My Beginning Fly Tying Journey – Chironomids

I have been a fly buyer for many years but this winter I wanted to learn to tie my own flies. I have been told by many friends who fly fish it is cool to catch a fish on a on fly that you have tied yourself – heightens the fishing experience. I decided to learn how to tie chironomids first and then would learn other patterns after that.

Fly Tying Learning Resources

Two years ago I purchased a bundle of online courses through the Stillwater Academy with Phil Rowley and Jordan Oelrich and within this bundle was a Chironomid Tying Course that Jordan had put together. It went over all the basics: equipment, materials, tying techniques and patterns. Once the lakes iced up this past season, I watched the videos over and over and built my shopping list.

Along with the course, I found the following helpful with recipes of patterns, tying techniques and/or video instruction:

Equipment and Materials

To help me understand tying vise options, I talked with Reid at Reid’s Fly Shop and I went with a Griffin Odyssey Spider vise. The vise came with a clamp only and after setting it up at home, I decided to buy a pedestal base to use with the vise. It is a good first vise purchase at a decent price. It took some practice to utilize the rotary feature effectively but what a difference maker.

My first purchases of materials focused on chironomids only. Here is a list of items:

Thread	Black, Red, Rusty Brown, Burnt Orange, Olive, Light Olive, Gray Brown, Tan, Wine, Blue Dun, Brown
Hooks	Scud Hooks Size 10, 12, 14
Hooks	Curved Nymph 2X Long Size 12, 14, 16 – should have went with size 18 instead of size 12
Beads	White Size 5/64, 3/32, 7/64
Beads	Black Nickel Size 5/64, 3/32, 7/64
Beads	Magic Brown Size 5/64, 3/32, 7/64
ASB	Anti-Static Bag 0.5 mm
Tinsel	holographic black, red and wine; laser silver, opal
Flashabou	black, red, holographic red, silver, cranberry, gun metal
Wire	red, silver, gold, copper, brown, black
Buzzer Wrap	smoke, rootbeer
Gills or thorax	uni-stretch; peacock herl
Clear coat	UV clear coat thin and UV Light

Patterns

My first chironomid.

A rough looking first tie.

The majority of my first patterns were thread body and wire or thread rib – basic colour combinations – which allowed me to work on keeping the body thin and building a nice taper. Once comfortable with those techniques, I tried thread blending.

Then it was on to some other patterns and a few bloodworm patterns.

From a picture on Instagram, I noticed a system for batching your tying work. I would usually tie in groups of six – same pattern, 3 of one size, 3 of another size – so I created a simple magnetic strip system for my hooks. I would pinch the barb and add the bead in step 1, then add the gills to all the hooks in step 2, then tie the pattern. Using a magnetic tape strip, a paint stir stick and some duct tape I created a little tool to hold my hooks while I worked at each step.