Tie Better - Learn to tie better flies - Tying methods, tricks and tips - Become a better fly tyer - Global FlyFisher

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Learn to tie better flies

Tying methods, tricks and tips - Become a better fly tyer

Jock Scott

Obsessed: Some might consider it a bit mad or even crazy, but when Danish Niels Have ties full dressed, classic Jock Scott salmon flies, he ties them by the dozen... and then he fishes with them!
Read about Niels' approach here

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 Dry Fly Hackle" is found here

Buying Dry Fly Hackle

Shopping: Learn what to look for when buying feathers for dry fly hackle. How to choose the right saddles or necks and get the most and the best feathers for your purpose.
Get some buying tips here.

Go to "Buying Deer Hair"

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.

Find "Buying Bucktail" on this page

Buying Bucktail

Shopping: What to look for when buying bucktail, a cheap and easily accessible and very useful fly tying material. Learn how to get the best quality for streamers, saltwater patterns and pike flies.
Get some buying tips here.

See "What to look for when byuing..." by clicking here

What to look for when byuing...

Shopping: This article will give some tips on buying tying materials, and go through different groups of common materials like hackle, bucktail, skins and other fly-tying supplies.
Find the tips here

Click to see "My first flies"

My first flies

Beginner: I honestly don't remember exactly how many years ago I started tying flies, but a rough calculation says about 30 years. A lot has happened since then - luckily!
See some of them here

Go to the article "Duck's extended body"

Duck's extended body

Body work: Roger Duckworth shows an innovative and extremely easy technique to make durable extended bodies for mayflies, caddis, and stoneflies, and he shows a way of hackling the dry flies so that the hackle is under the body but above the hook so that it supports the fly more like the natural.
See how it's done here

Click to go to "The tube fly needle"

The tube fly needle

Toolbox: If you are embarking on the tube fly tying journey and don't have the tools, don't despair. A simple and inexpensive tapered needle is all you need - or maybe a couple.
Read what and how here

Click to go to "New tube materials"

New tube materials

Tube flies: It's been some years since The Global FlyFisher's huge article series on tube flies started, and a lot of things have happened in the tube materials market. We try to catch up.
Read about the latest tube developments here

"Christmas gifts" is found here

Christmas gifts

Holiday: We haven't ever done any of these traditional Christmas articles before. Lists of stocking stuffers are very common everywhere, but this is the first ever on GFF. We have spotted 24 new and classic Christmas gifts for the angler, fly-tyer or just outdoors person.
Be generous here

Click to go to "Fleye Foils"

Fleye Foils

Foiled: 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.
See more here

Skip to "A very versatile material"

A very versatile material

Birding: 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.
What's not to like?

Go to "Steaming your materials"

Steaming your materials

Material handling: Steaming materials has a fantastic effect! Feathers, fur, hair deserves some steam. You will be amazed what a little vaporized water can do.
Put on the kettle here

Go to Flats in the cold

Flats in the cold
Flatwings - "the new black" in Denmark and Sweden. Are they really that good. Not too big for casting? For the trout? Will they twist? Are they better than other sand eel imitations? Are they better suited for pike? Kill your skepticism and take a

Go to Washing your materials

Washing your materials
If you never tried washing a newly bought saddle, neck or bucktail, it's about time you try! Proper treatment can transform the useless to useful and the mediocre to sublime.

Go to Zonker patterns

Zonker patterns
This article features a handful of zonker patterns, which we cover in connection with our thorough theme on tying zonker flies and cutting or buying zonker strips.

Go to Cutting and buying zonker strips

Cutting and buying zonker strips
Here's a description of how to cut zonker strips yourself and some advice on getting the best store bought material - both as strips and whole skins.

Go to Zonker tying

Zonker tying
Zonkers are great looking flies with a lot of volume and motion, and the zonker style lends itself well to many types of small fish and worm imitations.

Go to Squirrel Zonker

Squirrel Zonker
This is an update to one of the first patterns ever featured on the Global FlyFisher. The old article about this fly is from 1996, and has been in the site with its scanned B/W picture since then.

All articles from this section...

