Guest Blogger: Mary S. Kuss, Life-long avid angler, licensed PA fishing guide (retired), founder of the Delaware Valley Women’s Fly Fishing Association
Maybe you’re one of those hard-core types who fly fishes all winter. Or perhaps you have the means and opportunity to travel, and pursue your fishing in warmer climes. If not, by the time December rolls around you have most likely packed up your gear until spring.
If you’re a fly tyer, however, you have a delightful alternative focus to see you through the bleak winter months. I tie according to need the year around, but once the winter holidays have come and gone serious fly tying season gets under way. I enjoy the process of going over my tools and materials, putting them in order and re-stocking essential items I’ve run short of. A visit to my local fly shop is a fine way to spend some time on a cold winter afternoon. Fly tying catalogs and websites also offer a delightful combination of inspiration and temptation. So I usually indulge myself and choose some tantalizing new materials, hooks, or tools.
Fly Tying Through the Winter
With my purchases in hand, it’s play time. I can’t wait to start exploring the exciting possibilities these new acquisitions present. I’m always hoping to strike gold and come up with a great new pattern that’s destined to work wonderfully well. That’s the holy grail of fly tying, and it does happen occasionally. But honestly, most of these flights of fancy wind up merely taking up space in my fly boxes. They become “desperation flies,” only to see the water after all the more likely choices have come up short.
Occasionally one of these flies redeems itself by being the only thing that works on a given day. That doesn’t mean that this performance will be repeated often or ever. So no matter how spectacular the results, I try to resist the impulse to immediately tie up scads of them. Everything works sometimes, nothing works all the time. And you do get one-hit-wonders.
I have several large stock boxes of various flies that didn’t make the cut for a spot in my working boxes. I should ruthlessly take a window scraper blade to these rejects so that the hooks can be recycled, but I never seem to get around to doing it. I’m too cheap to throw the hooks away and too lazy to do what’s necessary to recycle them. It’s so much easier to just get out a new one.
Getting Productive at the Bench
Once I’ve satisfied my desire to play, it’s time to settle down and get to work on stocking my fly boxes with the reliable workhorse patterns I depend on year in and out. Not that this list is set in stone. New patterns regularly make their way into my working fly boxes, displacing former occupants that have fallen out of favor. But I have to start somewhere. The empty spots in my working boxes remind me what I should tie first. Hopefully I’ve not been careless enough to let the supply of anything important go to zero. In that case, I’m in for some head-scratching. What was in this empty spot?
I try to spend my bench time wisely, and to be somewhat disciplined about the process of restocking my fly boxes. Some useful lessons can be learned from the world of commercial fly tying. I’ve had just enough exposure to that world to know that it’s not for me. I feel that it makes drudgery of a pursuit that should be relaxing and fun. Yet the limited amount of commercial tying I’ve done has taught me a few tricks that make it easier and more efficient to produce the flies I need for my own use and to share with friends.
The first step in the process is to make a prioritized list of the patterns and sizes I want to tie. The flies I know I’m likely to use often get tied in batches of at least a dozen at a time. It takes a fair amount of time and effort to gather all of the materials necessary for a particular pattern, and once that’s done it pays to tie enough of them to make it worthwhile. I also find that I don’t really get the cobwebs dusted off technique and proportions for a given pattern and size until I’ve tied several of them. Now the fish won’t care if proportions are a bit off or workmanship less than flawless. I must confess, however, to being somewhat obsessive about these things. I keep that scraper blade handy on my desktop, and use it immediately on any fly I’m not satisfied with. This practice has been very helpful in reducing further additions to my collection of rejects.
The easiest thing to do is to tie a fly that will catch fish. When I teach fly tying I always try to offer some encouragement when a student asks my opinion of their work. Sometimes they’ve done such a good job that I find little if anything to critique. If not, I’ll offer suggestions for improvement. If the fly is very poorly tied, my favorite comment has always been, “It will definitely catch fish.” Which is true. No matter how ugly a fly may be, if you show it to enough fish you’ll find one that will try to eat it. Sometimes ugly flies work even better than pretty ones.
Pro Tips for Winter Fly Tying
As for the pro tips for tying efficiently, there are some that I employ and others I don’t bother with. Perhaps the most common one is that you should carry the scissors in your hand at all times while tying rather than waste time and motion putting them down and picking them up again. I’ve heard this truism from so many respected professionals that I felt I had to give it a fair trial. I have no gripe with those who like to do this, but I find it awkward and uncomfortable. I have the habit of always setting my scissors down in a certain spot just to the right of my vise. I put them there and reach down to pick them up again without looking or thinking about it. There’s a middle ground here. You should ask yourself, as a recreational tyer how fast do I need to go? That’s very much a personal decision.
