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Beginners
Aimed at beginning tyers and anglers

Buying soft hackle

Shopping: The soft hackle is supposed to be - as the name implies - soft. Soft hackle can come from many birds. Chickens, gamebirds like partridge, grouse and quail, pheasant and even crows and jackdaws.
Learn how to select the right here

Buying Deer Hair

Shopping: In this chapter of our series we look at what to look for when buying deer hair for fly tying. Get the right material whether you are going to use it for caddis wings or for spinning bass bugs.
Get some buying tips here.
Click to see "Buying Bucktail"

Buying Bucktail
Click to see "What to look for when byuing..."

What to look for when byuing...
Find "My first flies" on this page

My first flies
Find "Martin's Mundane Fly Project" here

Martin's Mundane
Fly Project
Go to "How to fish with more than one fly"

How to fish with more than one fly
Click to go to "The only knot"

The only knot
Click to see "Martin's Mundane Zonker Worm"

Martin's Mundane Zonker Worm
Find "Don't wade, you idiot!" here

Don't wade, you idiot!
Find "Fishing a bubble" on this page

Fishing a bubble
Click to go to "Sea Trout Gear"

Sea Trout Gear
"DIY brushes and combs" is found here

DIY brushes and combs
Jump to "Fly fishing knots"

Fly fishing knots
Videos with "Beginners - Aimed at beginning tyers and anglers" - More videos
Fly Tying Class Part #2: Tying in Materials
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This is the second in a series of fly tying classes for beginners (newbs). This video includes instruction on various ways to tie different types of materials onto the hook

  
 Go to How to act right
How to act right
Looking and behaving right on the water matters. Act or look the wrong way, and fellow anglers will spot you as a helpless beginner right away. This is the second chapter of two, and it will teach you what to do in order to get some stream cred.
  
 Go to How to look good
How to look good
Appearance and behavior are two very important aspects of fly fishing. Act or look the wrong way, and fellow anglers will immediately judge you as an amateur. This first chapter of two will teach you what to wear and carry.
  
 Go to Pesca a mosca
Pesca a mosca
Yeah, it's Italian, and no, Martin doesn't read Italian! But the nice layout and the great pictures is more than enough to make him enjoy this "Complete manual of fly fishing" in Italian. And in spite of having to spell his way through a few sentences, has already learned a couple of new things.
  
 Go to Tube Basics
Tube Basics
This is the first article in the GFF Tube Fly Theme: An introduction to the concept of tube flies and some arguments for using tubes rather than hooks. The article will give you a basic knowledge about tube flies and prepare you for the rest of the theme.
  
 Go to Tube Fly Turmoil
Tube Fly Turmoil
Tube flies are flies tied on a tube rather than a hook. But putting it that simple is almost a crime, because tubes have evolved dramatically over the last few years, and bottles, rear tubes, Shomakov tubes, FITS tubes and all sorts of new systems have seen the light of day.
  
 Go to Wiggle Jig Worm
Wiggle Jig Worm
Maybe you found the previously published tandem rag worm too tandemnised and would be better off with a one-hook-only fly.Then The Wiggling Jigging Worm shown in this article is a good alternative.
  
 Go to First setup
First setup
Most of us know how, but this article is for the ones who never set up a fly reel from scratch. See which knots will work where and what type and amount of backing you most probably want. Start with this simple trout setup, and you can expand to other types.
  
 Go to Rod care
Rod care
The first part of a three part harmony about maintaining your precious fly fishing equipment - Rod, Reel And Line - by tropical fishing guide Roland Henrion. Learn how to prolong the lifespan of your fly rods.
  
 Go to Reel care
Reel care
The second part on keeping your fly fishing gear in the best possible condition. This time about reels: how to clean them, how to store them. By fishing guide Roland Henrion, whose expertise results in good and sound advice.
  
 Go to Line care
Line care
Third and last part of fishing guide Roland Henrion's article on fly fishing equipment care and maintenance. This time on the proper treatment and storage of fly lines. Tired of stiff, coiling lines that makes bird's nests?
  
 Go to Leaders&Tippets
Leaders&Tippets
This small article is a selection of questions and answers about leaders and tippets accumulated over the years. Martin Joergensen has harvested the most popular questions with the assistance of his fellow GFF partner Steve Schweitzer.
  
 Go to LL Bean Book
LL Bean Book
The L.L. Bean Ultimate Book of Fly Fishing is comprised of three previously published books - Dave Whitlock's Fly-Fishing Handbook, Macauley Lord's Fly-Casting Handbook, and Dick Talleur's Fly-Tying Handbook, all well known L.L. Bean publications.
  
 Go to Flyline Maintenance 101
Flyline Maintenance 101
Maintaining that expensive string coated with plastics and polymers is the best medicine for adding years of life your flyline. Consider cleaning flylines after every 3-5 uses or when the water is particularly dirty.
  
