THE FLY TYING CONNECTION · CAMP DAY 2
Fly Tying
You sit down at a vise with thread, fur, and a bare hook. You stand up holding a fly a trout might eat tomorrow. This is the day campers stop buying flies and start making them.
Motto: "To Deceive the Fish, First Understand Its World."
WHY WE TIE
Tying Gives a Kid Direction
Understanding what a fish eats makes you a better angler and a better observer. But there is another dimension Joe discovered as a teenager: tying gave him direction.
For some of the students in this room, fly tying may do the same thing. It is a craft that asks for patience, fine motor skill, material knowledge, and problem-solving. It connects biology, chemistry, art, and engineering. And at the end of it, there is something to fish with.
A fish you catch on a fly you tied yourself is a different kind of fish. You did not buy it from a bin. You watched the water, you guessed what the trout was eating, you built the answer with your own hands, and the trout agreed with you. That is the whole sport, compressed into one hook.
"Fishing was the catalyst that moved me from the depths of despair into a whole new life."
JOE HUMPHREYS
JOE ON BOOKS
"Now if the teacher would ask me to write a paper, I had direction. I would write about the brown trout. Or about how to fish the wet fly. That book gave me a new start on life. Hopefully my books give somebody direction."
JOE HUMPHREYS
SET UP YOUR BENCH
Your First Vise & Toolkit
Six tools turn a kitchen table into a tying bench. Borrow them, share them, or build a kit over time. You do not need an expensive setup to tie a fish-catching fly.
Tying Vise
Clamps the hook rock-steady so both your hands are free to work. Mount it at the edge of the table so the hook sits at eye level.
Bobbin
Holds the thread spool and feeds thread through a metal tube. The weight of the bobbin keeps tension on the hook while your hands move.
Scissors
Fine, sharp tips for trimming thread, fur, and feather close to the hook. Keep one pair just for tying so they stay sharp.
Whip Finisher
Ties off the thread with a tidy knot at the head of the fly so it never unravels. A few half-hitches work too, but the whip finish is cleaner.
Hackle Pliers
A tiny clamp that grips a feather so you can wind it around the hook without crushing the fibers. Great for small hands learning thread control.
Head Cement
A drop of cement on the finished head locks the knot and makes the fly last through fish after fish. Always the last step.
BENCH CHECKLIST · PRINT AND CHECK OFF
☐ Vise clamped to the table edge
☐ Bobbin loaded with thread
☐ Sharp fine-tip scissors
☐ Whip finisher (or learn the half-hitch)
☐ Hackle pliers
☐ Head cement and a few hooks
Materials for day one: dubbing (a hare's ear mix), pheasant tail fibers, fine wire for the rib, and a little hackle. That is enough to tie your first nymph.
VISE FUNDAMENTALS
Six Moves Every Fly Starts With
Mount, start, build, finish. Learn this sequence once and every pattern on the next page is just a variation on it.
Mount the hook
Open the vise jaws and seat the hook by its bend, leaving the point and the gap exposed. Tighten until the hook will not twist. If it slips, you set it too far back.
Start the thread
Hold the bobbin behind the hook eye. Wind five or six tight wraps back over the loose tag, then trim the tag close. The thread should now grip the hook with steady, even pressure.
Lay a thread base
Wind the thread in touching turns down the shank to where the bend begins. This base gives every material something to bite into so nothing spins on the hook.
Build in order
Every nymph follows the same sequence: thread base, then tail, then rib, then body, then thorax, then head. Add each part in turn and keep it slim.
Keep it buggy, not bulky
Keep the body about as thick as the gap of the hook. Slim and buggy beats fat and fuzzy. Trout eat silhouettes, so less material usually catches more fish.
Whip finish and cement
Tie off at the head with a whip finish or two half-hitches, trim the thread, and touch a drop of head cement to the knot. Let it dry. Your fly is done.
COACH'S CUE · Consistent thread pressure is the whole game. If your wraps are loose, the fly falls apart in the current. If they are too tight, you snap the thread. Find the pressure that holds firm without cutting, and stay there every wrap.
BEGINNER PATTERNS
Three Flies, Three Wins
Start with the simplest fly, end with the one that catches the biggest trout. Each card tells you what it imitates and the order you build it in.
PATTERN 1 · THE STARTER
Hare's Ear Nymph
Size 14 · the fly you fish tomorrow
IMITATES: Mayflies & general buggy life
The first fly every camper ties, and the one that catches fish in nearly any water type. Scruffy on purpose: that messy hare's ear dubbing looks alive in the current.
| 1 | Lay a thread base down the shank to the bend. |
| 2 | Tie in a short tail of pheasant tail fibers. |
| 3 | Tie in fine wire for the rib, then dub a slim hare's ear body forward. |
| 4 | Wind the wire rib forward in open spirals and tie off. |
| 5 | Dub a slightly fuller thorax, whip finish, and cement the head. |
Camp level: Ages 6-10 tie thread, dubbed body, and head only. Ages 11-13 add the tail and rib. Ages 14-17 add an optional bead head.
PATTERN 2 · THE CRAWLER
San Juan Worm
Size 6-10 · almost impossible to mess up
IMITATES: Crane fly larva & aquatic worms
A single piece of soft chenille on a hook. It looks too simple to work, which is exactly why it is the perfect confidence builder, and trout eat it after high water.
| 1 | Lay a thread base across the middle of the hook. |
| 2 | Tie in a short length of red or tan chenille at the center. |
| 3 | Wrap the thread forward and tie down the front end of the chenille. |
| 4 | Trim both ends to leave short, wiggly tails. |
| 5 | Whip finish at the head and add a drop of cement. |
Camp level: Every age can tie this one start to finish. Great as the very first fly before the Hare's Ear.
PATTERN 3 · THE BIG-FISH FLY
Woolly Bugger
Size 6-10 · the large-trout magnet
IMITATES: Sculpins, leeches & baitfish
A streamer with a wiggly marabou tail and a fuzzy hackled body. It imitates the big, meaty food that pulls the largest browns out of hiding, and it is a joy to fish.
| 1 | Lay a thread base and tie in a marabou tail about a shank long. |
| 2 | Tie in a hackle feather and fine wire at the tail. |
| 3 | Dub or wind a chenille body forward to the eye. |
| 4 | Palmer the hackle forward over the body, then rib it with the wire. |
| 5 | Tie off, build a neat head, whip finish, and cement. |
Camp level: Ages 11-13 and up. A swung Woolly Bugger after dark is one of Joe's most reliable methods for big fish.
JOE'S CHALLENGE
Tie Your Own Orange Fly
At around age ten, Joe watched trout feeding on tiny orange freshwater shrimp at Thompson Run. He tied an imitation from his mother's sewing thread and caught a 14-inch trout. He had just discovered nymphing on his own.
So here is the challenge. Take orange thread or material and make your version of Joe's original shrimp, using what you observed in the stream. There are no rules except two: orange has to show, and it has to be fishable on a hook. Then tell the group what you chose and why.
THE RULES
✓ Orange must be present
✓ It must be fishable on a hook
✓ Use what you saw in the water
✓ Be ready to explain your design
JOE'S WORDS
"Tomorrow you become a fly tier. You will make the fly you fish with."
JOE HUMPHREYS, PREVIEWING DAY 2
KEEP GOING
Tie It at Camp, Fish It at Dawn
Fly tying is one full day inside the week-long Summer Camp, and it threads through the age-tier schools too. Find the program that fits your tier and put a fly you made into the water.