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.
Then too, fish have teeth, or at least really abrasive lips. If you catch a few fish with a fly you’ll likely need to replace it. And of course, some flies end up snagged on something and lost.
But flies are expensive: often a couple bucks each. So I tie a lot of my own. It takes a while for the investment in tools and materials to pay off, but in the long run it really is cheaper. And it’s a fun hobby in its own right. Today let’s look at my fly tying tools.
The Basic Concept
To tie a fly, you mount a bare fishhook in a vise, and you begin by winding some thread onto the hook. You then start placing bits of feather, fur, and so forth. As you place each component, you use the thread to tie it to the hook. You don’t cut the thread until the very end, so there’s a continuous piece holding the whole mess together. You choose your components, and the order you place them, based on a recipe.
The Fly Tying Vise
The vise is the main tool. It holds the hook tightly, so that it won’t move around as you wrap thread around it. The vise also has to leave most of the hook exposed, so you can work on it. Some vises also rotate, so the hook can be rotated around the axis of its shank. That feature isn’t absolutely necessary, but it helps keep things even.
Parts of the vise
The hook (1) is held in the vise jaws (2). The jaws are opened and closed with the clamp lever (3). You can adjust for different size hooks with the adjusting screw (4). The bobbin hanger (5) allows you to let go of the bobbin of thread so your hands are free. This is a rotating vise, so you can use the crank (6) to rotate the vise around. If you don’t want it to rotate you can tighten screw (7). The stem (8) holds the vise at a comfortable working height and attaches it to a base of some sort. I use a wooden base with places for all the tools, but some vises use a C-clamp or a heavy metal pedestal.
Fly Tying Tools
Scissors
You constantly have to trim bits of feather and fur to keep everything lying neatly on the hook. So I actually hold the scissors the whole time I’m tying. If you look carefully, you’ll note that the handles are custom bent to fit my right hand. The left loop is on my thumb, and the right is on my middle finger. That allows me to hold the bobbin as well.
Bodkin
The bodkin is just a needle on a stick. I use it to tease out fur and feather fibers to fix mistakes. Sometimes I use it to apply a tiny drop of glue. I wound a rubber band around the handle so it doesn’t roll away when I set it down.
Bobbin
The bobbin holds the thread. It keeps just enough tension on the spool to keep the thread from unwinding when I let go of the bobbin. But it also has to pay out the thread when I pull it, rather than breaking the thread. The tube that the thread is running through is ceramic: cheap bobbins use metal, but the metal ones quickly develop grooves that snag the thread and break it.
Half Hitch Tool
As you probably guessed, I use this to tie knots – half hitches, specifically. At any point in tying the fly, I can tie a couple half hitches to make sure that the fly won’t come unwound.
Hackle Pliers
Hackles are the neck feathers of chickens. I wind them tightly around the hook so that the individual fibers of the feather splay out like a fan. These fibers serve various purposes, depending on the fly. They can simulate the legs of a bug, help floating flies float, and help sinking flies undulate as they’re pulled through the water so they look like they’re swimming.
Feathers are delicate things. So the hackle pliers have to hold the feather firmly but not break it. Mine have one jaw that’s brass, and one that’s rubber.
Hair Stacker
Some flies use a wad of hair from some animal to make wings, tails, etc. It’s important that all the tips of the hair line up so the wings have a definite end. That’s the job of the hair stacker. You drop a bunch of hairs, tip first, into the top. Tap the hair stacker on the table a few times and the tips will all be lined up. Then you swivel the gold part aside (it’s hinged) and you can keep the hairs aligned but get hold of them so you can put them on the fly.
Perhaps the most important tool
A good magnifier is very helpful when tying small flies. I use a visor-style magnifier that I got secondhand about 30 years ago. It lets me see individual threads and fibers, and work with precision. I don’t think I could tie small flies without some sort of magnifier. A good light helps too.
But wait, there’s more!
Actually, we’re going to stop here. We’ve covered the basic tools. I have a few more that I use quite a bit, but you could tie flies without them.
I hope to do a post soon where we walk through the process of tying a fly from bare hook to a finished product.
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