There are many different techniques used during the process of tying flies to deceive fish and the following are some of the basics that we use to create the flies that we use daily to catch trout in New Zealand. Quite likely there are better ways and worse ways of doing things and this is by no means complete but should help people who learning to tie flies or who are following the instructions on our other pages to tie flies for a fly fishing trip to New Zealand.
General Fly Tying Techniques
Attaching Thread To Hook
The process of attaching the thread to the hook is basically to wind the thread on firmly over the top of itself. Traditionally this would be done by holding the end of the thread between forefinger and thumb in one hand and holding your bobbin in the other and then winding the thread around the hook a few turns before winding a few turns back over the thread and then either cutting or breaking off the loose end of the thread. When you are tying lots of flies however it is important to reduce the number of steps to make the process quicker so we pinch the end of the thread against the shank of the hook with the thumb of your spare hand and wind a few turns up towards the eye of the hook and then back down over the top of the thread to secure it firmly. Doing this means you don't need to waste time trimming of the long loose end of the thread.
Binding In A Hackle Tail
The tail of a nymph or dry fly should normally be around two thirds the length of the shank of the hook. Either grip some hackle fibers on your hackle feather between thumb and forefinger taking care to make sure the tips are lined up straight and tear off or cut off with scissors - tearing off is quicker when get used to it. With the thread already attached at the back of the hook shank, position the hackle fibers on the hook correctly with the fibers pinched between thumb and forefinger. Pull the thread up carefully between your pinched fingers and then over the top and back down between your pinched fingers - keep the pressure on the thread and repeat carefully a couple of times. Keeping the pressure applied will stop the fibers spinning around the hook shank - you want then to be fixed on the top or your tail won't look nice and straight.
Applying Fine Dubbing
With fine dubbing such as muskrat it is not necessary to wax your thread normally - though dampening your finger tips a little by licking them helps. Hold the thread tout between bobbin and hook and take a small amount of your dubbing with your other hand and spin it onto the thread between your dampened forefinger and thumb. You can apply the dubbing as thick or thin as you like depending how fat you want the body of fly to be but make sure at the gape end that the dubbing tapers away to nothing but bear thread - this will help you develop a nice tapered tidy body for your fly. Carefully wind on up the shank.
Applying Coarse Dubbing
Apply some wax to thread and then very loosely spin on your course dubbing such as Hare guard hare. Just spin enough to spread the course dubbing fibers around the waxed thread. The effect you are after is much the same as though you had just dabbed the fibers onto the waxed thread carefully without spinning. Apply head cement to your hook shank which may have lead already wrapped around or not - this just helps make the fly last longer. Wind on the dubbing and you should be left with a spiky body.
Three Methods Of Tying Off Including Whip Finish
We use 3 different methods for tying off flies, the methods for which are easier to demonstrate in the video here than to describe in words. We whip finish with fingers for flies such as glow bugs and sometimes other flies to as this is the quickest method as you don't need to pick up another tool to tie off. We use a whip finish tool where a little more precision is needed to tie off. We use the end of a bodkin which come with a whole in them to help produce half hitches for dry flies - this allows us to push in stray hackle fibers back away from the eye of the hook as as we tie off
Tying In Rubber Legs
For the tail, position the thread at the back of the hook shank. Take a piece of rubber legs and fold around the thread before sliding down to the hook. Holding the tips of the rubber legs and pulling the back away from the hook bind the rubber legs tail with a few wraps of thread at this position.
For the legs, position the thread 1/3 shank length back from eye. Holding the thread up near vertical at a little bit of an angle take a piece of rubber legs and fold around the thread before sliding down to the hook. Make sure the rubber legs is on the side of the nymphs thorax area and then bind 2 or 3 times. Repeat similarly for the legs on the other side but this time the thread will be held downwards at a bit of an angle and the rubber legs will be slid up before fixing in position.
Ribbing
Ribbing is normally used on nymphs to help imitate a segmented body and is definitely a key strike factor to trout. Ribbing is also used sometimes on dries for the same reason and for wet flies to bind materials on down the shank of the hook or to help secure a hackle on a wet fly in the case of flies like a Woolly Bugger. Here we are describing ribbing as used for tying nymphs.
