Fly Tying Substitutes

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NADO

NADO

Unaccomplished Steelheader
Joined
Aug 14, 2010
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Im getting more and more into tying my own flies. Right now I’m just keeping it simple and tying yarn flies as well as various variations of marabou jigs. Next will be the wooly bugger. After buying quite a bit of fly typing material I have found that it can get more expensive than one might think. Im just wondering what material can be substituted and where the best places to buy the substitutes are. Right now I have already bought beads and pins at wal-mart, im sure Michaels would have been a better bet. What about the feathers for marabou jigs? Or the hackle for Wooly Buggers? The other one I was wondering about was the uni-cord thread. Is that stuff the same as typical sowing thread?

I don’t want to degrade the quality of my flies but if there are cheaper options out there we might as well save a few bucks here and there.
 
All I can say is become friends with poultry farmers. I went to a chicken Buy, Sell, Trade and asked some of the poultry owners if I can have some feather from certain birds and was willing to pay 5 cents per feather, tons took me up on the offer and I also got tons for free! I've still not had the time to use them though!
 
Hi Nado
It's been a long time since I've tied my flies. But when I did Michael's was my source for lower quality feathers. Now some dollar stores carry them in the craft section. As for threads I don't think you can sub sewing thread for fly thread, as fly thread seems to be man made, I could be wrong here. You could sub it as an experiment and keep those flys separate from the others. Do you glue your heads? I read on a site that this one person never glued his, he felt it unnecessary. Same guy said whip finishing was enough to keep it all together. It's been a while since I pulled my tying stuff out, but I had always glued them.

Good luck and show us your progress.
 
I wouldn't use sewing thread to tie flies it's just not the same try eBay I have found some good deals on uni thread packs of sets of thread I think it cost me like between 20 or 30 bucks for 15 or so spools
 
Grubman I always glue mine too. I think I overdo it, I whip finish3-4 times and then glue(by glue I mean the epoxy stuff). I even epoxy after each feather I tie on for my marabou jigs lol. I dont think its possibly to overdo it any more than I do.

Madriverfisher I guess your right about the thread. It only costs me 2 bucks per spool where I buy it but I find it goes pretty quick. Maybe I am overdoing the amount of thread I put on them as well. Here are a couple pics of the ones ive made recently.

I had more pics but I must have deleted them from my phone. Still pretty amateur, I find marabou jigs are very easy to learn on and perfect my skills before I move on to the more difficult ones.


 
They look good it takes alot of thread to tie big streamer patterns so thers not much you can do but your flies look good
 
Madriverfisher said:
They look good it takes alot of thread to tie big streamer patterns so thers not much you can do but your flies look good
Click to expand...

I second that.

They look fine. The flies I found challenging are the ones with wings. You'll get them eventually. I even read that an imperfectly tied fly can sometimes catch even more fish, b/c it looks injured/weak. Law of the jungle as they say.

I used to add in acetone, or you could steal some of your wife's nail polish remover, to the epoxy when it was getting too thick or starting to dry out, just a few drops to keep it flowing. Mine is probably rock hard by now..lol., gonna have to get some more next time I'm at LeBarons.....lol.

Keep at it, we'll have to hook up and shoot some line, maybe at the big meet up. :D
 
Thanks guys.

Grubman im always down for a meet up. Only have a few buddies that fish close to me so half the time I go to the tribs I usually go by myself. I actually dont mind solo fishing but company is good as well.
 
Dryer lint or cat fur is awesome for tying amphipoda or plecoptera....
icon_wink.gif


(scuds and some stones)
 
Here are my first wooly buggers.

Attempt 1:


Attempt 2:


Attempt 3:


The hardest parts for me have been the hackle and the lead wire that goes around the fly as the last step. I think I have the wrong material for both of those steps. My hackle is only 2-3" long after I trim off the un-usable portion and my lead wire is too thick - I have .020 and I probably need at least one size smaller, maybe in gold color too.
 
Your second attempt looks good. Is there a reason why you're using a jig hook? If memory serves me correct, I think I used a carlisle or aberdeen.

The lead that came with my kit was also too thick so I took a pair of tooth less pliars and flattened out the wire then wrapped the shank. The only thing I forgot to do was to coat the lead with some epoxy before tying up the rest of the bugger.

I'll send some pics later.
 
im using a jig hook because I am using them for float fishing. I am going to tie up some on some streamer hooks as well that I have. I kinda liked the third attempt the most. On the second attempt I double wrapped the chenelle and the hackle is more soft and thick. The third attempt I decided to just hackle around the top of the fly since my hackle is so short so I got more of the individual strand look than on the second. I think both would catch fish, I just want to make them prettier for when they are in my fly box lol.
 
NADO said:
Here are my first wooly buggers.

Attempt 1:


Attempt 2:


Attempt 3:


The hardest parts for me have been the hackle and the lead wire that goes around the fly as the last step. I think I have the wrong material for both of those steps. My hackle is only 2-3" long after I trim off the un-usable portion and my lead wire is too thick - I have .020 and I probably need at least one size smaller, maybe in gold color too.
Click to expand...

PICS??? Nado???
 
ChaseChrome said:
PICS??? Nado???
Click to expand...

Can you not see them??

Here are some more from last night. My local tackle shop had a bunch of chenelle and some hackle in a bin that was 50% off so I bought a whole bunch of weird colors. The hackly I found was much longer and stiffer than the other stuff they have on the wall there and as a result I did a much better job on the hackle. unfortunately the only color they had for that hackle was hot pink.



On the green chenelle wooly bugger I used two of the short black hackle feathers which did do a better job but the hackle is still really soft so it has a much different look.
 
Aahh--I see them now...​

​
Not bad for starters!! They will all look like bugs to trout brother...​

​
Keep tying​
CC​
 

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