I do prepare materials in advance. If I’m tying Woolly Buggers, for example, I’ll set out a dozen de-barbed #8 3XL hooks (with bead heads or other weights installed, if I’m using them), pre-measured lengths of chenille, and pre-selected hackle feathers and marabou plumes. I may even clean the waste off the butt ends of the feathers. This kind of prep work can be done for most fly patterns. The actual tying then goes remarkably quickly.
If you have the time and interest to do it, you can stockpile a lot of flies over the winter. It’s best not to mass-produce unproven patterns before testing them on-stream. But there’s a lot of satisfaction in filling up a stock box with the fruits of your labor and then refilling your working boxes so that they’re ready for fishing season. Each fly you tie holds a world of promise. You never know which of them will connect you to a memorable fish. Tight threads and tight lines to all!
19 comments
STEVEN VARATTA
THANK YOU FOR WHAT YOU WROTE I AM 74 NOW AND WAS NEVER ABLE TO TRAVEL MY WHOLE LIFE YOU HAVE DONE AN EXCELLENT JOB DESCRIBING ONE WILL DO OTHERWISE. I LIKE THE" They become “desperation flies,” only to see the water after all the more likely choices have come up short." THIS HIT HOME THANK YOU THERE IS A MAGIC DURING FLY TYING I FEEL AND STILL AS STRONG AS EVER I WISH YOU THE BEST ……
Mary Kuss
Bob L., your fly tying room would be the envy of almost any tyer. It’s an inspiration that might just get me started on de-cluttering my own. Glad you enjoyed my blog post.
Mary Kuss
You are very welcome, Luiz.
luiz
muito obrigado pelas dicas
Bob Littlejohn
Great article and sounds like someone spied on me while I tied. I have always agreed with prepping my materials, and I usually tie a dozen copies of the same fly per session. Particularly at 76 years old, both my eyes and hands start to give out at a dozen. I want to thank the person who mentioned donating to groups. I have been fortunate at obtaining materials, and I donate materials and lessons to Scout Groups and Project Healing Waters. I also want to thank whoever decided to use the picture of my fly tying room. It has evolved from that same desk being jammed into a small area in our previous home to my Fortress of Solitude at our new home on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State.
Mary S. Kuss
For Bob C: Many people find labeling fly box compartments helpful. I’ve even known some folks who would label individual flies by writing the pattern size and name on a tiny slip of paper and impaling it on the hook. If you’re buying flies rather than tying them, knowing the pattern name is very important—especially if you don’t recognize the pattern on sight. I used to clerk in a fly shop, and I can’t tell you how many times a customer would come in having used the last one they had of some very effective pattern and now wanting to buy more. They did not know the pattern name nor the hook size. They would tell me something like, “It was brown and fuzzy and about this big,” holding up thumb and index finger a certain distance apart. I would point at our fly display with it’s several-hundred boxes and tell them to take a look and see if they could find it. Sometimes if we weren’t busy I’d try to help, but the failure rate was high.
Mary S. Kuss
For Sasquatch…..there are lots of essential fly pattern lists out there. A few flies make most of them, such as Hare’s Ear and Pheasant Tail nymphs, and Woolly Buggers. The problem is that what fly patterns are “essential” is very context-sensitive depending on where are you fishing, what you are fishing for, and at what time of year. Personal preference is also a big factor, no one’s “must have” list is identical to anyone else’s. Rather than trying to fill out a general list, why not concentrate on what you’ll need for the next fishing you plan to do? I’d suggest for starters visiting or checking the website of a fly shop near you for ideas. Most shops have a current “hot patterns” fly list. Or look on-line for a fly fishing club near you, attend a meeting and ask for advice. Repetition is indeed the key to fly tying competency. Pick a likely pattern and tie it until you are happy with your results. Then try something else. Skipping from one thing to another is fun but much less effective in advancing your skill level. Hope that’s helpful.
Bob Christmann
To solve the problem of the empty compartment or what the name of the particular fly is (Like Frenchie, Rainbow Warrior, Red Dart being similar and often can’t remember in my old age) I label my box compartments with a fine tip sharpie so I can remember. The marker tends to wear off in time so refresh yearly and keep a record or take a picture.
