The foundation of any creation is the most important part thereof; there is no exception when speaking of flies. Of course the foundation for our flies is the hook. While some patterns could be tied on a standard hook I would highly recommend that one purchase an assortment of hooks meant for fly-tying hooks in sizes 8- 16 depending on the flies you tie. A good hook will be strong enough to hold a fish without bending, but at the same time it must not be so brittle that it breaks. Most hooks on todays market will meet these criteria and it is not until you get down to hooks under size 20 the straightening and breaking become a problem. Personally, I use Mustad hooks for all of my tying and love them; they are relatively cheap, (about 6.50 a box) and come in a variety of sizes and styles. No todays market there are so many different types of hooks that figuring out what all the letters and numbers mean sometimes seem like a task too large to tackle, but it is really fairly simple. There are generally 3 ratings on a hook these are� size, hook diameter and shank length. The hook size is a number rating with the largest number equaling the smallest hooks. The only exception to this is when you begin going into x/0 hooks in this case the larger numbers equal the larger hooks, think of x/0 numbers as negative numbers, for that is essentially what they are. Here is an example of some hooks, from largest to smallest (7/0, 4/0, 1/0, 1, 4, 8, 12, 14, 16, 20, 24, 28) note this is just an example there are many hook sizes in between. Starting with a size 2 hook and going smaller all hook sizes will be even numbers, for example u will not find a size 5 hook, or a size 13 hook. The second rating is the hook diameter; this is a �x� rating. For example a hook made form heavy wire for a nymph would have a 2x heavy rating, in the same way a dry fly hook may have a 2x or 3x fine rating, meaning the hook is made out of a smaller diameter wire to give it less weight. The final rating is hook shank length. The shank it the part of the hook between the �eye� and the bend at the back of the hook. Again, the rating for a hook shank is in the �x� format. For example most streamer hooks have a rating of 4x-6x long, at the other extreme an egg fly usually uses a 2x short hook.
I know that we have spent a lot of time discussing hooks and you are probably getting board, so lets get on to tying. Once the hook is placed into the vise we need to get out thread secured to the hook, this is incredibly simple. After popping a spool of thread into the bobbin and threading it through the tube hold the tag end of the thread against the hook shank and begin warping your thread �over and away� (this is how you will tie all you flies, wrapping the thread away from you as it comes over the top). Now proceed to wrap the thread back over the tag end, continue wrapping to the back of the shank (flies are almost always built form the back forward). At this point the bobbin should be able to hang freely from the hook. Now we must make our first decision, will we or will we not add a tail, generally a tail of some sort if added, but not always. For our example fly, we will tie in a tail; the material I have chosen is marabou. Tie the tail in with the tips facing backwards. On most nymphs and dry flies the tail should be roughly the length of the hook shank, however this is not mandatory by any means. Once you have decided on the length of the tail lay it against the hook shank with the tips facing back, lay 3 or 4 wraps of thread over the tail making sure that u don�t pull it off the top of the hook. Now wrap down the shank towards the eye securing the tail. Trim off an excess tail material and build an even base of thread for your body. Now that we have our tail tied in we need to decide on a body. For this fly I am going to use a body of yarn with a hackle wrapped over it. To do this I will select a hackle that it appropriately sized (barbs should be the 1 � times the length between the point of the hook and the shank) and tie it in by the tip at the base of the tail, the feather extending out the back. Now tie down the yarn, as with the tail and hackle, facing back. At this point we wrap the body forward to the eye, and tie that off by dropping three wraps of thread over the yarn. Now wrap the hackle over the body, as you wrap the hackle the barbs will flair out creating legs, antenna, or whatever you like. Wraps of a palmered hackle such as this should be evenly spaced as they work there way across the body. Now tie off the hackle just as we did the body, at this point we will add a hairwing; I will use squirrel tail. Clip a small bunch from a squirrel tail and lay it with the tips facing towards the rear of the fly. Lay down 3 or 4 wraps of thread around the wing while being sure to keep the hair on the top of the hook. Trim the butt ends of the wing and build up a small head with your thread. Use a half-hitch tool to tie off the fly, apply a thin coat of head cement and this fly is done. This was simply an example to demonstrate the basic construction of a fly. Use this as only a guide. Experiment with you own materials and configurations, remember, there is never a wrong way to tie a fly. We have laid the groundwork and next week we will begin to learn specific techniques and their applications. If you are not a beginning tier I would encourage you to continue checking in, these articles will become much more advanced as we progress. Until next time keep the thread tight.
Eric Staswick
Warmwater and fly-tying editor of Fly-Fishing the West
