Today I read that most people that begin fly fishing start tying their own flies within 1-2 years. I suppose I’ve thrown the curve as I’ve already jumped in with both feet. I was browsing craigslist and decided to see if any fly tying gear was available. To my surprise and delight I found a new ad with a nice Griffin 2A vise, misc materials, and a few other tools. I quickly responded and was very happy to learn that everything was still available and I closed the deal over the phone.

We met yesterday after work and did a quick Wal-Mart parking lot swap. Unfortunately I didn’t have some things I needed to get started right away so I had to wait until today. I apologize for the poor image quality. I seem to have misplaced both of my cameras and I’m relegated to my smartphone. Anyway, here’s the cache of goods and the vise. I’m quite pleased!

I didn’t have enough time to stop today but I’ll be picking up a base for the vise tomorrow. The Griffin has a clamp base but I don’t like where it has to sit on the table. I want more flexibility to move it around. I did pick up some very quick things today, though, and here’s the result. Unfortunately I tried shooting through my mag light and the initial images royally sucked. Only the last ones were halfway decent.

Black Ant
For my first fly tying project I decided to try a black ant pattern. I figured the bluegill might like those. Up to this first picture I’ve wrapped the hook with black dubbing to create the back of the abdomen. Unfortunately one of the things I forgot to pick up is dubbing wax so the material didn’t stick to the thread very well. As you can see in the pictures it’s quite messy looking. I am now tying the hackle (feather) to the hook.

After tying the hackle around the hook I added more dubbing material to the thread and wrapped the rest of the body. Here I am using a Matarelli whip finisher to put a professional (looking) end to the tying job.

After finishing the whipped end this is what I ended up with. So here it is, my very first fly. It ain’t real purty but hopefully she’ll catch me a fish.

Goodness these pics are bad! I promise to try and find the cameras soon!

Oh well, so that’s it. I’ve officially made the foray into the wonderful world of fly tying!