Author: Walt Page 6 of 12

I’ve posted about the tools, materials, and even the hooks used in fly tying. Today we’re going to tie it all together (sorry!) and make a fly.

We’re going to make a fly called a Blue Wing Olive. It’s intended to imitate mayflies of the genus Baetis. There’s thousands of species in the genus, but most of them have an olive green body, with grey wings, tail, and legs.

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In a previous post I talked about fly tying materials. And in another post I discussed the tools used to tie fishing flies. Today, I’d like to discuss the fish hooks used for fly fishing. Fly tiers use a wide variety of types of hooks. Let’s look into why they do that.

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In this post I gave a brief introduction to the tools of fly-tying. And I mentioned that flies are made of thread, fur, synthetic fibers and feathers, all tied to a hook. Today, let’s look a little closer at those materials.

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Michelle and I like to fly fish. “Flies” in this sense are fishhooks decorated with thread, fur, yarn, and feathers to resemble natural creatures that fish like to eat. That often means bugs of some sort, but it’s possible to tie flies that simulate minnows, worms, leeches, and even frogs and mice.

It turns out you need an awful lot of flies. There’s a huge variety of things that fish might be eating, and it’s important to use a fly that resembles the things the fish are eating at this moment. So you need a huge variety of flies.

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