New Hobby!

It was a loooooooong winter this year. I wasn't able to fish at all since November. So.....I got restless and decided to pick up the next best thing.......fly tying! I bought a simple starter kit that included a vice clamp, couple of bobbins, an array of colored thread, a bodkin, whip finisher, hair stacker, hackle pliers, a video, and a rather large set of materials. I also bought a tool box to keep it all in. As I made a few flies and discovered flies I wanted to make and use, I needed to buy more supplies. I found out that this hobby is not a cheap one and contrary to what I thought, I'm not so sure I'll be saving money in the long run either. Oh well..........regardless, I now have a hobby.

I made an assortment of woolly buggers in black, yellow, olive, and brown. I made them in size 6 and 2. I decided that I enjoyed making these and other large flies more than I do the super small ones for obvious reasons.

I then made some Adams Flies in size 12 and 14 sizes. I'm not up to making any smaller than that just yet. It gets tricky. I really like how these flies turned out. They are aesthetically pleasing and actually look like something real. There is satisfaction in that.

I then decided that I truly needed to learn how to make some nymphs so I chose to start with the pheasant tail nymph. I made quite a few in sizes 10, 12, and 14 sizes. I think they turned out pretty good and I might even make a few in size 16-20 in the near future. I seem to lose lots of these so the more the merrier.

I also made some hare's ear nymphs in 12 and 14 sizes. These were a little trickier but turned out pretty well too. I'll make a bunch of these too.

Well after tying a bunch of nymphs I decided I needed some caddis flies. I made a bunch of these Elk Hair Caddis Flies in a couple sizes. They were tricky at first. All these flies required different techniques and tricks. This one was no exception.

Here are my favorites! Flying ants and regular ants are easy to make and look like an actual bug! What more can you ask for? These terrestrials were tied on size 12 and 14 hooks and I'm excited to use them.
I also learned how to tie streamers, spiders and stone flies. I'll blog these flies in the near future.