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Want to get better results when tying flies? Don’t buy your way there. Tie your way there!

A short article about adding weight to a fly – and make it do what you want and stay where you put it

Tying in a feather and wrapping it … easy-peasy, right? Or maybe there’s more to it. This in-depth article looks at various ways to make a feather hackle.

This type of braid is found in electronics stores, but is a great new addition to the fly tyer’s arsenal of useful copper products

Monofilament of many kinds can be used as a fly material as it can be seen in this simple Knot Bug

... and then there's deer hair. And it can be many different things. It is not at all that easy to find the right kind for the many patterns with this fantastic material

We challenged artificial intelligence to create a fly pattern. It went fairly well ... and then again … not quite well.

Why go to the trouble of photographing a fly that is soaking wet? Well, in many cases it can dramatically alter the appearance of the imitation.

Satin ribbon can’t be used in as many different ways as organza, but it definitely makes some juicy looking fish snacks.

Some tyers tie different flies. Scottish Nick Thomas, now Wales based, is one of them. And he wrote a book about it.

A beginner's book that I'd actually recommend to beginners! Great pattern selection, excellent photography and nicely coupled to online videos.

Grizzly hackle is something which most tyers use all the time and which we all take for granted, but in my eyes grizzly isn't nearly as appreciated as it deserves to be

Large feather rooster saddles are different beasts. Here are some tips on buying them.

Simple is good. Not primitive… simple. And this is another fine book with simple fly patterns.

Italian fly tyer Giuseppe Finardi is intrigued by US Ora Smith's streamers featuring wings made almost exclusively from golden pheasant crest.

It’s hard not to like a completely free e-book with detailed descriptions on how how to tie 12 (and then some) different variations of the Humpy. 80 pages of knowledge, tips and inspiration on a single pattern!

Plain and simple bead chain is one of the cheapest fly tying materials around, but very useful and a great addition to many flies.

Fabien Moulin aims to tie some really good looking flies, and ponders a bit about how to improve as a fly tyer.

I have recently had a pretty decent injection of fly tying material to my stock. I call it the mothers’ yarns because it came from my own mother and my mother-in-law.

This small DIY article shows you how to make a leather folder or jumbo-wallet for convenient flash storage.

Bob Popovics can rightfully be called one of the most innovative fly tyers today. And he keeps on sharing new methods in his latest book.

Fly tying material is often big, inexpensive pieces cut up and sold small at high prices. It's always worth looking around for alternative sources. You can find some really useful materials for almost no money.

A lot of flies - salmon tube flies in particular – use different discs or cones, and the market is full of them. Here's an overview of some of the many types.

Why would you Do It Yourself? The answer might seem simple, but it wasn't, once Paul Kalbrener started thinking about it.

This fall marks Mike Hogue's Badger Creek Fly-tying's 20th year in business. He never thought he would be in business that long.

Sharon Wright is becoming a familiar name to those who follow developments in streamer fly tying. She has been a guest tyer at most of the major fly tying events in the Northeast USA, has authored several magazine articles on the subject, and now is releasing her first book "Tying Heritage Featherwing Streamers" on Stackpole Books.

Jay Zimmerman's book "The Best Carp Flies" made me want to tie up some new flies

It all started with me being a bit sceptical about the colour of a hackle. It looked a bit too intense.
English not being my first language, I would have called the colour of the hackle purple, but the pattern said mauve. Mauve? I've never heard of that colour before, 

The 3rd edition of AK bests all-time classic on tying flies as a boss.

The Copenhagen Fly Casting Club has been arranging a small summer get together the the last few years, inviting members and non-members to meet and try rods, chat and have a beer and a sausage from the barbecue.

A simple method of preserving bird skins from birds like ducks. If you hunt or know hunters, there's a rich supply of materials, almost for free

Make your own large eyes for pike and saltwater flies using inexpensive materials and a little time. Some adhesive marker dots, a handful of waterproof pens and some LCR and you can start your own stick-on eye factory.

Even though the marabou is a large African stork and the marabou feathers indeed used to come from this bird, the marabou feathers of today come almost exclusively from turkeys and chickens.
The marabou stork (Leptoptilos crumeniferus) is actually on the CITES list of protected animals, and feathers from this bird should not be traded or used for fly-tying or anything else.
What we're dealing with in fly-tying is mainly turkey feathers. Chicken feathers can be found, but are not nearly as often labeled marabou.

Canadian Silver Tip Fly Company makes printed fly-tying materials with a high degree of realism and can supply wings, shells and much more, ready to tie with. We asked some questions.

The fly-tying market is brimming with prefabricated materials, and Danish Easy Shrimp Eyes is one of the companies who are making them. We have talked to the guys behind the products.

When you buy feathers for hackling dry flies, you essentially have two choices: necks or saddles. Necks used to be the thing to go for, but these days genetic hackle has made up for the difference, and oftentimes saddle hackle will actually be a better and more economical choice. You simply get more feather for your money.

Bucktails are a very useful, inexpensive and easily accessible material, which is very useful for people tying larger flies like pike flies and saltwater flies, as well as people tying streamers of all kinds.

Bucktails are available in natural colors (white and brown) as well as almost any dyed color you can imagine.

This article is about buying fly-tying materials. Lately when I have been shopping I have noticed a large difference in quality - even between materials of the same brand and price. Looking thoroughly can make a big difference. The same product from the same manufacturer at the same price can vary, and knowing what to look for can mean getting good and useful, and not the downright lousy.

