beginner fly tying tips

Since I see more members starting to tie their own flies here are a few ‘rule of thumb’ to help in material usage.
 
Dry fly ties. These tips should keep your dries floating longer and proportioned to land upright most of the time.
Bodies; use fur/materials that do not absorb water such as; muskrat, beaver, mink, quills and herl. Superfine dry fly dubbing.
Proportions:
Tail= length of hook shank
Hackle= rooster capes or stiff non-webbed saddle hackle. Should be length of hook shank
Wing; length of hook eye to back of hook bend. Again non-webbed feathers/barbs
 
Nymph tying tips
There are no standard proportions in tying nymphs since there are so many shapes and sizes of the ‘fly’ you are imitating.
Body= use furs/material that absorb water such as rabbit, opossum, squirrel, fox and most other land animals.
Wing cases/shellbacks= these can be anything from pheasant barbs, peacock herl to feather barbs. Good idea to shellac the feather barbs with head cement or rod lacquer and let dry before tying on.  (I’m sure there’s other stuff to use.)
I usually use turkey feathers so I’ll shellac a whole feather and cut portions as needed.
 
Wet fly ties.
Since these are drifted under the surface in the water column both dry and wet dubbing can be used.
Tail= length of hook shank
Wing= length of tail or eye to back of hook bend, usually down wing or angled back towards tail.
Hackle= hen hackle, grouse any webbed feather than spun behind hook eye. Usually oversized for hook being used.
 
Caddis dries
Deer or elk is the most often used. These are hollow hairs and float well without absorbing water. The length is usually just above the hook bend.
You want the tips of the deer/elk hair to be even so a hair stacker is a good tool to use.
Body= best to use non-absorbing furs/material
Ribbed= if ribbing, a stiff rooster/saddle feather which is no longer than the hook point when palmered. This varies among tiers.
Head= you can trim the butts of the deer/elk hair so they are behind or above the hook eye and tie off behind the butt head.
 
Remember these are general rules but these should get you tying to proportions and help the ‘fly’ do what it’s suppose to.
Hope this helps.
                              ~doubletaper
 
 
                                                      

Sticky?

Nice job, Jer.
 For my part, I'll throw in a nice article done by Steve Swensky at FFP.
 Page down to the article "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly".
 It deals mainly in common mistakes in proportions.
 
Article:
 

Yea, there are rules in that ffp article that I don't follow either.
The reason I posted  the article was mainly on "mayfly nymph" proportions.
I used to participate in a lot of fly swaps and I'd see many nymphs tied with a thin thorax and short wing case.
Most nymphs are predominantly robust in this area.
 
The dry fly section is basic and helpful for tying a standard Catskill style dry fly on a standard sized hook.
I feel what's most important is that the distance between the tips of the tail and the tips of the hackle will keep the fly floating high, enough so that the hook point is suspended just above the water. Here, the tail and hackle proportions have more to do with floatlility. A good test after tying one of these flies is to drop it on your tying desk and see if it lands upright and with the hook point suspended. ( Sometimes I need to adjust the hackle or snip a few hackle fibers to get the fly to land perfectly upright).
 
as for the wet fly, I guess I tie a Dave Hughes type wet fly.
 
 I guess what it comes down to is that there are very few steadfast rules and some of the most productive patterns break all the rules. Go figure.
Even mayfly wing length has its discussion as to it's importance. Marinaro believed that the wing needed to be highly noticeable and tied his dries with very long hackle tips while others believe the wing is not important and never wing their dry fly.
I don't hackle my dries as heavlily when compared to the one in the article. Problably 2/3's of what he winds on. I think too much haclke gets in the way of the flies profile. I'm a profile type tier and a good dusting of Frogs Fannny will keep anything floating high and dry.
 
And of course with steelhead, anything goes. They dont't seem to inspect what they are eating or have no idea what they are eating.