In an article a couple of weeks ago, I talked about getting started in the art of fly-tying and acquiring the necessary tools to get into the business. Of course, once you have the tools and you begin mastering some of the basics, it is time to gather the materials needed to construct the flies you want to tie. I’ll be honest: some of the materials, like good quality hackles for tying dry flies, can be a bit pricey, but you might be surprised how much material you can acquire with very little or no cost at all.
A good bit of the flies we tie are made with natural fur, feathers, and hair from critters that roam our woods and fields. If you are a hunter, you have probably already come up with some of the needed materials. If you don’t hunt, it might be a good idea to make friends with some hunters and trappers since they can be a great source of certain materials. For example, deer hair is used to tie the Deer Hair Caddis fly, an excellent dry fly throughout the season. Squirrel tail is used to tie streamer patterns; I’m still using some of that material from squirrels I got a number of years ago, and if I run out, I know where to get some more at no cost. A rabbit’s pelt can be used to tie a Hares Ear Nymph, one of the most popular and effective nymph patterns available.
There are a lot of other hair samples you are going to want in your collection as well. Some excellent dubbing material comes from the hides of a fox, raccoon, muskrat, and even an opossum. The fox provides a light, gray-brown dubbing, while the muskrat hide can provide a gray dubbing for the bodies of a number of nymphs. Some other hair that can come in handy are bucktail, badger hair, and moose mane.
When it comes to tying flies, you’re going to find that feathers play a major role, and many feathers can be acquired without spending anything, especially if you know some duck hunters. Wood duck flank feathers make excellent wing material for several dry flies, as well as teal breast feathers and mallard breast feathers. The wing feathers of mallards, guinea hens and many other birds can be used to make wings for dry flies and wet flies. You might also want to hang on to some turkey tail feathers and especially pheasant tail feathers and long rump feathers. When it comes to tying dry flies, of course, things get a little more complicated, and the feathers required to make a dry fly float are a bit more sophisticated. The hackle or feathers from a chicken neck must be long, uniform, and lacking in webbing material. Today birds are raised just to produce high-quality hackles, and to get good high-quality neck hackles, you can expect to pay $50 to $100; no doubt, it’s probably the most expensive material you will have to buy.
In addition to feathers, furs, and hairs, the fly tier will also need to stock an assortment of colored threads and a variety of flat and oval tinsel in silver and gold. These materials are usually used in making streamers and nymphs. What’s interesting is that when I walk down the aisles of a Hobby Lobby, I spot all kinds of threads in various sizes and colors that could be used to tie an assortment of flies. One of the simplest and most productive early-season flies is a Mop Fly, and it’s what the name implies-it’s made from strands found on a mop! One to two-inch chunks of a strand from a mop is simply tied to a wet fly hook, and chartreuse, pink, yellow, black, and brown are all capable of catching fish. You can probably find this material at almost any hardware store.
Admittedly, most of us fly tiers will head to a local fly-tying shop when we need materials, but you never know what useful tying materials are all around us.
