This is the second of what will be I have no idea how many posts about basic fly tying. The first was some time ago - about 2 years ago - and this will cover some of the same ground but mostly this post covers less ground in more detail. Then I hope to have a number of Fly Tying 101 posts this year - and maybe a few Fly Tying 201 next tying season (tying season for me means November through March). Yes, there are tons of other options out there - and videos are great but what I figure I always do a pretty good job of is evaluating and curating information. It is the educator in me.
I write this post first because I think it is the most important. Fly tying is pretty simple - we are attaching materials to a hook using thread. Hell, there are some flies that are not much more than simply attaching thread to a hook and using the thread as a body material (see the above video). This post is all about the very basics of tying a fly - starting the thread, adding materials, and finishing the thread. But first, a bit on hook anatomy because hook proportions and positions will be referenced in other videos.
The first point I want to make - and I'll probably make it repeatedly - worry about techniques before worrying about fly patterns. With a few simple techniques, you can tie most any fly - eventually. Like anything you learn to do, you get better as you continue to do it. The second point is that proportions matter. Most good tyers use reference points on the hook and other proportions like hook eye lengths or fractions / percents of the hook shank. For example, tying a pheasant tail nymph, I tie in the tail directly above the barb, the abdomen of the fly is the back 2/3rds (67%) of the hook shank and the thorax takes up the front 1/3rd (33%) of the hook shank. This allows each fly I tie to be similar to the others.
Three Essentials
As I see it, for any fly you will ever tie, there is a beginning (attaching the thread), a long middle, and a short ending. Fly tying is all about controlling thread tension. Until the very end of the hook, other than maybe an odd half hitch to keep things in place, there are no knots, instead the fly is held together by thread tension.
Starting the Thread
Starting the thread is pretty simple, you are essentially just wrapping thread from the bobbin over the tag end, thus locking the thread in place. Unless you are using a really slippery thread - like gel spun poly (GSP), 4 or 5 wraps over the tag end is all that is needed to lock the thread in place. There really is not much to it as you will see.
Links to other videos and websites
That is probably more than enough links - starting the thread is pretty easy. Working the thread back to your first tie in point - generally on the hook shank just above the barb - is typically the next step. This too is simple - just put wraps next to one another as you move your way back to the hook.
If there is a part of this that requires a bit more skill, it is missing the hook point with your thread as you get near where we typically start tying on a tail or starting a fly (for flies without tails). To avoid the barb, move the bobbin in a bit more of an oval or like Barry Ord Clarke does above, alter the path of the bobbin around the hook point. He certainly gets quite into the details in the above video, but he provides a lot of thread control tips that are worth hearing, even if you are not ready to deploy them quite yet. As mentioned above, fly tying is largely about thread control and tension.
A few of the most common mistakes I see beginners make are:
Taking too much thread out of the bobbin. The longer the distance of thread between the hook and the bobbin, the less control you have of the thread. Typically, you don't need more than an inch, inch-and-a-half of thread out of the bobbin unless you are adding dubbing to the thread.
Too little tension on the thread. Too much tension can be an issue too but unless you are using GSP, you are probably breaking the tread before tension becomes too much. You should be pulling at 80% or so of the breaking strength of the thread most of the time to maintain proper thread tension. You should break the thread once in a while, particularly when you are learning to tie - that is how you find out what too much tension is.
Hitting the thread on the hook point and weakening or breaking the thread. As mentioned above, move the thread around the hook barb.
Allowing materials to rotate on the hook shank. Tails that are on the side of the hook rather than the top of the hook, wing cases that are not inline with the body, and other issues are common due to thread pressure being applied in the wrong direction. Master the simple pinch wrap (keep reading...) and you'll avoid this issue.
Crowding the head. This means that you do not have the room to create a thread head without possibly covering part of the hook eye with thread. This happens because many tyers do not properly plan there fly. On nymphs or dry flies, leaving half a hook eye's length clear before the hook eye will keep you from crowding the eye. On streamers, you often want to keep a full hook eye's length open.
