Planning your flies
I’m not much of an artist when it comes to drawing or painting but I like to sketch flies to get a better feel for proportions. Especially if I have taken a break from a certain style of tying it helps me to get the look that I want to achieve. In the photo there is a Jock Scott to a 4/0 Harrison Bartleet hook but drawing flies works on any type of fly patterns from nymphs to streamers.
I always start by taking the hook that I’m going to tie the fly to and trace it to the paper. This will get me the correct scale and proportions to start with. I then usually draw a rough shape of the fly and start to add detail. As you can see in this particular fly I wasn’t happy with the shape so I just draw a bit lower and longer profile on top of it and that will be my guideline when tying the fly. Doesn’t look pretty but I don’t really care about how the sketch looks as long as it has the correct shape in the end. It’s much easier to tweak it on paper than to find out after the fly is tied that your tail is too short and high.
Prepare your wings first
Another tip for planning ahead is to marry the wing first. This will help you especially when selecting a tail for your fly which is the most crucial part when deciding on proportions for a salmon fly.
Cut the butt ends of your wings straight and make sure both are the same length. This will help you to easily see if they move during the tying process.