After securing your thread to the hook your next move is normally to bind in your ribbing material which will often be copper wire. Hold the end of the copper wire along the hook shank and wrap the thread firmly to the tail around the hook and wire to bind them together. Apply your dubbing or other body material before winding approximately 4 turns of your copper wire ribbing to the half way position, off and cut wire.
3 Ways To Use Peacock Hurl
Peacock hurl quality varies greatly and only experience will teach you which is better hurl to work with.
There are three good ways to bind on peacock hurl.
Firstly if you have good quality hurl just take one or more fibers, and look at them closely to determine which is the long side and which way the hurl bends. Attach to the hook so that when you wind on the long fibers will be sticking up and backwards. Wind on careful tight adjoining but not overlapping turns.
Secondly take 2 or more fibers, bind to the hook and spin the tips between your fingers to twirl the fibers into a nice little peacock hurl rope. Wind the Twisted bunch of fibers carefully up the hook shank in tight adjoining but not overlapping turns.
If you are having problems with the hurl breaking then use the second method but twirl the hurl around hour thread and wind forward.
Dry Fly Tying Techniques
Creating A Parachute Post With Polypropylene Yarn
Position the thread a distance of 1/3rd shank length back from eye. Take some polypropylene yarn and bend fold it under the hook. Bind forward and behind in post alternately a 2 or 3 times then around post 2 or 3 times then add a drop of superglue at the base to make extra strong.
Creating Wulff Wings With Polypropylene Yarn
Position the thread a distance of 1/3rd shank length back from eye. Take some polypropylene and bend around thread before sliding down down to hook. Bind using figure of 8 or whatever seems to work to secure the yarn to the hook. Bind around one yarn wing and then the other without passing the thread under the hook and use the thread tension to pull the wings up to around a 45 degree angle. Add a drop of superglue at the base to make extra strong.
Hackling A Dry Fly
Select a suitable hackle feather for your hook. The length of the barbs from the tips to the stem of the feather should be 1 to 1.5 times the gape of your hook ideally. Strip of the barbs from where the webbing begins and cut leaving a few millimeters of stripped stem. Tie in the hackle at the thick exposed stem end at the hooks half way position leaving a couple of millimeters of bare stem to start the turning. Make sure that the hackle is tied in so that when you start winding the barbs curve to the eye and away from the hook gape (dull side foward) - if the hackle is going to curve the wrong way then just unbind from the hook shank, flip the hackle over and bind back on. Using hackle pliers wind tight turns to the tie off position at the eye and secure before trimming off the unused portions of the hackle. Though you are probably not meant to I find you often over wind the hackle to build up a thicker hackle. Also building up a layer of dubbing around the hook shank underneath the area you are going to wind the hackle on means you get more hackle on per turn i.e. doubling the diameter to wind around doubles the numbers of hackle fibers per millimeters of hook shank.
Creating A Parachute Hackle
Select a suitable hackle feather for your hook. The length of the barbs from the tips to the stem of the feather should be 1 to 1.5 times the gape of your hook ideally. Strip of the barbs from where the webbing begins and cut leaving a few millimeters of stripped stem. Tie in the hackle starting a on the shank between the eye of the hook and the post, bind along the shank and then around the post using the thick exposed stem and leaving a couple of millimeters of bare stem to start the winding process. Rotate the hook in the vice so that the eye is down and the post sticks forward. Using hackle pliers wind a few turns around the base of your post - normally 3 turns but this varies with the quality of hour hackle. Hang the hackle pliers down which will keep tension on while you bind off with the thread and then trim the left over hackle.
Deer Hair Tying Techniques
Stacking Deer Hair
Grab a small amount of deer hair suitable for your fly by the tips of the fibers and cut off your skin near the base. Using gentle pressure or a brushing motion with the thumb and forefinger from your other hand pull out the fluff and really short fibers. Drop your hair into your stacker and tap a few times. Turn your stacker over flat and take the end off before grabbing your stacked deer hair between thumb and forefinger ready for use.
Binding In A Deer Hair Tail
Position the thread at the tail with your stacked deer hair pinched between your thumb and forefinger position the deer hair over the shank ready to be tied in. The tail length should be about 2/3rd's the hook shank length. Bind with gentle pressure applied up to around half way up the hook and then trim off the unwanted ends. From the halfway position now bind tightly moving back and ease up the thread pressure as you approach your starting point at the start of the tail and do 2 or 3 turns strong enough to hold in position but not strong enough to crease the hollow hair fibers.