Fly Tying Materials Advice

With so many materials available to the fly tyer we hope to offer advice inspiration and techniques to further your ideas, skills and ambition.


Do you know what hackle you need or what grade to tie your fly?

      No? ... Not a problem, we didn't either when we started and we felt silly for asking, like everyone should know these things!

Help is at hand in our easy guide for you to understand hackles and the Metz grading system a bit better to make your tying easier and knowledge greater!



Foam has been used for many years in fly tying. Fly tying foams come in many forms, as flat sheets which can be trimmed to size and used for bodies for example as bodies of grasshoppers or floating terrestrials and lures, it can be shaped as poppers used for many lures or as cylinders which can be used for bodies for exampleas a detached mayfly body or used for its buoyancy in a Foam Arsed Blob . Foam comes as open or closed cell in closed cell, in closed cell foam bubbes of air are trapped unline open cell foam which has broken adjoining cells. Open cell foam means water can flow into the foam giving it limited floating capability whereas in closed cell foam the bubbles as all closed trapping gas which is gives buoyancy. Normally for the fly tyer is that we usually use closed cell foams


What should a new fly tyer look for in a kit or should they purchase to start fly tying? There are ready made kits in the market produced by companies like Veniard ranging from tools kits to kits with tools and some feathers to ultimate fly tyers staters kits containing a vast variety of tools and materials.

So What does a person starting fly tying really need to purchase to start fly tying?

Fisker / Tubeology Plastic system is a tube syste with a difference. Plastic and metal tubes that can be cut to length to make any tube fly with interchangeable heads, clear, fluoro red, black or depth diving tungsten.

Created in Denmark the sytem is ideal for small summer salmon flies through to large predator and saltwater tube fly patterns.








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Introduction To Fly Tying Wires

Wires have have 3 primary uses in fly tying as:

  1. bodies in flies like the Copper John
  2. to add weight to a fly to help it sink or
  3. as ribbing on both dry flies and lures, nymphs and streamers.

Wires come in different guages or sizes 0.1mm, 0.2mm and 0.3mm the most common in fly tying and in a range of colours.










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