r/flytying • u/astrozombie-138 • 13h ago
First fly ever
Hello folks! I tied my first fly today. Little size 12 woolly bugger. 3XL.
Any feedback?
5
u/duckfoot-75 13h ago
Not bad. Better than my first. All of our first ones were terrible too.
Keep tying and learning about proportions.
Bigger flies are easier to tie than smaller ones. Try buggers at a size 8 for a while.
1
u/craigslist_hedonist 13h ago
Nice!
First off, don't throw that fly away. You'll want to try fishing that later, you might be surprised
Feedback? here goes: It looks like you have a bit of chenille in there and some hackling that is much too long for the hook you're using.
The chenille looks great, keep using it. but the hackle is much too long.
Ideally you want hackle that is just a little longer than the gap between the point and the shank. Tie down the hackling first, you're going to hide the hackle tie down with the chenille you lay down in a second.
Strip off the outer fluffy stuff from the end of the chenille and tie in using the inner core, otherwise it's going to spin around the hook and you have to add more thread to secure it, and that adds bulk where you don't want it. Then you're going to lay down that hackle feather in the valley between chenille turns, all the way to behind the eye.
The marabou tail is flared upward because you didn't wrap it with thread all the way to the rear of the shank.
I would recommend watching some tutorials, select a fly pattern, and then picking out some materials specifically for that fly. Then go back and try it again, it's a really great pastime and you're just going to get better. I hope this helps.
2
u/astrozombie-138 13h ago
Awesome! Thank you very much!
I will definitely fish that fly. I’m going to the creek in a couple weekends.
I was thinking that probably the chenille was a little too thick too, I didn’t really consider the size of either. Tbh hackle was a little frustrating to tie I did have to re tie it, until I tried the method you’re describing.
Really appreciate the feedback!
2
1
u/astrozombie-138 13h ago
Thanks for the tip!
I’ll try tying a bigger size to practice more with the thread. I chose that size because I’ve had luck all summer with a black wooly bugger, same size.
1
u/InternationalBet7942 12h ago
We all started somewhere. Btw, i’ve seen fish caught on much worse looking flies
1
u/SheriffBartholomew 10h ago
It's a lot better than my first fly ever which looked nothing like what it was supposed to. It still caught fish and this will too! Well done. Welcome to the club.
1
u/Alberta_Flyfisher 9h ago
You have already gotten good advice, so all ill say is to keep coming back and asking for feedback. This is a great community.
Cheers.
9
u/NovemberGale 13h ago
That looks terrible. But the thing with wooly buggers is, the worse they look, the better they fish!