This article was a follow-up to the one on Building a Portable Fly Tying Kit to be taken with you on fly fishing trips. This article provides some tips on stocking your portable fly tying kit. This is a basic selection of materials. You should customize your kit to the patterns you tie.
Tools
The basis for any fly tying kit is the vise. You have the option of using the vise that you tie with at home or your can purchase a vise for your kit. What ever you do, be sure that the vise will do what a vise is supposed to do, hold the hook firmly. You may want to consider what you will be attaching your vise to in the field. Most C-clamp vises will not fit a picnic table so a pedestal may be an option or you may wish to install a vise mount in the top tray of your kit. This may be easily made out of a piece of aluminum.
After the vise you will need a bobbin, a pair of scissors, a hair stacker, a bodkin and a pair of hackle pliers at the minimum. Some other tools you may wish to carry are a pair of tweezers, a whip finisher, flat nose pliers for pinching down barbs and the ever important razor blade for salvaging hooks. We shouldn’t forget dubbing wax and head cement.
Threads, Floss, Wire and Tinsels
For the materials, we will start out with the very basics. Thread. You should have the basics; black, brown, olive, tan and gray. These will allow you to tie most trout flies. You may also want to include red, yellow and orange if you have the room. You want to remember to match your thread color to your dubbing as a darker thread will darken the dubbing when it gets wet. If you want to tie soft hackles you may want to have green, yellow and orange floss. For you nymphs you will need lead wire in several sizes depending on what size flies you intend to tie. You will want a selection of wires and tinsels. I would start with a spool of medium copper wire and several spools of mylar tinsel. I choose the mylar tinsel because it is silver on one side and gold on the other. Depending on what flies you tie on a regular basis you may want to add gold and silver wire and maybe some oval tinsel.
Most of the spooled materials can be stored in small plastic boxes. I even try to keep all may tools in a small box. The every popular Altoid tins make great boxes for storing items. You might ask your local purveyor of materials for some of the small boxes that they get their thread in for storage.
Hooks
With all the various hooks available I don’t know where to begin. How about storing them? Most of the hooks today come in zip-lock bags or small boxes. I like to use a box from Umpqua Feather Merchants called the “Six-Pack”. This is a small curved bottom box with 6 individual lids.
Dry Flies: #10 - #20 TMC 100, 900BL, Dai-Riki 300 or Mustad 94840 or 94845
Wet Flies: #8 - #18 TMC 3769, Dai-Riki 075 or Mustad 3906B
Nymphs: #8 - #18 TMC 200, 5262, 5263, Dai-Riki 270, 710, 730, Mustad 9671 or 9672
Buggers & Streamers: #6 - #14 TMC 300, Dai-Riki 700 or Mustad 79580.
You may have other hooks that you use and will want to include them.
Dubbing
For this portable tying kit, I am going to limit my selection of tying materials to those used for tying trout flies. When selecting your dubbing you can divide it into three types, natural, synthetics and blends.
For my nymphs I tend to use either natural furs or a blend of naturals and synthetics. The use of blends will bring the sparkle to your nymphs that is not available with natural furs. There are many types of blends on the market. Most use rabbit fur with a blend of antron fibers. Some other combinations are opossum or squirrel with a synthetic. I make use of the dubbing dispenser boxes for a portable kit. Most have 12 compartments with holes in the bottom to pick the dubbing through. For nymphs colors should include black and golden stone, mayfly nymphs (brown, dark brown, gray, olive, tan, olive-brown and pale yellow-brown), and for caddis flies (mayfly colors plus yellow, green and cream). If you fish lakes you may want to carry colors for damsels, dragon and leeches.
For dry flies, synthetic dubbings work very well, but if you can find beaver dubbings in the appropriate colors it works because of it’s natural water repellents. For stoneflies, orange and yellow are the predominant colors for our area. For mayflies, light tan, cream, pale yellow, gray, olive, olive brown and brown. For caddis flies, some of the mayfly colors plus black, orange, and green. For adult damsels and dragons you may want to use foam or braided nylon for the bodies.
Other Body Materials
In addition to dubbings for the bodies for your flies, you may also want to include a selection of chenille and yarns. Most of these would depend on the type of flies you tie. Basic colors for chenille are black, olive and brown for buggers and yellow and orange for caddis patterns. In addition to the flossed mentioned last month you may want several colors of yarn for use on caddis larva and pupas. Two other body material you do not want to be without are pheasant tails and peacock herl and swords.
Hairs
Hairs to include in your kit should include a selection of deer and elk for using on the wings of your stoneflies, mayflies and caddis flies. For most stonelfy patterns a natural brown deer or elk is needed. Some my even want a patch of elk mane. For mayfly comparaduns, fine deer hair in light, dark and bleached natural and dyed dun should be carried. For caddis most people use elk hair but deer also works well in the same colors and used on the mayflies. You can also use these same hairs on caddis pupa and tied down caddis. You may also want to carry calftail and calf body hair for parachute posts and bucktail for some dries and streamers. If you tie flies with spun hair bodies you may also want to carry a selection of hair for spinning. All your hairs should be stored in your kit in zip-lock bags. Check with your fly shop for small bags.
Feathers
Your portable tying kits should include a variety of feathers to allow you to tie a selection of drys, wets, nymphs and streamers. An essential is pheasant tail feathers. These can be used for pheasant tail nymphs but can also be used for tails and legs on many nymphs in addition to bodies on wet flies and dries. You should carry a selection of wing quills like turkey for using on shellbacks on nymphs. The biots of both goose and turkey can be used for tails and bodies. Soft hackle feathers for wet flies should include partridge, grouse and India hen backs. Mallard and teal flank feathers have numerous uses for wings and legs on all types of flies. Marabou is important if you plan to tie leeches, damsels or buggers. Colors should include: black, olive, brown, brown-olive combinations and white. You need to include both peacock and ostrich herls. I carry small amounts of ostrich in black, olive, brown, white, gray and orange. I use the orange for scuds.
Hackles
Hackles are feathers that you wrap around the hook. Strung saddle hackle is used for woolly worms and woolly buggers. Colors of strung saddle should include black, olive and brown or other colors you use on your woolly buggers. Some like to use rooster saddles for tying their woolly buggers. You don’t need to buy dry fly quality feathers for this purpose, just good long genetic bred hackle. Dry fly hackle comes from either a rooster neck or saddle. You will get the widest variety of sizes from a neck but if you tie a limited number of sizes a saddle might do for you. Generally speaking the most used colors are brown, dun (gray), grizzly and cream. There are many other colors available but just carry the one for the flies that you expect to be tying. I hope this information has helped you in stocking you portable fly tying kit. You should craft your kit to the type of flies you will be tying. If you have any questions about tying materials, contact your local fly shop.
- Keith Burkhart-