Fly Tying Hooks Milwaukee WI

The beginning fly tyer can really sink some serious money into fly tying hooks if they are not careful. So that you don't spend a lot of money foolishly on hooks you'll never use, let's spend just a minute determining the hooks you should start out with.

The first step is to determine which flies you're going to start with. Most beginners start with very simple patterns like the Green Weenie, the San Juan Worm or the Woolly Bugger. Once those are mastered, they may move on to a simple dry fly such as the Elk Hair Caddis. Only you can determine the flies you're going to start with.

The next step is simply to figure out how much you're going to be tying. This will determine the quantity of each style and size of hook that you wish to purchase. Typically hooks come in quantities of 25 or 100. I recommend starting small and buying the 25 packs until you're sure that you're going to continue.

Let's now take a quick look at some different manufacturers and the different hook types. Then I'll make some recommendations after that.

Now that you've been through the quick, beginners fly tying hooks tutorial, let's talk about where to start. In my humble opinion, I believe you should start with the Mustad 94840 in sizes 14 and 16 for most dry flies, the Mustad 3906 in sizes 12 and 14 for most nymphs, the Mustad 9672 in size 10 for Woolly Buggers and the like, and Tiemco 2457 in sizes 12 and 14 for eggs/glo bugs, scuds and San Juan Worms, etc. Purchase all of these in the 25 pack until you're ready to move up, which hopefully won't be long.


...and since you're aspiring to become (or already are) a fly fisherman, you most likely will practice catch and release when fishing. For this reason, always remember to pinch down the barbs on the hooks so you can release the fish easier without harming them. Remember to do this before tying the fly. The reason is that on rare occasions, I've actually broken the point off attempting to pinch down the barb, thus wasting all that time it took to tie that fly. Read on...

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Drag is the term used to describe the resistance applied to the reel spool to prevent the fish from stripping line away too quickly. For example, if you hook a 7 lb Steelhead and you have your drag set too light, the fish is going to run and strip line off your reel like it was nothing. In this case, you’d need to tighten the drag so that you still allow the fish to run but you control the run. If you tighten down the drag too much and don’t allow it to run at all, then you run the risk of your leader or tippet snapping from the tension.

There are two different types of drag systems on a fly reel that trout fishermen need to concern themselves with.

Spring and Pawl Drag
This drag system functions by increasing or decreasing tension against a spring applying pressure through a triangular shaped pawl against the reel’s spool. If adjustments to the tension are possible, they can be either internal or external using a knob or lever. Single spring-and-pawl drags are usually the least expensive reels. With the spring and pawl drag, the line is pulled out very smoothly without any variations in the amount of tension. By eliminating the unevenness in tension, the fly reel goes a long way towards protecting the tippet. The drawback of a spring-and-pawl reel is that it is not designed for very large fish. While they work, they don't work as well as the newer disc-drag models which we’ll discuss next.


Disc Drag
The disc drag reel allows you to apply more or less tension to the fly line simply by turning the drag control knob on the reel. Two types of disc drag systems exist: the caliper disc-drag and the "true" disc-drag. While the caliper disc-drag is usually considered inferior, I would argue that both work well. Disc drag reels excel in large fish situations such as large trout, steelhead and salmon. The disc drag reel is designed to exert a smooth but hard pressure on the fly line without seizing up and is ideal when large fish strip out hundreds of feet of line.


Congratulations! You've made it through the fly reel section. That one wasn't so bad now, was it? Now feel free to browse the huge selection of Fly Reels that Cabelas has to offer. They have fly reels from Ross, Sage, G. Loomis, Redington and many others, including their own models as well.

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