my first few flies

[VeeCee]

Hey guys,

thought i'd share my first few flies with you. the two pictured are the cdc emerger that came in the instruction booklet with the kit i bought.

the one with the short cdc "wings" is the books design.

the one with the longer "wings" and orange body is some modification i tried on that original book's design.

I've only tied 12 flies before this, going from basic san juan worms to PTN's before trying this one, and i think its my best yet.

i thought i'd ask for some opinions and maybe even pointers. the biggest thing i learnt with the first 12 is that you HAVE to leave some space near the eye of the hook, or you will never thread a line through it. DUH!

[BenzoV]

me no expert at all.

#1 looks cool. I really like it. Maybe pay a bit more attention to the ribbing. Maybe extend the body slightly more around the bend of the hook.

# 2 I really like the concept, but the body and thorax can be a bit tidier.

What kit did you buy, and do they tell you more about the flies ito what they imitate and how to fish them?

[rols]

The one thing that took me the longest to learn was proportion, proportion proportion, but then again, lots of my first and current flies were tied with Uncle Charles and if I had a hook a mile long I would still have clouded the eye. I'm not critting your flies at all but just remembering where I made errors. My other BIGGEST stuff up was TRYING TO USE THE WHOLE FEATHER. This was and sometimes is still my biggest stuff up because I have a whole lot of CDC still left and I try cram it onto the fly because "It can't go to waste" and there goes the proportion and the eye to boot. Just some tips to make sure Charles does not help in the tying process and if the book says 12 turns...... Don't try rewrite the book. Have fun, the flies are great though

[dizzy]

Your flies aren't bad at all!
1st fly the wing might be a tad too far back.
2nd fly the wing is little too long. Easy to fix, pinch at desired length and pull off!
I would taper the bodies off toward the bend of the hook a little.

Did you use colours suggested in the book?

PS, sometimes untidy flies catch more fish

[dtayl13]

That first one is really good for a beginner. I can assure you my first flies were indestiguishable from what you find under furnature that hasn't been moved for years. Just one thing though I can't really see from the photo, but it looks like you might have cut the tail to the right length. It looks far more natural if you tie it in at the right length or ,in the case of marabou, break it off.

Well done though. Really not bad.

[briansflyfishing]

Not bad. Take advise and apply it to your fly tying. After all that is why we have the form.

[VeeCee]

thanks guys,

will definitely take the advise to heart and try to improve wherever i can.

yeah i also get that "dont waste materials" feeling, and i was just messing around with other materials with the fly that has the long wings. the instruction book said use cdc tufts, and instead i used the fluffy stuff at the bottom of a normal feather.

i've also tried messing around with different colours, specially when i had the vaal river yellowfish in mind because i've read and heard so much about how the orange hotspot is so successful.

the kit was the wapsi "deluxe" kit. the vice is pretty basic, but the kit was jam packed with hooks and materials. thats why i was sold on it so quickly. the instruction booklet does go a little way to explain the patterns and the imitations, but nothing about how to fish them.

i've learnt all about emergers, spinners, larvae, etc just from getting into fly fishing. i never knew it would be a study in entomology too but i'm thoroughly enjoying it.