Tie Better

Tying in a feather and wrapping it … easy-peasy, right? Or maybe there’s more to it. This in-depth article looks at various ways to make a feather hackle.

Hackle or material guards help you keep stuff out of the way while you tie or varnish your fly

British Nick Thomas has come up with a way to form legs and feet using a tool we all have to hand in the kitchen, the common fork.

My adored fly tying desk. Once cherished and down through the ages worn and abused. Now cherished again.

If knotting fibers for legs for your insect imitations drive you mad, this tool can help!

Introducing a way of making nymph bodies using elastic bead cord and a knotting technique

This type of braid is found in electronics stores, but is a great new addition to the fly tyer’s arsenal of useful copper products

A bit of stacker education and stacker philosophy is due, so here it is: quite a lot of information about hair stackers

... and then there's deer hair. And it can be many different things. It is not at all that easy to find the right kind for the many patterns with this fantastic material

Flies from Dutch Hans Weilenmann's 1998/99 project SFP - Smallest Fly Page - with size 32 patterns from all over the world

#32 Rusty Rat tied by Hans Weilenman - the man behind the project

#32 Royal Coachman tied by Jack Mickievicz

#32 Shuck Raider tied by Irish fly tier Arthur Greenwood

#32 Pink Sabalo tied by Andrew Lamborne

#32 Pheasantless PTN (Beadhead) tied by US tier Bob Petti

#32 CDC Olive Parachute tied by US fly tyer Chris Knight

#32 Blue Wing Olive (BWO) tied by US tyer Agust Gudmundson

#32 Ladybug tied by US tier Bob Kenly

#32 Once and Away (emerger) tied by Dutch Hans van Klinken

Notes for a #32 Wonderbody Parachute tied by Dutch fly tier Henk Verhaar

This article teaches you how to do a proper series of step-by-step photos of a fly pattern being tied - also known as an SBS.

We challenged artificial intelligence to create a fly pattern. It went fairly well ... and then again … not quite well.

Coming up with new fly patterns is essentially like coming up with new dishes: it’s basically impossible. Everything is a variation of a variation of something that has been made before - even The Yarn Thief

This fly is unbelievably small! It was tied by me for Dutch Hans Weilenmann’s project SFP or Smallest Fly Page. The pattern was tied once in 1998 – and probably won't be again!