Easy flies for beginners

[Mike Taylor]

I've noticed that there are a couple of guys on the forum just starting to tie flies. Also, there are a bunch of new kids at my son's school who are just starting to fly-fish and will soon start tying their own flies, so I decided to start a thread of really simple flies with few, easily available materials. Please, no Jungle cock or Kori Bustard. Here's my simple fly using a total of five materials including the hook & thread.

VERY SIMPLE PHEASANT TAIL NYMPH

Hook: Daichii heavy wet fly #12
Thread: Danville's Flymaster waxed 6/0 Brown
Bead: Tungsten black 2½mm
Tail and abdomen: 5 pheasant tail fibres
Thorax & legs: Peacock Ice Dubbing

Thread the bead onto the hook, with the small hole towards the eye. I find the easiest way of doing this is to put the hook upright in the vice and using long-nosed pliers drop the bead over the Point.

Attachment 12697

Put the hook horizontally in the vice, tie on the thread and build up thread behind the bead to hold it in place.

Attachment 12698

Wind the thread in "touching turns" down the shank of the hook to the bend. Tie in about 5 pheasant tail tips to form the tail.

Attachment 12699

Wind the thread towards the eye of the hook, stopping about three quarters of the way along

Attachment 12700

Wind the pheasant tail forwards to the thread to form a slightly tapered abdomen. Tie off the pheasant tail and make a thin noodle of peacock Ice Dubbing on the thread

Attachment 12701

Wind the dubbing forward to the eye to form the thorax and legs.

Attachment 12702

Tie off

Attachment 12703

ALTERNATIVES: You can use a nice fluffy peacock herl for the thorax. Pheasant tail is quite a fragile material, so to make a more durable fly, tie in a piece of thin copper wire after tying in the tail. After tying in the abdomen, wind the copper wire forward in nice open turns in the opposite direction to the pheasant tail. This will create a ribbed effect and hold the abdomen in place.

[Gerrit Viljoen]

Very nice fly! Start with Brassies and the like, very easy and deadly.

[dtayl13]

Or one of the most effective yet under used river flies: the soft hackle.

Hook: Dohiku 302 #12
Dubbing: Peacock
Rib: Copper wire colour of choice
Hackle: Partridge

Step 1
Start off the thread wind to the bend and tie in your copper wire.

Attachment 12704

Step 2
Wind the copper wire and tie off just short of the eye.

Attachment 12705

Step 3
Dub the thread and wind it in such a way as to make very tight dubbing ball.

Attachment 12706

Step 4
Select a partridge feather. Hold the very tip with your thumb and fore finger or hackle pliers. Now gently pull all of the fibres back. Tie in the feather in the gap that you have created with the tip pointing foreward. Cut off the tip.

Attachment 12707

Step 5
Wind the feather sparsly with a maximum of two turns. Tie it off and trim of the rest of the feather. At this point it should look siff. hold all of the fibres back and then secure them there with your thread. Whip finish and varnish.

Attachment 12708

[troutmaster]

Very nice fly! Start with Brassies and the like, very easy and deadly.

Agree, brassies are very easy and very effective, will build confidence, but it is also great because many variations can be tied, incorporating dubbing and later even flashback and epoxy.

[dtayl13]

Very nice fly! Start with Brassies and the like, very easy and deadly.

Hook: #14 caddis/czech nymph/sedge
Rib: copper wire
Thorax/head: cinnamon Ice dub (or similar)

Step 1
Wind the thread to the bend and tie in the copper wire.

Attachment 12709

Step 2
Wind the copper wire foreward in touching wraps about 4/5ths of the way along the shank. Tie it off.

Attachment 12710

Step 3
Dub the thread and form a thorax/ head. Whip finish and varnish.

Attachment 12711

The beauty of brassies is that they are easy to tie, incredibly effective and there is plenty of room for experimentation (You can put a bead on, you can use different colours of wire, you can add a tail). Do remember, however, that brassies are not legal in compitition. If you want to look at some competition brassies then look at this thread: http://www.flytalk.co.za/forum/showt...petition+legal

[Mike Taylor]

OK. Here's another dead simple nymph. It worked really well for trout fished on point

Hook: Daichii heavy wet fly #14
Bead: Tungsten black 2½mm
Thread: Griffiths 14/0 black
Tail: black woolly bugger hackle
Abdomen & thorax: Peacock herl

Thread the bead onto the hook. Tie on the thread and build up thread behind the bead to hold it in place.

Attachment 12712

Wind the thread back to the hook bend with touching turns to cover the hook shank. Cut a few fibres from a feather of black woolly bugger hackle and tie in the tips as a tail.

Attachment 12713

Strip a piece of peacock herl. This is accomplished by pulling the herl through between your forefinger and thumb nail a few times to remove all the 'fluff'.

Attachment 12714

Tie in the thinner end of the stripped peacock herl, then the wind your thread forward three quarters of the way to the eye, building up a slightly tapering abdomen.

Attachment 12715

Wind the stripped peacock herl forward (with touching turns) to the thread then tie it and cut it off.

Attachment 12716

Tie in another coarse peacock herl, then wind your thread forward to the eye.

Attachment 12717

Wind the coarse peacock herl forward to the eye (about 5 turns), tie it off and cut off the excess. Finally, whip finish.

Attachment 12718

[Gerrit Viljoen]

Here is one with a lil more oemf!

[Mike Taylor]

Beaut fly. Designed for yellowfish? Do you think I should try some on trout?

Aren't split thread techniques a bit difficult for beginners. I know when I started tying (a year and a half ago) I had five thumbs on each of my left hands. After much practise I've got down to only two thumbs on my right hand and three on my left.

[Gerrit Viljoen]

For Yellows yes Mike but Trout don't' seem to mind them, especially the white one. Ag I don't know hey, anything can been seen as difficult because it' new so I think with good tuition a beginner would grab it hey. What you can try instead is a dubbing loop but then it becomes bulky. Also, thread like UTC 70 denier is def a better option for a newbie than Sheer 14/0.

[Mike Taylor]

I'll try the split thread technique 'cos it's a marvellous looking fly.

The 14/0 thread was the only black thread I had, but yes, the UTC would be easier.