I have a different brand but something like this would work:
https://www.jsflyfishing.com/products/slim-fly-box-with-compartments?pos=2&_sid=4f5184b3f&ss=r
Mary S. Kuss
Thanks for all of the kind comments. True confessions, though. That beautiful fly tying room pictured is not mine (read the fine print caption). Wish it was, mine is a lot more cluttered and much less attractive. But it works for me!
Sasquatch
Good evening fellow tyers…. I am rather a newbie tire and I also want to welcome my soon to be wife to the wonderful world of fly tying and fishing. The question I have for everyone is what are some of the popular patterns that are a must have in the fly box. I’ve tied a few basic ones but really don’t know what I’m doing. I know repetition is key. Problem is is I’m not sure which patterns that are absolutely necessary and which ones are just for a fun time. Could somebody please give me a few patterns that are necessary. Thank you so much for your time and trouble…
Randy Boehmer
Very well scripted and pertinent article. I particularly liked your comments and approach on mass production prepping for tying.. I tied commercially for Orvis in the 70’s and early 80’s. New materials and were just starting to evolve then, and changing some of how patterns were going to be tied!! Randy Boehmer
Freddy
Your tying area looks so welcoming and the paneled walls are gorgeous! Thanks for the blog article! I especially enjoyed the scissors-in-hand part because I am working on that, and then I bail. I will make another attempt, and bail again … repeatedly (hee hee). Will I keep trying, or give up completely? Time will tell. I don’t have large hands so I’ll continue for others that might be in the same “trying to figure out if this will work for me or not” scenario. There are specific cutting tasks I do, like prepping materials for a dozen or more flies, when I’ll keep the scissors in hand, comfortably, and without any issues. Then there are times while tying the flies, the scissors are in my way. I believe I “want” to be able to always hold them so I keep trying. I’m almost at that happy place when I know when or not and while I’m still typing about this, it is as you said, a personal choice > no right – no wrong, tie flies and do what works for “you”. Be comfortable at the vise and just have fun. All the best – Freddy
Bob Betts
Your blog tickled me. The photo of your immaculate fly tying area gave me a huge guilt trip. I am working feverishly to clean up my fly tying room, but I have a long way to go. It got out of hand while I have been tying sample flies and bagging materials for my classes for the Fredericksburg Project Healing Waters, the annual Quantico Fly Tying Marathon, and individual one-on-one classes. My New Years Resolution is to get my fly tying room back to where it should be. I follow A.K. Best in his tome, Production Fly Tying. Unless it is a wholly new pattern, I don’t tie a fly completely from beginning to end. I separate the steps and tie a dozen or so of each step. I get much better results.
Jay Rusek
Hi Mary
It was an honor to watch and get detailed instructions while you tied the Clouser Foxie Minnow at the Dame Julian League get together last week. The materials required are on the way from J Stockards and I look forward to using your recipe for success in the very near future. Thank you
Richard Frank
Nice,,concise blog Mary. I’m a fly tying procrastinator, and I end up kicking myself for not doing more winter tying. One way I’ve found to deal with my infirmity is to arrange a fly swap with a few friends. This winter two friends and I are tying a dozen for each of the other participants. The challenge this year is to limit the patterns to three materials. Different colors of the same materials count as one material. It’s a great way to think about substitutions for some pattern that uses four or more materials. One of my friends has completed her flies. I haven’t even started. There’s a March deadline. No problem. ;-)
Mary S. Kuss
Thanks for the affirmation, Rob, re scissors in hand. How boring it would be if we all did exactly the same things with our tying.
Rob Matarazzo
Thanks Mary, for your comments about not keeping your scissors always in hand. My feelings exactly. Unless you’re a commercial tier, it’s not an efficiency contest. Not to mention that I might be using two, sometimes three different scissors to tie a given fly. That doesn’t play into keeping your scissors always in hand..
Mary S. Kuss
Sorry it’s taken me so long to get back here. You know, the holidays and all. Kevin makes a very good point. If you have the time and interest to do a lot of tying, you’re bound to generate a surplus that can be shared with a variety of worthy causes. And repetition is the only way dial in your skills. I encourage my tying students to choose a pattern and tie at least a dozen (my favorite number) of them. Lay them out in order from left to right as you tie, then check for quality and consistency.
Kevin Brugman
The author talks about tying a dozen of the same flies. I would suggest adding a bunch more and giving them to a valid charity of your choice, Casting for Recovery, the Mayfly project, Healing Waters, or Wounded Warriors to name a just a few and there are other equally valid local fly fishing charity opportunities. This does at least two things, the most obvious being helping the charity and (selfishly) greatly improving your fly tying skills.