[Liam Stephen]

Hi guys, I'm looking to start tying my own flies and have been looking at a few starter kits. I hope to tie manly river flies and was just wondering if anyone could advise me on a good kit?

Thanks

[Hamish Young]

Best thing is go and visit a shop and ask for advice, I'm not a fan of the 'off the self' kits myself.
I ran evening classes in fly tying back in Aberdeenshire for a year (adult education evening classes) and a few of the participants bought basic kits but they were just pants, ended up going with them to a shop and getting what they needed.
IMHO you need good scissors and good materials, nothing worse than starting with shite stuff and hoping for the best. Make the investment in good tools and a half reasonable vice, makes the whole process much more pleasurable.
Although I'm sure there are good starter kits out there I'd stick with 'going and getting'.

H 

[Iain Goolager]

Liam,

Hamish is spot on.
I'll bet you don't use half the materials either.

Obviously there is a basic tool list which you'll need but for materials all you have to do is think of the flies you require to tie.

As discussed before if you have a CDC & Elk, Klink, F-Fly, paradun, Copper coated tungsten PTN and a couple of spiders then you'll cover a fair amount of your River Don Broonie AND Sea-Trout fishing over the whole season. Other patterns can still be purchased until you generate the materials to cover the spectrum of eventualities.

Looking at these flies most require between 2 and 4 different (cheap) materials - The Klink is by far the most tricky fly for a novice and I use TMC Aerowing for the post which is expensive (£7 odds for a card) and again a nice hackle makes the fly look good but I'm sure we can sort you out with these.

Speak to Ben and see what Orvis have to offer.

I have some flies for you drop me a pm.

Iain

[Michael Buchan]

Liam,

Chances are ill see you out this week i have a vice you can get its hardly been used, i will chuck it in the car and you can see if you want it or not. Ill ruslte up some materials for you to tie a few flies with also.

Michael

[Liam Stephen]

Thanks for the help guys. I'll hopefully be down the river sometime mid-week I'm in skene for a few days. So I'll just see you both when I see you.

Thanks