These new fish shaped foils from Bob Popovics are really great for making baitfish imitations. They come in several shapes and many sizes, and stick on the side of your flies, ready to be covered with resin.

Golden Pheasant must be one of the most versatile fly-tying materials you can get your hands on. The wealth of different feathers on one skin is simply overwhelming. And the skin is inexpensive too.

Now this is a pretty interesting product! Looks good, adds weight and seems to be easy to tie with.

I am as likely to sit down and tie six different flies as I am to tie six of the same pattern. Speed is not a concern, but I don't want to waste my time either. There are things I can do to make my life easier which may be different from a professional production tyer.

Dutch Hans Weilenmann tells the history of the use of CDC feathers in fly tying, covers the different types of feathers and their use and lists both CDC tying tips and a bunch of CDC patterns.

Some of these flies are among the most well known of any genre of fishing flies others are a little on the obscure side. Some are simple and some are a bit complicated. I like 'em all. They all have their place on the water, and they all have a story to tell.

This is the Mundane Fly Manifesto: Few and cheap materials, easy to find in the shops. Simple tying methods. Mundane flies. The whole idea is to make it simple and efficient to tie flies that work. 

Some things make no sense, but we do them anyway - like driving 3 hours out and 3 hours home to go shopping.

And I mean really, really different. Really!

If you think that a tube for a tube fly is a cylindrical piece of plastic, then you are in for a surprise. This article will present more tube styles than most fly tyers ever imagined, and probably teach even seasoned tubers a thing or two.

I'm going to work this review backwards and do the complaints first.

Ok - so - how happy was I to see that someone finally convinced Scott Sanchez to write a book? Not being an Montana insider, I was not entirely familiar with his tying, but his reputation as a excellent fly tyer extended far beyond that mighty state's borders. While I've seen a few of his magazine articles and his contributions to the works of Jack Dennis, I was intrigued at the possibility of what he might be able to do with an entire book of his own.

I'll save you the suspense. This is a great book.

Why are synthetics so ridiculously expensive?

Tied my first Clouser Minnows ever a few minutes ago. What a fly!

I'm loving this stuff

Ian Moutter, author of Tying Flies in the Paraloop Way, returns with his second book: Imitative Fly Tying. Whereas his previous book was an exploration of fly tying techniques, this book is oriented toward those who want to apply those techniques to different fly patterns. As the name would suggest, the intent is to create patterns that are imitative in nature - that is mimicking natural food forms that a fish is feeding on. In this case, the fish are cold water species - namely trout or grayling.

Make your dry fly dubbing in bulk quantities while washing your clothes! It's that easy! Harvest the fibers that come from you tumble dryer and prepare it for fly tying. Read the whole story by Steve Schweitzer here.

Prime Jungle Cock necks are rare to come by. Learn how 'upgrade' fishing quality JC necks in this article.

Almost everyone has the right stuff at their tying bench to make a great batch of dubbing. But not many people know they have everything they need to make an outstanding seal's fur dubbing substitute. This dubbing is a viable replacement for SLF, angora goat and seal's fur, and the trick to making it is so simple it will amaze you!

I've developed a habit instilled in me by my salmonfly tying mentors. When evaluating the salmon fly dressings of others, I look at the floss work first. It is a key characteristic that determines and shows the skills of the cream of the crop.

Siman Ltd. has taken the Turbo dubbing twister a step further with this tool, which enables you to easily make your own dubbing brushes - stiff or soft and from almost any dubbing material.

I have some remote relatives in Boston who occasionally sends over christmas gifts to my kids. This year the gifts were packed with some particularly interesting string. This string was braided in the colors red and green with some shiny material laid in. It said "flies" all over it! I scavenged the remains from the unpacking and stoved it away between my fly tying materials.

This small section with advice on dyeing fly tying materials was made after a discussion took place on the European fly fishing mailing list. The text was put together from input from several people of this list: Graham Ward, John Davies, Pat Orpen and myself.

One of the things most often asked by neophyte streamer tyers is what types of hackle are best suited for streamer wings. The short answer is... there is no single source best suited for streamer wings. The long answer... well... I'll ramble on about it for the remainder of this essay!

Making your own or improving store bought dubbing. I recommend that all dubbing be passed through a coffee or spice grinder prior to using. The grinder tends to separate and air out the fibres providing a lighter product than would be normally accomplished by just using the blend out of the bag.

Some thoughts on hackle ...or living with less than the best

When I talk about hard hair I both mean hair that's hard - like squirrel and polar bear - and hair that's hard to tie in on the hook. We all know the problem: not only is squirrel wings hard as #"¤%&/ to place properly on top of the shank, but they also sometimes seem to fall off for nothing.

How to tie a nice, even, ribbed tinsel body. Here's one way. The description assumes that you want a silver body. If you want gold, just replace 'silver' with 'gold' below.

The hook is the foundation on which a good streamer is built. When streamer anglers meet, quite often it's the subject of heated debate! I've listed a variety of the streamer hooks available on the market today (and some no longer available) in the table in the article.

One of the most difficult things for today's streamer tyer to find is suitable hackle for winging Rangeley Style streamers.

When stacking materials it is important to consider it as consisting of more than just one process. There are several steps involved: material selection, cleaning and preparing, selecting the right tool and performing the stacking process itself.

In the most simplistic terms, a flytying kit must only have the tools and materials necessary to tie the flies you may use on a single trip or a single river. However, like most of us, a travelling flytying kit consumes more space than 26 high-schoolers crammed in a Volkswagen Beetle.