 Go to Baby Buggers
Baby Buggers
Wooly buggers are one of the all time most effective fish catching flies. However, if you think you need heavy tackle and lots of lead to get them to work - think again. Peter Frailey tells about his "Baby Buggers", and how well they cast and fish.
  
 Go to Montana Trout
Montana Trout
Craig Fellin, owner of Big Hole Outfitters in Montana, tells how a first time flyfisher can spend a week working with an experienced guide learning most aspects of the sport at his or her own pace. "By the end of the week, you should have a mastery of the sport" he writes.
  
 Go to The Curtis Creek Manifesto
The Curtis Creek Manifesto
Ever read any of Robert Crumb's underground comics? Or Gilbert Shelton's Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers? Liked them? Then you will probably love this book too.
  
 Go to Fly line anatomy
Fly line anatomy
My fly line doesn't understand me! And I don't understand it... This article tries to put things straight: tapers, densities, coatings, memory and all the other terms that manufacturers use for these expensive pieces of string.
  
 Go to Orvis Fly Tying Guide
Orvis Fly Tying Guide
Beginners: The Orvis Fly Tying Guide continues the tradition of Orvis "guide" books aimed at helping those new to the sport get a head start on a lifetime of learning. Read Bob Petti's review here.
  
 Go to 10 ways
10 ways
Become a better fly fisher by attending to these 10 easy ways of improvement. They are simple and logical, but many people do not even consider them in their day-to-day fishing.
  
 Go to The Overlooked Asset
The Overlooked Asset
When fly fishing, your prime assets are not the hardware you are using or the new, neat casting style you learned - it is something far less physical.
  
 Go to A portable fly tying kit
A portable fly tying kit
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.
  
 Go to Beginner's luck
Beginner's luck
European authors Chris Mann and Terry Griffiths angle for a new spin on beginner flytying books. With barely a photograph and just a small piece on materials and tools, see why this book gets a rare score on the GFF Review scale. GFF partner Steve Schweitzer reviews the book.
  
 Go to Flash tail
Flash tail
This simple method is also applicable for many other materials and situations. One that immediately comes to mind is the precise placement of tinsels or floss.
  
 Go to Hyperclomplete guide to fly tying
Hyperclomplete guide to fly tying
There are many intended uses for this guide, namely as reference to ensure you have a fairly complete compendium as to what you will need to get started in flytying or to use when dropping the perfect holiday gift hint. But more importantly, it is meant for the budding fly tyer, in hopes that the years of wisdom gained through trial and error from myself and my tying buddies will steer the newcomer down the right path
  
 Go to Knots for the fly fisherman
Knots for the fly fisherman
The discussion of knots seems endless. We probably never will know exactly which knot is the best, and the ultimate knot has not yet been tied. We list the following knots in a knot table and show how to tie them one by one -- with a little comment attached.
  
 Go to Whip fisnish with your hands
Whip fisnish with your hands
Whip finishing without a tool is not at all difficult. Lots of people use and praise the whip finishing tool which comes in many variations.
  
 Go to Applying dubbing
Applying dubbing
Dubbing must be said to be one of the most universal fly tying methods. Dubbing is mostly used for bodies, but will often form other parts of the fly as well. Using different materials and tighter or looser dubbing along with different techniques, can result in an amazing variety of body shapes and textures.
  
 Go to Better tinsel bodies
Better tinsel bodies
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.
Common casting errors
In the following little animations I will show you the most common casting errors. I observe these errors very often, but with a little practice it is very simple to correct the causes for these errors. If you know the reason for such an error it is easy to kill the cause through excercises, believe me.
  
 Go to Hook anatomy
Hook anatomy
Let's look at a hook, and try to put the right terms on the right parts. This picture shows a hook (note that it actually is a rare vertical eye hook, great for this purpose).
  
 Go to Illustrated knot table
Illustrated knot table
A test in the print magazine Fly Fisherman showed the Trilene and the Orvis knot to be equally strong and on top of that said that they were able to maintain 100% of the line strength. I really have my doubt if that will hold for all types and thicknesses of line, but still it does prove that these could be the knots of choice for the concerned fly fisher.
  
 Go to Rotary vices
Rotary vices
This section of Tie Better will deal with rotary fly tying vices. I will try to explain what a true rotary vice is, what its advatnages are and how it can be used in different steps of fly tying.
  
 Go to Tying on hard hair wings
Tying on hard hair wings
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.
  
 Go to Improving fly line control
Improving fly line control
Three ways of improving your fly line control. Line control is much more than mending
  
 Go to 500 tying tips
500 tying tips
This book is a collection of hundreds of small tying tips gathered during Dick Stewart's career as an editor of American Angler and Fly Fish America. Read the review here.
  
 Go to EZ quintet
EZ quintet
EZ flies - that's what they are in the genuine all-American-marketing-way. Five classics with their patterns modified to be fairly easy and fast to tie - not least because of the simple body construction using braided tubing.
  
 Go to Anatomy of A Salmon Fly
Anatomy of A Salmon Fly
Advice on how to lay out a good classical salmon fly.