Flymen Blog
There Are a Few Categories of Flies You Should Have in Your Fly Box at All Times.
If you're going to lace up your wading boots and go fly fishing (especially in cold weather) you should have these types of flies in your fly box: a sculpin imitation, a baitfish pattern, a wide-bodied fly, and a wild-card pattern. The four flies in this part cover these categories.
Herbert Hoover once wrote, “Fishing is much more than fish. It is the great occasion when we may return to the fine simplicity of our forefathers.” The thing to take away from that quote is our forefathers did not have Articulated Shanks, Chocklett's Body Tubing, or Sculpin Helmets to tie with. So many great materials are available now to tie virtually any kind of fly pattern you can imagine.
When tying these flies, I chose materials that move and breathe well in the water (if you've never tied with black bear, it is a wonderful material and moves great in the water). Examine the water you'll be fishing for the native baitfish and tie these patterns in according colors.
Here's How to Fit Some 'Fly Tying' in During the Holidays.
No one will be able to say you didn't help decorate!
Fly recipe
- Shanks: Fish-Skull Articulated Fish-Spine.
- Body: Deer Hair.
- Eyes: Black Foam.
- Nose: Orange Foam.
One of the Most Fun Parts of Fly Fishing Is Designing and Tying Flies.
As a fly tying instructor, I often have clients who have designed and tied a new pattern, but there is some flaw in the design (e.g. the wrong hook, articulated when it is not needed, too big, or too small) or material selection.
These are integral parts of fly design. The large cunning fish you'll be targeting know how their food choices move and will shy away from flies that do not move naturally.
Thread your bobbins.
We love tying articulated flies and if you ask us, winter is one of the best times of year to whip them up at the vise. We've seen more and more photos on social media of amazing articulated flies tied by tyers like you with shanks from the Flymen Articulated Shank family.
The flies we've seen are just the tip of the iceberg, so we're holding a fly tying contest on Instagram to help you show off your patterns to the world and give you the chance to win grand prizes from Renzetti, Taylor Fly Fishing, and Ahrex Hooks as well as weekly Flymen prize packs!
Orvis had to get in on the fun as well. If you take part in voting in the final round to decide the winner you'll have the chance to win a Helios3 Fly Rod!
It's easy to enter – tie a fly and snap a picture.
- Tie a fly that integrates a shank from the Flymen Articulated Shank family (it can be any of 6 different types of shanks) and take a photo of it.
- Post the photo on Instagram, tag @flymenfishingco, @orvisflyfishing, @renzettiinc, @taylorflyfishing, and @ahrexhooks in your post (make sure you're following all of us!), and hashtag #DestinationArticulationFlyTyingContest.
The basic principle of fly tying is to come up with a fly that imitates a fish’s choice food.
This gets a bit trickier, in my opinion, when you are imitating creatures other than insects.
A mayfly’s movement will change depending on what part of its lifecycle is occurring or if wind or weather is a factor in the hatch, whereas a creature like a frog, on the other hand, will desperately move all kinds of different ways when a hungry largemouth is chasing it.