Fly Tying a Montana from the Terry Griffiths Book Again

My Fly Top, A Bought Montana Bottom

Hello Again,

The saga continues, only this time I have tried tying the Montana Fly from the book

I learned from some of the mistakes of the first time. For instance I learned how to actually put a hackle on, and how to tie a half hitch knot so this should have been a better experience.

In some ways it was but it was still difficult.

This fly was basically floss and the hackle feather tops were used as a tail.

One thing I would note about this book, the step by step instructions are actually pretty useful, and they each match up with a picture that shows you what the fly should look like. However what it doesnt tell you is how each thing should be tied on but most of the time you just have to make 2 or 3 turns with the main thread and your laughing.

Also when putting the hackle on, hackle pliers come in very very useful.

Any comments on my second attempt at fly tying are of course welcome!

After my semi-success with the montana I decided to revisit the Black Pennel. Again Hackle Pliers are very useful.

Tying Flies

Andy at andyfishing.blogspot.com called me on Friday past to tell me he had tied some of his own flies and wanted me to join him in a spot of fishing to see what they were capable of. However I was unfortunately stuck working an all day shift at work which saw me folding paper. (Maybe I should put a post up to show how this exotic task is done!)

I digress. Andy managed to catch 2 trout using an orange cats whisker. (See the story here)

It got me thinking and spurred me into action. How does one tie a fly. To answer this question I visited probably Irelands best fly tier Frankie McPhillips in his shop in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh. He recommended a book writin by Terry Griffiths called a Beginner's Guide to Fly Tying and a bag of materials which accompanied this book. Frankie was lucky he caught me on a day where I couldn't care less what I spent money on so I took it off his hands.

Maybe once my vice and assorted Flytying tools arrive I will put this book to the test and have a sort of mini review somewhere in this blog.

Anyhow the punchline of this post is that I found some brilliant Flytying videos for the real beginner that make it all look so easy.

All the videos can be found here from topflyman

This is a sample of what he has in store for you.



I found these videos inspiring and cant wait to tie some flies and catch some trout!