Start Fly Tying
How to catch a fish
Broadly speaking, there are two ways to catch a trout on a fly. The first way is to tie materials onto a hook that imitates - or suggests - a natural food source of the trout, and fooling it into trying to eat it. The other is to tie a lure pattern onto the hook, usually brightly coloured, which incites an aggression response in the fish. It is the former method we are going to deal with on this site, meaning that all the flies featured either imitate or suggest insect life the trout naturally feeds on.Traditionally, the materials used to tie on the hook were fur and feather, such as hare's fur and grouse feathers (or hackles, as the feather is usually referred to in fly-tying). Often these would be by-products of other hunting activities. These days though, many of the materials used in the traditional fly patterns are from what are now protected species and substitutes have had to be found. Increasingly, synthetic materials are being used - if you can tie it on a hook and it catches fish, anything goes!Tools you will need