Ah, memories....

[Hairstacker]

Here's a question to toss out there -- what was the pattern that caught you your first fish on a fly you tied yourself? This one was mine, a Rick's Caddis. #16 Tiemco 3761, black thread, and two colors of dubbing. I recall I tied 3 of these before I tied one I was willing to fish with, ha. Caught me a rainbow on the Silver Fork, American.

[SullyTM]

Hairstacker...I've been tying for about 1 1/2 years and the Rick's Caddis was my first fly. My first fish was a Chinook Salmon caught with a Mickey Fin in Walnut Creek, near Concord last year. SullyTM

[Darian]

I started tying a lengthy time ago.... My first fishable fly was a mosquito (dry). Probably didn't look much like one but it caught my first trout in the upper San Joaquin in the area of the Devils Postpile. Don't ask me how but I cast it on a spinning rod without benefit of a fly line or bubble. Flipped it out there (length of the rod) and fed it some line....

This monumental event happened about 1954.....

[Ken Miller]

In seeing the Rick's Caddis discussed by two individuals in the same thread, I can tell I'm not the only one that started out with the Skip Morris book on Fly Tying Instruction.

Correct am I?

'First fly in the book that you are instructed to tie!

Regards,

Ken Miller
So Cal

[Hairstacker]

Hi Ken! Yep, Skip Morris, "Fly Tying Made Clear and Simple," was the one and, you're right, it was the first fly in the book, ha. Kind of makes you wonder how many others started with this book, doesn't it? Don't know about you guys but I never did get around to tying all the flys in that book. Tied a few like the woolly bugger and Mickey Finn and then went on to other patterns in other books. But I've always thought it was a great book for folks who want to teach themselves how to start tying, like I did. In fact, I'm getting ready to start a friend at work tying and this will be the first book I recommend to him.

[David Lee]

The first fish I recall was a Red ear Sunfish out of Miners ravine in 94-95 ??? Green Teeny nymph , I sure was proud of that little devil . Some day I'll tell the story of how I came to use the long rod - D.J.L.

[Gregg]

That Skip Morris book! I've got DOZENS of the Rick's caddis because of that book and video! Hilarious. I wonder the ratio of the book sales attributed to the Skip Morris book and video compared to other tying manuals at Kiene's? It's gotta be like 50 to 1...

[Hairstacker]

Greg, DOZENS?!? I can believe it -- that picture I posted above is a fly from the very first batch I tied. I must have tied two dozen of them, and I remember the first 2 or 3 I tied looked like discarded fluff balls of dubbing (closer to an egg imitation, ha).

[Wednesday Caster]

So, the wife is at a ladies church function; my 2 year old son has got a slight flu and sleeping; and my 6 year old daughter is watching "Mulan" for the 3rd time. I figured the house would be quiet for about 2+ hours. Got my little fly tying box out and decided to give-a-go at tying a fly. Went to Fly Anglers Online, I was able to find a pattern "EZ Nymph" for all the pheasant tail feathers I recently received from Steve Sullivan. With a name like "EZ" Nymph how could I go wrong? Well it took me nearly 45 minutes to tie this EZ Nymph . Nevertheless, I have tied my first fly, a respectable looker, but I did cheat using a monstrous #6 instead of the #10-16 hook recommended. Finished it by going on FlyFishNorCal and learned how to whip finish by hand. So not bad for a beginner. I've since renamed it "3 Mile Island Nymph" because of its size. It looks pretty nasty compared to some of those I've seen tied on BK site et. al. so sorry no pictures will be forthcoming but at least it's mine . Going up to Gualala/Garcia with my nephew in 3 weeks, this will be the first fly tied to my tippet. My non-casting hand will have fingers crossed.

How long did it take you to tie your first fly?

[DonCooksey]

Mike:

My first successful hand-tied fly was a sort of emerger pattern that my father taught me as a teen. As I recall, it had a gray muskrat body, no hackle, and brown feather wings that were tied back to look like the fly (I guess a mayfly) was just emerging, or perhaps it was supposed to be a cripple. It was pretty ugly but worked great on the Au Sable in Michigan, where I spent my summers growing up. I used the pattern into my early 20's when I stopped tying until recent years. The last I remember using it was for goldens at Deep Creek Lakes in the Wind River Range of Wyoming in the mid-70s. I recall taking a picture of an 18-incher that I caught with that fly, perhaps with it still in its mouth, so I'll see if I can dig out that old transparency if it still exists. Might be worth trying to tie it up again.