Classic Podcast: Fly-Tying Tips and Hints


This week is all about fly tying. I took a whole bunch of questions that came in over the past week (thank you very much for your great questions), and we spend about an hour going over some tricky and not-so-tricky questions. The hardest one for me was to list the essential fly-tying materials every tier should have on his or her bench (and I was not allowed to use CDC, rabbit fur, or peacock herl, which made it even tougher), and it took me two days to decide on that one. I ended up cheating and coming up with a trout list and a saltwater list.

Other questions deal with emergency procedures for when you break your thread, when to use wax, most under-utilized materials, substitutes in fly-tying recipes, tips for tying with deer hair, and many others.

Note: This is an old podcast, so not all the info is accurate. We are not have a 20%-off sale on fly-tying materials.

If you don’t see the “Play” button above, click here to listen.

6 thoughts on “Classic Podcast: Fly-Tying Tips and Hints”

  1. Hi Tom, I enjoyed the podcast. Paul mentioned that he doesn’t like to order fly tying materials on line because of having to pay for shipping when ordering a small amount. If he had an Orvis Visa card he would always get free-shipping no mater how small or large the order. Not to mention reward points. 😉

    Dave

  2. I have a question. I have some killer fly patterns. How do you get a pattern patented. I want to share my flies with the saltwater community and the fresh water community but don’t want someone else taking the credit for my hard work testing and tuning my flies that last and work. On so many species. Any help would be appreciated.

    1. Brandon, it is very difficult if not impossible to patent a fly. You have to prove that no one has ever done the same thing before, and in flies that’s tough to prove. Plus it would cost you thousands of dollars. People share flies and modify other people’s flies all the time–it’s part of the fun. If you don’t want anyone else taking credit for your fly patterns, just don’t show them to anyone.

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  4. Tom,
    I never hear modern trout fisher people talk about the Picket Pin. When I was a boy fly fishing on the Beaver Dam Creek in Katonah, NY we used to slay trout with the picket pin!
    Captain Parker Mauck

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