Claire(Mrs Chatt) bought me a fly tying kit for Christmas, what an angel she is! It is rammed full of everything a novice fly tier needs to get started including various marabou, seals fur, feathers, whole wings, squirrels tails, tinsel, CDC, Ostrich Herl and a whole host of other stuff that I have also never heard of. There was also tools included most of which I had never seen before.
Boxing night I jumped onto You Tube, found a few tutorials and started tying. Quickly I learnt how to tie on, whipping tie off and a bit of thread management. I got excited and picked out some bright orange materials and put together a lure: marabou tail, silver bead head, chenille body and far too much thread holding it together, Claire named it a 'Joey Jaffer' and my first ever self made fly went in to the box.
Following that bit of fun I followed another tutorial learning about Peacock herl and hackle and put together a more traditional looking fly which I was pretty proud of......
not sure what it is called, the chap on the video didn't mention it's name so I will get Claire to make another one up.
Confidence now high I dug out a couple of books and put together a Black and Peacock......
a Spider.........
and a Cat's whisker.........
None of them perfect but I thought they would be good enough to catch fish. I have been itching to try them out so today I ventured off to see if they would work.
Maybe they would have worked if I had managed to keep them in the water long enough. The Cat's Whisker was lost in a tree second cast and Joey's Jaffa fell off inexplicably during the third cast, I think I got excited tying it on and therefore didn't! I went back to the shop bought ones thoroughly annoyed with myself.
The fishing was fairly uneventful, the overnight drop in temperature had sent the Trout down deep and they were difficult to spot but I did land one fish.
A great start to the new year, a 10lb 4oz Rainbow just a shame it was not on a home tied fly, never mind there's always next time!
Must go got to tie some more flies!-loving it!
What a great gift Joe and I must say considering those are your first few attempts at fly tying, the result is rather impressive to say the least.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mark, do you want to buy any!!?
DeleteIf I was into fly fishing I certainly would be tempted Joe!
DeleteAbout 30 years ago my wife gave me the same little box of fly tying bits, the best Christmas ever, caught a feww good trout on homemade flys, but now after all those years i often just open the box up and take a wiff , happy days.
ReplyDeleteAnd there is a strong wiff! The wife is not keen on the smell!-bonus!
DeleteCongratulations, good gift.
ReplyDeleteHappy new year 2013 with fly tying.
Greetings
www.romanillosflyfishing.com
Great that you're getting into fly tying! I need to do it myself sometime.
ReplyDelete