Slide Inn Q&A #17 - Getting Started in Fly Tying with Kelly Galloup
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- Опубліковано 8 вер 2024
- In this Q&A segment, Kev from Asheville writes:
" I guess I'm a little late with this. I was wondering about beginning tying. I have been fishing my entire life. I have made my own bass lures, etc., but I have never tried fly tying. I have no idea where to even start. I have watched all of your videos that I can find, including the "which vise to buy" video, and they were all very informative. Thank you for the awesome information. My question is probably too vague for a simple answer, but I was wondering where to start with fly tying. I want to make my own streamers all different sizes for trout and bass. I also do a lot of nymphing, so I want to be able to tie up my own pheasant tails, hare's ears, etc. I don't know what tools, materials, etc. that I would need to accomplish this. If you have time, could you please recommend some tools, thread sizes (and brands I guess), and just whatever else you can think of that I might need to accomplish my mission. I know I can learn by watching videos, but there isn't much information that I can find on which tools to buy first, differences in materials, and things of this nature. Id prefer to spend a little more $ up front than to have to rebuy anything a few months down the line. Any guidance, advice, or direction would be greatly appreciated!"
Thanks Kelly! I’m going on about a year and a half and it started by finding my late father’s old antique vice..Oh, I’m gonna tie my own fly, and I did..now with thousands of materials and a few tools, I could open a fly shop😂. I really enjoy it, you have literally helped me to no end with your videos and I Thank you immensely 👍👍 🎣. Best wishes and God Bless
True expert who can provide information in a very well structured, easy to understand way and will point out what is of utmost importance to know for a relevant audiance according to the topic being covered. Well done and take care!
Not once did you try to make a buck on this video. To all: I've been shopping at slide inn/ Kelly's for close to 20 years and he is a true ambassador to fly fishing. Stop by the shop this year and buy some gear so he can continue these videos 👍
Ya, after meeting Kelly at his shop this last summer and having a short BS session, I came to realize hes the the kind of guy that would give the shirt off his back. Down to earth and willing to teach and learn, not above you. Heck, he told me NOT to buy one of his videos because he ties them here on UA-cam. I will do my best to buy what I need form his website /store from now on.
We should do what we can to help him with his poor salesmanship :)
Kelly if your reading this, both Aric's with an "A" say Hello and Thank you.
I agree, Kelly is a true ambassador of the sport. He seems to be a person who you would always be able to always enjoy a cup of coffee with.
@@fillmorecorpus9102 stop by the store there's always a pot brewing. If it's not busy Kelly's always good for a memorable story. He has a great one about jack Dennis in his birthday suit 😯
@@glencamblin Thanks, will do that. A lot of times the stories, conversations and coffee are just as much about it as seeing your fly get sucked under.
Kelly, thanks for the great info. I always get great stuff out of your videos. I appreciate that you help both the advanced tier and the beginner.
The one tool that might come in useful would be a bobbin threader. Poor guy is probably sitting at home trying to push the thread through the bobbin 😀.
Kelly, first, I am a big fan, you have been most helpful, fishing, tying, rigging, thanks. My problem: every time I watch a video about tying a certain fly, there is a list of materials and I NEVER have the materials, regardless of the of the fly. Well that is slight exaggeration, but I think you get my point. I wish I could get to the point where I could say, damn I could sub this a get along just fine...…….
I am just ranting a bit.
I recently moved and had to pack all of my crap, damn, I think I could start my own shop. Before I could get set up and back in business, I bought flies locally, but at $3 a nymph, I gotta get back in!!!!
Thanks again,
Nick
Kelly, you do realize that you're a sick man, but in a good sorta way. You help people acquire your sickness (some might say passion, but we know the truth) about fly tying. I have gotten a bunch of good information from you. Something I have done is get my hunting buddies to let me have the buck tails and squirrel tails from their hunts. Heck, I even stop and pick up road kill if it's fresh. I thoroughly enjoy your videos. I do see that talking too much has rubbed off on your young protege Gunnar, but that's what makes you two good, you give the reasoning behind what you do. Kinda the thinking man's fly tyer. Keep the good sickness coming our way.
Ha Johnny, I collect road kill TOO! Be sure to check with your state's hunting laws, I'm in Ohio and you have to have a hunting license and what you collect has to be in season or it is considered poaching.
@@gregkirchner1108 dont u love are "government" let it rot and stink up the area is all good but don't dare touch a flippin squirrel that got hit or we will have u up on charges.
It is interesting when you talk about bodkins, because I am still (after 30 years) using the needle I used when I was threading minnows onto a double minnow hook. I guess I'll buy a bodkin, if or when I loose or misplace the needle.
HA! I bought material for one fly a bunch of times... Now I'm over $5K into it and I have enough fly's to loose one on every cast and still burden my kids with them when I croak...but I have an Idea on a new pattern...
Only tool I'd add is a hair stacker, and I can't recommend Kelly's enough. So much better than the old style tube stackers.
