Fly tying
Fly tying is a manual process done by a single individual using hand tools and a variety of natural and manmade materials that are attached to a hook.
It is also a hobby that benefits from the fly tyer's knowledge of the insects and other food sources that fish consume in the wild.
E. C. Gregg, in his 1940 publication, stated that "The object of this book will be throughout its entirety to teach in a practical manner the Art of Fly Tying in all its branches.
The following is from Rod Fishing in Clear Waters (London 1860): Your materials being now in a state of readiness, the hook must be first tied on with waxed silk to the finest end of the hair or gut left after cutting off the curled end, in this manner (Plate vii.
2), put the point of the feather from where it is turned back with the outside next the hook, and hold it there with your left finger and thumb until you pass the silk over it, just where you left off, wrapping it twice or thrice on its downward rounds to the bend of the hook; take your scissors and cut off the root of the feather, and the superfluous gut under the bend of the hook, leaving it not quite so long as the body of the fly has to be made; take the thick end of your feather in your tweezers or pliers and wrap it over three or four times close together, following the silk wrappings until it is all, or as much as you deem sufficient, twirled on; then take your silk and pass over the end once or twice; cut off the superfluous part of the feather and wrap up the shank with the silk, evenly and regularly, to form the body of the fly, and fasten off by a loop-knot or two; or, if you want a thick-bodied fly or one of flossed silk, turn down again and fasten off at the shoulder; cut off the silk left, set the feather right with your needle and finger and thumb, and the fly is made or dressed.
A Book of Trout Flies – Jennings (1935),[6] Streamside Guide to Naturals & Their Imitations – Art Flick (1947), Matching the Hatch.. Schweibert (1955),[10] Selective Trout - Swisher and Richards (1971),[11] Nymphs - Schweibert (1973),[12] Caddisflies - LaFontaine (1989),[13] Prey - Richards (1995) are a few 20th-century titles that deal extensively with imitating natural prey.
From a human perspective, many fly patterns do not exactly imitate fish prey found in nature, but they are nevertheless successful.
These additional terms are inconsistently but commonly associated with trout-fly patterns because of their huge variety, both historical and contemporary.
The term Attractor pattern has been applied to flies which resemble nothing in particular but are successful in attracting strikes from fish.
The huge range of fly patterns documented today for all sorts of target species—trout, salmon, bass and panfish, pike, saltwater, tropical exotics, etc.—are not easily categorized as merely imitative, attractors, searching or impressionistic.
Traditional materials were threads, yarns, furs, feathers, hair, tinsels, cork, balsa and wire.
Rabbit, mink, muskrat, fox, bear, squirrel, deer, elk, and moose hair and other furs are commonly incorporated into artificial flies.
Synthetics such as rubber legs, foam bodies, plastic wings, transparent plastic cords, chenilles, and all sorts and colors of flashy materials that can be incorporated into the wings and bodies of today's artificial fly are available to the fly tyer.
Silicone, epoxy, kevlar materials are regularly incorporated into modern artificial fly patterns.
Typically the fly tyer will encounter patterns classified as dry, wet, soft hackle (wet fly with hackle collar), emerger, nymph, scud (freshwater crustaceans), terrestrial (hoppers), streamer, salmon (Atlantic), Steelhead trout and Pacific salmon, bass, popper, panfish, Carp, saltwater, Northern pike, Bonefish, or musky fly patterns.
Fly tying is a challenging and rewarding hobby for some, a money-saving strategy for others, and a profitable commercial enterprise for the professional tyer.
