Select a hackle of appropriate size for the hook being used, prepare it, and tie it in at the base of the wing. I tie in both in the front and in back of the wing post. Be certain to leave plenty of bare shaft at the base of the hackle feather so that it [...]

My friend, Theo Bakelaar, from Holland is the one who introduced gold beads into the U.S. fly tying community. To attract attention to the idea of gold beads on the heads of nymphs and other sunken imitations, he got the idea to paint his his own head with gold. Trouble was, he used spray paint [...]

After the thread has been wrapped forward to secure the tail, stop and add the body dubbing to the thread. Leave about an inch of bare thread between the hook shank and the top of the dubbing. It’s much easier to apply the dubbing very tightly when twisting it on an inch or so down [...]

The Parachute Adams is one of the best all-around emerger imitations out there. There are production tactics that make it fast and easy tie. First is the fan tail. This tail not only helps the fly position itself in the film, but also suggest a partially cast nymphal or pupal skin. Start the thread around [...]

After the abdomen is completed, a clump of peacock herl is tied in to be used to form the covert. The herl is pretrimmed so it can be tied in quickly and accurately. The thread is wrapped forward to the eye and then back to the rear of the abdomen. Dubbing is spun onto the [...]

I like to use wire to rib the GRHE because it adds just a bit of weight to the fly, helping it dive through the surface film, and, more importantly, it reinforces the body, making the fly nearly indestructible. Look very carefully at the end of the wire where it’s been wrapped on the hook. [...]

I have been asked many times to demonstrate the tying of Hair Leg Nymphs. It’s the dressing of the legs that causes most people the most problems. But there are a number of production tactics that can also be demonstrated by this imitation. So, in the next several blogs we will use the dressing of [...]

I love the Poly Caddis because it is fast to tie, rides high, can be pulled under to suggest a diving caddis, and catches fish. Gary LaFontaine used the Poly Caddis on a regular basis for just those reasons. In it’s original design, I just tied the wing in at the head and allowed it [...]

Production tying is about speed, but it is also about well-built flies. We’ve discussed the concept of pre-trimming, and that’s the secret of building great looking heads on hair-wing flies. Rather than tying in a clump of hair, and then trying to trim the butt end to give the head a nice taper, taper the [...]

When I started tying flies in 1955, I immediately realized that I was going to have a serious problem with tinsel bodies. First, there was no way that I could find to wrap the tinsel without getting a small gap here and there that showed the black thread underneath. If I ribbed the flat tinsel [...]

One of the hallmarks of good production tying is neatly dressed imitations. If the body is to be made from thin materials (such as tinsel) then the tailing materials are extended under the full length of the body (Figure 1). When the body material is wound over the tailing material, it will form a body [...]

Production tying is not about sloppy or inferior work. No, not at all. Production tying is about efficiency in tying; that is, being able to dress very nice flies with minimal confusion, error, and material waste, and doing so very readily. Preparing and winding hackle is one of those places where every tyer can gain [...]

I like my friend Theo Bakelaar’s tie-off knot so much that I have been using it on everything. As I was doing so, I realized that I could tie it faster by bringing the bobbin toward me through the loop, rather than putting it through the loop away from me. This may have been the [...]

In classical fly tying, materials are lashed to the hook, and any excess waste end is trimmed away before the materials are wound or otherwise manipulated to form a specific part of the fly. In production tying, such management of the waste materials is in itself a waste, a waste of time. Production tyers pre-trim [...]