How To Be A Better Fly Tyer: 5 Tips

1. Create a Fly Tying Syllabus

Every year in December, I do a little mental recap of the flies that I tied the previous year, and think about where I want (or need haha) to improve as a fly tyer. Consider it a New Year’s Resolution but specifically for fly tying. I generally like to focus it around a technique or a fly type- things like deer hair heads, or Catskill style dry flies- whatever you want to work on outside of just free tying.   I like to have at least two subjects, because it can feel like drudgery if you are trying to tackle new techniques and you aren’t making any progress. This allows you to change your focus momentarily, instead of just giving up entirely. Also, don't beat yourself up if you end up starting the process and feel like doing something else. It's a just a marker point in progress. Don't feel you need to be married to the idea once you put it on paper. 

2. Watch People Tie Flies In-Person

The internet is a marvelous place, but watching stuff online can be confusing or misleading. You don’t know exactly how much material that person is tying in, and worst of all, you can’t ask any questions for clarification. Whether you watch people at your local Trout Unlimited meetings or a casual session at your local fly shop, it will speed up the learning curve. You will have multiple people of various skill levels that could give you the tip you need to finally master a fly or technique. If you really want to be inspired and improve, go to one of the Fly Tying or Fly Fishing Shows if you can. It’s the best place to spend all day talking with great fly tyers. If you are reading this and you live near the Tri-State on the East Coast, I’ll be at several fly fishing shows this year, including the International Fly Tying Symposium this November in Edison, NJ. 

3. Buy or Try Lots of Tools

Fly tyers were mastering materials with just thread and finger manipulation long before any fly tying vise was around. You don’t need much more than a vise, a bobbin, and a pair of scissors to tie most flies. But having more tools will make the fly tying learning curve shorter, and can improve the overall quality of your flies. Don’t try and save money on tools. There is a place for diy, but you’ll be better suited to try your hand at saving money on materials, at least some of them. A big reason to try tools BEFORE you buy (ideal anyway) is you don't know how some will fit your hands, or your style of tying. A standard Materelli knock off whip finish for $2 ties the same knot as my $35 Marc Petitjean Whip Finisher....but I wouldn't use anything else on small trout type flies because of how smooth the whip finisher is, and how well the knot seats with it. 

4. Use a Reference Fly and Maybe Buy 2

Learning new patterns from a Step by Step or even a Youtube video can prove difficult. Don’t believe me? Look in the Facebook tying groups and you will see what I mean. If you really love a pattern, buy one from the tyer or catalog of your choosing, and use it when tying so you can more accurately match the proportions. For example, if I wanted to tie Charlie Craven’s Jujubee Midge (a pattern I have admired, but have not yet tried to tie), I would order one in each size that I wanted to ultimately tie. If for instance, this wasn’t a commercially available fly and there were no instructions how to tie it, I would order TWO of each from the designer. The first one I would painstakingly destroy and try and reverse engineer to learn it’s “secrets”. This also doesn't hurt by having more flies to fish with haha. 

5. Inventory Mismanagement and the Purge

Inventory management is something that is real, and is something you need to spend time considering from day one when you decide you want to tie flies. You will go down the rabbit hole just as we all did, and somewhere down there you will have wayyyyy to much stuff, you will stash the materials wherever you can...and this isn't ideal. Storage organization starts from day 1. Here are some questions to ask BEFORE you order that kit, or spend money on a vise, tools, and materials.

1. Where will I be tying flies?

Whether it's at the kitchen table or in a dedicated tying room, or in your car by the river....all of these are going to affect HOW you can organize your materials. If you are limited to a kitchen table or you are going to be travelling, I would recommend a soft storage system like the Fishpond Tailwater Fly Tying Kit or one of the mobile tool organizers such as this Dewalt Deep Tool Cart (I own this for travelling to fly tying shows). Of course large plastic bins and plastic bags (to organize categories within categories) works very well. I have many large totes in my workshop.  

If you know you have a dedicated room or basement for your hobby, then you can consider things like book shelves, dressers, pegboard, slatwall etc. 


The Purge has become a day I look forward to each year. After the holidays, I will take some time in my tying workshop and go through all of my materials. If you are like me, you will find various containers of materials you thought you lost, or that you forgot you bought for some now irrelevant pattern because you followed tip #1 and want to tie certain flies for next year. You have two choices. First, you can sort the materials and keep them, knowing you wont use them anytime soon, and maybe not at all. Or, and what I’ve begun doing, you can trade/sell them so you can buy new materials. The first year I did this, I had hundreds of dollars in materials I no longer wanted, and it was easy to sell them on Facebook or Ebay.

Bonus Tip 5.5. “The best storage for fly tying materials is at the fly shop, on THEIR walls”. A quote from some guy in one of the Facebooks I'm a part of. A great philosophy- saves space in your drawers, and money in your wallet. 

Hope these tips help you in your tying pursuits. I've been tying for 13 or 14 years, and I'm always learning, changing, adapting my philosophies in tying flies and organizing materials. It's a process- just don't get hung up on ONE way of doing anything because when you are forced to change it (maybe a manufacturer discontinued that perfect material, or you literally run out of storage), it will be that much harder. My shop and tying is in a constant state of flux- and I love it. 

If you ever have questions hit me up via my Instagram account @primeflyco I'm happy answer or give guidance where I can. 

Daniel Podobed
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