Fly Tying

Arts verses Craft

Catching that picky eater with your own fly is an accomplishment! It takes hours of observation and sampling, then trial and error on the bench with materials, and finally testing your creation.

Fly tying is the artistic creative endeavour that most fly fisherman eventually delve into for at least a brief period while they are participating in fly fishing.  Many very avid anglers delve deeply into the aquatic entomology side of things which also eventually leads to a preoccupation with fly tying as well. Tying flies is the angler’s way of creating an impression of the food items trout feed on. Using hooks, feathers and other various materials the fly tier crafts a replication of the natural insects and other food forms trout regularly consume. 

Having a clear understanding of the trout’s feeding habits, understanding aquatic insect hatches as well as their lifecycles and tying your own flies will result in much higher catch rates. Mastery of these three pursuits will allow you to more fully enjoy your fly fishing and eliminate a lot of frustration. An angler can either tie their own flies or purchase flies from a reliable source. I have taught many anglers how to tie flies over the last forty five years and seen many of them develop into great fly tiers. For those that don’t tie their own flies, I can custom tie specific match the hatch flies for you. My flies are not tied off shore by a company a thousand or more miles away. My custom flies are tied with a local flare with great care taken to ensure they will produce results when fishing our local hatches here in Alberta. The quality of offshore flies sold by local fly shops are well tied and usually reasonably priced. However, I have studied the local hatches very closely for over 40 years and ties flies that more closely imitate the local hatches in Southwestern and Central Alberta. 

Stream Weaver Flies offers basic fly-tying courses and custom tied flies to the public for a competitive price geared to our customers requirements. I will also offer custom tying courses that reflect exactly what the course participant requests focusing on a particular style or type of special patterns. The tying courses will be limited to three tiers at the most, so participants will receive plenty of personal instruction and attention. My programs are tailor made for the beginning fly tier or the more advanced tier whatever level of tying course you need we have a program for you. Personalized quality customer service is this company’s Vision Statement. Please contact us anytime to set up a program or inquire about custom flies.