·A Mad Epoxy Tier
·A portable fly tying kit
·A very versatile material
·Anatomy of a salmon fly
·Angel Body
·Applying dubbing
·Baby Buggers
·Bead chain eyes
·Beads and eyes
·Better tinsel bodies
·Better-Winged Olives
·Blend your own dubbing
·Bobs Garage
·Brush eyes
·Buying Bucktail
·Buying Deer Hair
·Buying Dry Fly Hackle
·Buying soft hackle
·C&F tube body tool
·Christmas gifts
·Classics
·Cleaning fly tying material
·Cleaning hair
·Cluster Egg Fly
·Colored Mono Eyes
·Coloring Raw Tubes
·Comparadone!
·Cone head flies
·Coney flies
·Cutting and buying zonker strips
·Czech Nymphing
·Danish tube fly inspiration
·DIY brushes and combs
·DIY Epoxy Rotor
·Dogma framing
·Dubbing Techniques
·Duck's extended body
·Dyeing material
·Everyday Fly Tying Tips
·Eyes from pearls
·Eyes of Epoxy
·Favorite Flies for Baltic Seatrout
·Feather Definitions
·Fill-the-box
·Flash tail
·Flats in the cold
·Flexible bench
·Fleye Foils
·Foam flies for panfish
·G-String Eyes
·George F. Grant’s Flies
·Good floss work
·Good, Bad, and Ugly
·Great Lakes Irish Invaders

·Hairwings & Tubes
·Hen Hackle
·Hen Hackle Demystified
·HiVis CDC Midge
·Honey Shrimp
·Hook anatomy
·Hook selection
·Hooks break
·Hoppers with Foam
·Hospitalized kids need your flies!
·Hot melt glue
·How simple can it get?
·How to submit a pattern to GFF
·Hyperclomplete guide to fly tying
·Innovative Saltwater Flies
·Jack Plotts' Foam flies
·Jock Scott
·Jungle Cock Repair
·Kern's Perfect Leo Shrimp
·Kluting
·Light Curing Resins
·Major Traherne's flies
·Make your own dubbing wax
·Martin's Mundane Fly Project
·Material shopping
·Mix your own dubbing
·Monofilament eyes
·Muddler mania
·Mustad hooks
·My Eyes!!
·My first flies
·New Stuff
·New tube materials
·North Country flies on blind hooks
·Oatman's Silver Darter
·OEDDS
·Palmer hackling
·PeeMew Midge
·Phloating Eyez
·Picking hackle
·Picric acid
·Raising chickens
·Real Enough!
·Rotary vices
·Seatrout flies for 2012
·Selecting deer hair
·Selecting hooks for saltwater
·Shrimp anatomy for the fly tyer
·Spey & Dee
·Spey Hackles
·Spotless fly
·Squirrel Zonker
·Stacking material
·Steaming your materials

·Styles and Patterns
·Surf Candy
·The anatomy of a feather
·The Bloody Zonker
·The Cautery
·The CDC & Elk family
·The history of the gold bead
·The Junior Mysis
·The Killer Mantis
·The Locofoam Story
·The nature of feather construction
·The nature of feather construction - Intro
·The Paraloop Way
·The Real Rag Worm
·The Salmon Fly Proportion, Design & Layout Guide
·The Tabou Caddis Emerger
·The tube fly needle
·The Ugliest Flies
·The Welded Phly
·Thread control
·Tie a muddler
·Toilet ring dubbing wax
·Tool turning
·Tour de France
·Tube Basics
·Tube Fly Turmoil
·Tube Ressources
·Tube Styles
·Tube Tools
·Tube Tying Techniques
·Tying a muddler
·Tying Emergers
·Tying on hard hair wings
·Tying Station
·Tying the Matuka style
·Tying with CDC
·Unsinkable flies
·Upgrading the Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear
·Veevus Q&A
·Visiting Partridge of Redditch
·Wadington shanks
·Wash-n-Dry Dubbing
·Washing your materials
·Wasp Year
·Wet fly hackle
·What to look for when byuing...
·Whip fisnish with your hands
·Whipfinish video
·Wiggle Jig Worm
·Wingless Wets
·Woodduck Flank
·Zonker patterns
·Zonker tying

Patterns
·Jock Scott
·Genner Bug
·The Chicken or Pasta Fly
·Ken's Incredibly Simple Shrimp
·Mickey Finn
·The Bat Fly
·Goldmine Crab
·Streamers 365
·The Test Tube
·Tight Line Shrimp
More...

Fish Better
·Tom's Line Winder
·Dicentrarchus labrax
·Christmas gifts
·Interview with a trout
·Uncharted Waters Q&A
·Itu's Bones Q&A
·Hatch Q&A
·Trout beads
·Lake Vintter
·Fish safely
More...

Gallery
·On a white background
·Fishy photos: Pasi Visakivi
·Yves Laurent
·Reflections
·Adriano Manocchia
·Sam MacDonald
·Super simple fly photos
·Fishing in New York
·Fishy photos: Michael Jensen
·David Miller
More...

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