Adding Materials
OK, we have our thread started and we have moved it back to a point on the shank above the hook barb, now it is time to add a tail, a rib, a shellback, or whatever else. It really doesn't much matter what we add, if we are trying to add something to the top of the hook, we almost always do it with a pinch wrap. There is probably no more important tying technique than the pinch wrap.
The inherent problem with hooks is that they are round and materials that we attach to the thread will move around that round hook. This happens because thread tension pulls materials to the far side of the hook when we attach materials to the top of the hook shank. To avoid this, we use a pinch wrap. From the video above, note that there is no thread tension on the material until he pulls straight down - 180 degrees opposed to where he wants the tail to be placed on the hook. Thread tension needs to be in the opposite direction to keep materials for being twisted around the hook. If you put thread tension against the material as you move the thread away from you (to the far side of the hook), it will cause the material to move in that direction. Take a critical look at flies and notice that tails are often not on top of the hook but are rotated to the far side of the hook.
Similar ideas hold true if you are tying to put a material on the side of the hook - like a deceiver-style tail. The "deciever-style" tail comes from one of the world's most famous saltwater flies, Lefty's Deceiver. For example, the fly above, my first attempt at Jake Villwock's fly pattern, The Roamer, uses this style of tail. (I wrote a review of his book, Smallmouth Bass Flies: From Top to Bottom - it's excellent!). There are often times that you want to place materials on places other than the top of the hook - but the principles are the same. The thread tension must come from from either directly opposed (180 degrees) or inline (360 degrees) of where you want that material to be placed on the hook. Any other thread tension will force the material clockwise around the hook.
Master the pinch wrap, it will be used again and again. Thread tension needs to be from a place that will not rotate materials on the hook (unless you want to rotate materials on the hook - a Fly Tying 201 topic). Links to more pinch wrap videos:
For those the prefer a set of photographs rather than a video, Loren Williams provides a series that explains how to execute the pinch wrap.
Elevated Pinch Wrap - a Fly Tying 201 idea but something to think about.
Finishing the Fly
As mentioned above, on most flies, we have tied no knots on our fly (in most cases). When we are ready to be done, we need to secure the thread with some kind of knot. Most of the time, we do this with a whip finish. The other option, a pretty similar option - is a series of half hitches.
I start with a half-hitch rather than a whip finish because it is a simpler method to finish a fly. And there are many other uses for half-hitches - like "saving your progress" on a fly, locking materials in place, when you are going to use the rotary feature on your vice, if you want to reverse the thread, or any number of other reasons. Half hitches are a simple and useful technique to learn.
Most tyers finish their flies with a whip finish rather than half hitches. Like many others, I prefer a whip finish because I think it holds better, I have more control over where I place the finishing knot, and I have a nice and simple tool that makes it very easy to do.
The principle behind a whip finish and half hitch are the same - we are locking in the thread with a series of thread wraps over what will become the tag end (i.e. the thread coming out of the bobbin). When I have taught those knots, it is all about the triangle. In fact, the stills of the videos both above and below this paragraph demonstrate that triangle. The three points of the triangle are created by the thread at the hook, the pointer finger, and the middle finger in the hand whip finish.
Tim Flagler (Tightlines Videos) references the number 4 - the same idea as the triangle. Here, the triangle is equally as evident as in the above videos. Most tyers I know use a Matarelli-style whip fishing tool - as Tim Flagler does in the above video. It, I think, gives you a lot of control over where the thread wraps on the whip finish go. And, as I've mentioned a time or two, fly tying is all about thread control and tension.
Links to videos on how to whip finish - most use the Matarelli tool.
Davie McPhail - How I Learned to Whip Finish a Fly (he uses several different tools)
The Wrap-Up
This was a pretty simple introduction to the three techniques you will use on every fly you tie. You will attach thread, add materials to the hook using thread to hold those materials in place, and you will finish the fly, probably with a whip finish. Yeah, fly tying can get a lot more complex than that but at its heart, it is pretty simple. And if you would like, you can continue to keep it pretty simple. Or you can fall down the rabbit hole and make tying as complex as you would like - or can stand.