If my 2 cents are worth anything, i have found that i rarely use hackle pliers any more. I find it just as easy to hold it in my fingers. I also don't break feathers as much
My suggestion. Watch on eBay for someone selling their stuff on a OBO auction. Usually this is a starter kit + materials threads and particularly hooks beads etc. Someone else spent 100 on a kit 100 on materials and 100 on hooks. And it's 70 bucks. When you then upgrade your vice and add stuff you can sell or gift the starter tools or I have that vice in my coffee table to tie watching tv
Hello Kelly. Great video. I’ve been trying to find out where I can buy the MFC 7052 streamer hook. I’ve looked at every place I buy some off my hooks but can’t find the ones you showed us in the video you done two weeks ago. Could you help me out please. Thank you my friend. Oh keep those videos coming. Best Regards , Ken
Ken, We have them available on our online store and you can find them at this address: www.slideinn.com/product/mfc-7052-hook/
Kelly, this thing of how to create a starter kit also comes up in another context too. For those of us who have been making flies for thirty years. One finds oneself working far away from home, and one is thinking about going home again for that 'one week' in the 12-months and doing some fly fishing. Those of us who have been doing it a long time have maybe half a dozen 'go to' fly patterns that we just have to have (or maybe less). The problem arises then, when you might be on one side of the country living from a suitcase, and one's fly tying bench is on the other side a few hundred miles away. So often times, even those of us who have been doing this a long time even, have to put together one of these minimalist sets of materials and tools. One really has to cut it down to the basics. And that's exactly what we do. We carry materials to make one or two flies at a time. Because with one or two flies made with the right amount of attention, that caters for seventy percent of what you may need on any fishing trip. It will get you by. So those of us on the more experienced end of the spectrum are frequently presented with exactly the same task as that beginner is faced with. And we tend to solve the problem in exactly the same way. It can get reduced down to a toilet bag for tools and a toilet bag for materials. And that's it.
On the thread thing, I learned my thread sizes a while back. And I came to more or less the same conclusion. For twenty years, I can recall that we tied with nothing only a 140 Denier thread. And for a lot of far less gifted fly tyers I've taught over the years (who have actually caught many more trout and salmon than I will ever catch), they managed fine using 140 Denier thread. I always use 70 Denier spools myself now (where you're getting down to like the 10/0 on the other scale for GSP, or the Danville spools). But it's taken me the best part of thirty years to evolve the necessary amount of thread control needed to use 70 Denier (my 30 Denier or 18/0 GSP stuff came over the holidays in various brands, and I'm looking forward to doing something with that new thread). But for a lot of hobby fly tyers, using the 140 Denier thread is going to be a lot, lot more forgiving in all kinds of ways. It can be a bit bulky for my tastes nowadays on small hook sizes. But for a long of fishermen I know, they use Size 10 trout hooks and the 140 Denier or Danville 3/0 thread is ideal. I'd steer them towards that each time. I'll get a lot of breakages using the 70 Denier (which means I just add a few whip finishes occasionally, in case I get a break). The advantages of 6/0 thread are outweighed heavily for many folks by the higher frequencies of breakages that you're going to get. And it's nice to learn on ordinary nylon I think, without having to jump straight to GSP. Everyone should start with nylon or silk threads. It's weaker but also feels less artificial.
There is one other side aspect to the notion of having materials enough, to make one single fly. And that is un-related to fly tying at all. I was reading Salmon Angling by Hugh Falkus at the weekend, and he explained that a 'black' fly was all that one needed to catch salmon with. He made his flies with yellow, orange and gold pieces along with black strands in his flies. He admitted, that was only because they looked pretty to him in the fly boxes. Hugh Falkus is one of the giants of British fly angling, or all time. In Episode 188 of Meat Eater, Stephen Rinella interviews Yvon Chouinard who actually created a sporting outdoor garments and equipment company. A gigantic company, and Yvon fished with one fly for a whole years once. And he said, he got better and better as a fishermen when he learned to fish that one fly properly. The problem nowadays, is that with ease of access to 'media'. Is that fly tying patterns, videos, books, magazines are coming at us from every angle. There is no filter any longer. One has access nowadays to a plethora of far too many types of fly pattern. More than one will ever need in three or four life times.
If there was one single contribution to the literature on fly fishing that I would have to consider writing. It's very simple to me. It would have to be a book to explain the small, simple trout fly.
Why? Part of the problem with 'fly tying' videos basically, is that teachers start off by teaching beginners how to make flies that are 'simple to make'. And that is where the thread all metaphorically starts to unravel. That is where it all gets unstuck. There is no more diverse and differentiated category of flies in existence than the one of 'small, simple trout fly'. One tribe is completely different in its language and custom to another. That context or explanation now often doesn't come with the description of how to make the fly itself. That has become lost.
It is worth actually listening to Yvon Chouinard. He disciplined himself at one stage to going back to just one fly. While it may be easy for the beginner to learn how to make one of the many members of the category of small, simple trout fly. From a fly tying perspective. From a fishing perspective, it can take a whole lifetime to understand the subtle differences in how one goes about fishing, one type of 'small, simple trout' fly as opposed to another. And they are all different. That book to help the beginner fly fisherman or woman, learn something about the differences between different 'small, simple trout fly' patterns (from the fishing perspective, not the fly tying perspective). That book hasn't been written yet by anyone.
To conclude, one of the best made and illustrated, but worst fly fishing books that I own is a book with a hundred of the best 'small, simple trout' fly patterns in it. Every pattern is described in a double page spread. Each double page spread shows you how to 'make' each of the hundred small, simple trout flies. It's a great book in one way from a fly tying learning perspective. Everything is in it. It's also the absolute worst fly fishing book that I have. Because you will end up more confused after, than before you read it. You'll be able to make different flies (sort of like an painter who is able to copy all of the great masters). But you'll have no idea why one fly should matter instead of another. It's the one book about fly fishing 'for beginners' that has never been written. The book explaining how to distinguish one small, simple trout fly from the other. Armed with that knowledge, any novice fly fisherman could walk into any store and purchase or make what flies they wanted. And know what to do with those flies too, to some extent. But that book has not been written. And an avalanche of 'content' nowadays coming at fly fishermen from all angles, the requirement for this book has never been more urgent.
Hi Kelly,
Could You please tie a Smoke Wagon and tell us a bit of a story behind this fly?
Greetings from Poland
All the best =)
Theres a video up for that, search for it!
How do I get a copy of your tutorial?
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