andypandy]

We all know the price of fly tying. At one point when i had my tying business i reckon i must have had over 3k worth of materials. just for my flies i think i had over 50 capes. Crazy how much stuff you need to tie every pattern a fisherman might want.

Great looking selection of flies there btw.

Nice tying

Andy

[wingman]

Originally Posted by arkle

Mark, maybe you should go to the golf course or wherever your bank manager hangs out, drag him away kicking & screaming then take him fishing. On the return journey, casually drop into your place & tie up a few flies for him.

Teehee1 had to laff at that arkle, unfortunately times have changed, think my bank manager is now a computer running a team of android robots programmed to incur wrath on anyone who crosses the black line.....well at least I'm human.

Originally Posted by andypandy

We all know the price of fly tying. At one point when i had my tying business i reckon i must have had over 3k worth of materials. just for my flies i think i had over 50 capes. Crazy how much stuff you need to tie every pattern a fisherman might want.

Great looking selection of flies there btw.

Nice tying

Andy

Thanks andypandy, thats what surprised me, i think on average it worked out around £14 per fly, but obviously once you've got these materials you can tie loads of the same fly but if your sole purpose is just to tie each pattern in the book then take a close look at your head in the mirror and check to see if it looks good on your shoulders If you already have loads of materials then it's no problem but then your'e probably not a beginner, but i would say look for someone selling a joblot of stuff as there'll probably be lots of stuff you can use or substitute also buying stuff online means you'll most likely have p&p costs into the bargain.

[richardw]

Originally Posted by wingman

I was just looking thru my photobucket pics and found this one that I thought might be of some interest. I bought 'Fly tying for beginners' by Peter Gathercole near the end of last year and was working thru some of the patterns in the book and these were my efforts up until i got a letter from the bank manager i think what i'm really trying to say is that although its a great book for learning etc, you can end up spending a small fortune just getting through 30 or so patterns (there's 50 in the book), but ok if you intend to spread it out over a few years I guess and not try and tie them all in a few months like silly me did and paid the price (please note that I had no materials whatsoever before I bought this book and the cost of making the flies shown came to over £500 and i still have all the receipts to prove it, they make interesting reading I can tell you).



Thanks for looking and all comments welcome.

cheers

mark

A fine display of very nicely tied flies. The only thing I would do differently is the Blue Winged Olive's hook. Up eyed is not the way to go unless you are tying them on with a Turle knot. Straight eyed for preference but down eyed will do.

Only sixteen more to go then...

richard

[wingman]

Originally Posted by richardw

Only sixteen more to go then..

THEY CAN WAIT!

Thanks Richard, yes the BWO in the book was tied with a down-eyed hook but I'd bought some kamasan dryfly hooks not realising they were up eyes so wasn't going to waste them (wonder why). I don't like the look of a fly on an up-eye hook, never have, but thanks for pointing that out.

[shpeil]

Originally Posted by wingman

Thanks andypandy, thats what surprised me, i think on average it worked out around £14 per fly, but obviously once you've got these materials you can tie loads of the same fly but if your sole purpose is just to tie each pattern in the book then take a close look at your head in the mirror and check to see if it looks good on your shoulders If you already have loads of materials then it's no problem but then your'e probably not a beginner, but i would say look for someone selling a joblot of stuff as there'll probably be lots of stuff you can use or substitute also buying stuff online means you'll most likely have p&p costs into the bargain.

Dead straight. I only want a few of each pattern and I'm not interested in mass production. It would be cheaper to buy the flies... but a lot less fun.

A pal asked me to tie up some salmon flies for him. I usually supply him with trout flies for free, but as I was going to buy additional materials for the salmon flies, he offered to buy them from me. The market price I got for the eight silver stoats I tied in four sizes didn't even cover the cost of the various sizes of double hooks I bought to make them...

[la_jolla1]

Nice flies Wingman! Ooops, and then I needed a desk as well. I don't even want to think about the cost of tackle, and right now the nearest stream is a 6 hour drive. The only thing I can say is despite all this, once I started tying, I became a much better observer of the food sources, and so actually caught many more fish. As I spent the first 10 years flyfishing not catching any, the price per fish has actually dropped infinitely. Are you sure you don't have an American gene somewhere as Joh Updike said that the essence of America is the transmutation of any passion into an opportunity to buy.

[fredaevans]

That is soooo Cool!

Mount those Puppies in what we'd call a 'Shadow Box.'

Everyone who comes to fish with me (home or motor home) has to put a fav fly 'on the board.' In ... sorry a break, Mr Husky wants some love time .... old man, old doggie.


A fun thing here at home, look at the board and that was his/her 'fly,' in the MH that was his/hers .. good memories to think back on. Good times, Good company, just good.

fae

[Eddie O'Neill]

Originally Posted by wingman

I was just looking thru my photobucket pics and found this one that I thought might be of some interest. I bought 'Fly tying for beginners' by Peter Gathercole near the end of last year and was working thru some of the patterns in the book and these were my efforts up until i got a letter from the bank manager i think what i'm really trying to say is that although its a great book for learning etc, you can end up spending a small fortune just getting through 30 or so patterns (there's 50 in the book), but ok if you intend to spread it out over a few years I guess and not try and tie them all in a few months like silly me did and paid the price (please note that I had no materials whatsoever before I bought this book and the cost of making the flies shown came to over £500 and i still have all the receipts to prove it, they make interesting reading I can tell you).



Thanks for looking and all comments welcome.

cheers

mark

Mark, excellent tying as always. I know what you mean regarding collecting of materials. It just does not stop, you always need or see something new.