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Advanced
aimed at advanced tyers and anglers

Tom's reel

DIY: This is a first! Rod building is common, but how about making your own fly reel? Dutch Tom Biesot takes us through the process of making a beautiful home made fly reel, step by step and in meticulous detail with tonnes of pictures.
Follow the process here.

LeaderCalc2007

Upgrade!: One of GFF's all-time most popular articles and downloads just got better! Download two new upgrades for FREE! 1) Leadercalc2007, enhanced with new formulas and label making features and 2) the all new GFF's Leader Guide, a 28-page PDF book you can use for your classroom or personal use.
Take me to the downloads now!
Skip to "Czech Nymphing"

Czech Nymphing
Directly to "The Trout and the Fly"

Trout and Fly
Proceed to "Bamboo rod building, part 7" here

Bamboo part 7
Find "Tying Small Flies by Ed Engle" here

Tying Small Flies
Go to the article "C&F tube body tool"

C&F tube body tool
Go to the article "Streamers Of Bert Quimby"

Bert Quimby
Directly to "Taking Trout by Dave Hughes"

Taking Trout
Directly to "Mayflies: Top to Bottom by Shane Stalcup"

Stalcup's Mayflies
Skip to "Real Enough!"

Real Enough!
Proceed to "Realism, Thorntons Way" here

Realistic Flies
Jump to "Bamboo rod building, part 6"

Bamboo part 6
See "Producing hand tied leaders" by clicking here

Production leaders

  
 Go to Bamboo part 5
Bamboo part 5
Harry Boyd teaches us the tools and techniques required to turn strips of bamboo into tapered sections of a fly rod in Part 5 of his continuing series - Planing to Taper.
  
 Go to Bamboo part 4
Bamboo part 4
Split cane: In the fourth installment of Harry Boyd's series on bulding bamboo fly rods, he describes the tools and processes of binding strips together and then heat-treating them in some sort of oven. Read more in Part 4 - Binding and Heat Treating
  
 Go to Bamboo part 3
Bamboo part 3
This is the third section of Harry Boyd's continuing bamboo rod course. Here we begin to mold the raw bamboo into something that approaches the shape and form of a fly rod, and the real fun begins. Read more in Part 3 - Staggering Nodes and Rough Planing.
  
 Go to Bamboo part 2
Bamboo part 2
Part II - Select, Prep, and Split Bamboo: Harry Boyd continues his series on the construction of bamboo fly rods with a look at selecting, preparing, and splitting your culms of tonkin bamboo. See the article here.
  
 Go to Bamboo part 1
Bamboo part 1
Harry Boyd tells us "Since Hiram Leonard and the earliest days of fly fishing in our country, the allure of fine spilt bamboo rods has been part of the magic of our sport." Read Harry's introduction to his series of articles on building bamboo fly rods.
  
 Go to Shooting heads
Shooting heads
In this article I will try to cover some advantages and disadvantages of the shooting head over the WF line, and I will thoroughly describe the way you can configure a good shooting head system for your rod. The article will teach you how to calculate, make and trim a shooting head. It will also tell you how to cast it - just on the introductory level.
  
 Go to QwikCalc
QwikCalc
Want to use LeaderCalc but don't have access to MS-Excel? No problem! We at GFF recognize that many of you have been missing out on the extensive capabilities of LeaderCalc in helping you design your own tapered mono leaders.
Furled leaders DIY
The following description on how to make your own twined leaders was given to me by Henk Verhaar from Holland. Henks description fascinated me so much, that I made the first set of three leaders already the first night after having recieved the description.
  
 Go to Good floss work
Good floss work
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.
  
 Go to Muddler mania
Muddler mania
It should be no secret that I'm a great fan of muddlers. These functional, characteristic and very beautiful flies that I connect directly with my favorite kind of fishing: night fishing for sea trout in the ocean. The technique used for tying them has always fascinated me, and although I do tie a lot of them, I still have a lot to learn in respect to spinning deer hair.
  
 Go to Thread control
Thread control
If you ever saw skilled tyers tie, you'll probably have noticed that many of them keep spinning the bobinholder more or less vividly every time the let go of it. If you didn't notice, try looking the next time you see a 'pro' tie.
  
 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 Blend your own dubbing
Blend your own dubbing
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!
  
 Go to Braided sleeve and silicone tubing
Braided sleeve and silicone tubing
There's an easy way to attatch the leader or backing to the fly line, and that's by using a piece of silicone tubing.
Dyeing material
This small section with advice on dyeing fly tying materials was made after a discussion took place on the European fly fishing mailing lis. The text was put together from input from several people of this list: Graham Ward, John Davies, Pat Orpen and myself.
  
 Go to Ib Olsen's cane rods
Ib Olsen's cane rods
How Ib Olsen builds his beautiful rods ...and some elementary notes. Article and drawings by Preben Torp Jacobsen
  
 Go to The Salmon Fly Proportion, Design & Layout Guide
The Salmon Fly Proportion, Design & Layout Guide
The first rule of salmonfly tying is preparation...gathering your materials, laying them out and sizing up the situation. If you are like me, many times you will have one material that is just a touch too short and you scramble to make it fit. But in the long run, it will never fit and the fly that you meticulously hovered over for many precious hours has that major flaw. More importantly, you'll never be happy with the finished product. If only you had pre-planned and sized up your materials ahead of time.
George F. Grant’s Flies
George F. Grant's flies utilize some very special techniques.
  
 Go to Selecting deer hair
Selecting deer hair
Choosing the right hair will make your deer hair flies - Comparaduns, EHC's, Muddlers, bass bugs - much easier to tie. By Chris Helm
  
 Go to The anatomy of a feather
The anatomy of a feather
On order to be able to talk about our favourite passtime - fly tying - it's important that we use the same language. I hope to be able to clear the fog a bit in this area. By Wayne Luallen
  
 Go to Juro Mukai's shooting head setup
Juro Mukai's shooting head setup
Juro Mukai is a old aquaintant from the Flyfish@ mailing list. I had the pleasure of fishing with him in the Seattle area, and was intrigued by the 'modular' line setup that he uses on his two hand spey rod for steelhead.
  
 Go to Micropatterns
Micropatterns
With this book you get your moneys worth in weight. The book is a large format book with more than 300 pages. The size alone can make this book a bit scary, and innocent flytyers who leaf through it, will probably be intimidated by the huge volume of information.
  
 Go to Stacking material
Stacking material
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. By Wayne Luallen
  
 Go to Production Fly Tying
Production Fly Tying
The fascinating thing about AK is, that you start believing him and that many of his methods make sense. His approach is very personal, and he doesn't try to hide this.
  
 Go to Anatomy of A Salmon Fly
Anatomy of A Salmon Fly
Advice on how to lay out a good classical salmon fly.