Top Tips for Tying and Fishing Tiny Flies!
Scaling down your fly patterns can pay dividends in your fishing. But how do you tie effective flies in miniature sizes? Dom Garnett and Turrall provides a host of useful tips and talking points on how to make and use the smallest flies work for you, along with a handful of recommended patterns.
Even greedy fish, like this chub, love a smaller fly
What is it about anglers and fly sizes? For obvious reasons, we tend to love showy, well-dressed patterns that instantly grab our attention. And yes, plenty of times, the fish are hungry or aggressive enough to hit them.
Take a look under the stones on your local stream, inside a pond dip net or even down the gullet of a trout, however, and it’s striking just how tiny insect life can be.
We don’t always want to hear it, but many of our fishing flies are on the too large or overdressed side. It can be tough to accept this because smaller, subtler patterns don’t give us the same instant confidence. It’s also trickier to tie such creations onto a leader and present them well. At this point I can hear my father’s words as I hand him a tiny Black Gnat only to be told: “I can barely bloody see it!”
If this is your instinct, too, all I can say is be brave and bear with us! Because tiny flies can win takes on the hardest days and needn’t be a pain to use.
Low, glassy summer water: perfect for tiny flies and light tackle.
Why do smaller flies work so well in fly fishing?
Here are just a few of the reasons why small patterns, right down to a size 20 and beyond, work so well:
· Smaller and sparser flies look more realistic to the fish we want to catch, whether we’re targeting trout, grayling or coarse fish.
· Tiny flies on lighter hooks tend to behave more naturally and less clumsily in the water, especially if we fish relatively fine tackle.
· Cautious or “educated” fish are often more partial to a smaller fly, as there is less to be alarmed or suspicious of.
· Smaller flies create less disturbance on the cast. Useful, for instance, when we are tackling skinny water in bright conditions.
Of course, it’s also imperative that when scaling down flies, we also fish them appropriately. This means taking a few sensible steps to do them justice:
· Lighter leaders and tippets are called for once we get to sizes 18-24. Stiff, thick tippet looks all wrong, especially with dinky little dry flies. Buy high quality, ultra low diameter copolymers and fluorocarbons and don’t be afraid to go right down to just 2-3lb strength (0.08-0.10mm).
· Pick lighter rods and fly lines to match. An outfit in the 0-4 weight bracket helps us to protect lighter tippets and deliver our flies gently. Making less commotion, after all, is often key in the sort of conditions that suit the tiny stuff- such as with low, clear water or super finicky fish.
· Long leaders and minimal interference are another must with tiny flies. One of the benefits of going small is that our offerings are near weightless and move very naturally with the elements. Enhance this effect by using a long leader and keeping retrieves subtle.
· Mix up little and large! Another great shout for fishing small flies is to buddy them up with larger and different patterns on the same leader. One classic with wets or dries is the “big fly plus little fly” combo; the larger fly draws fish in while the smaller, subtler one fools them! This applies to dries as well as wets; for instance, try fishing a tiny Black Gnat alongside a big sedge.
How to tie very small flies: top fly tying tips
Perhaps the biggest reason so few of us tie small flies in the 18-24 range is that we imagine they are a nightmare to get right. However, if we’re serious about scaling right down, we very often have to roll our own, as comparatively few shop-bought patterns can be found at this end of the spectrum.
Rule number one is to give it a try and not to fear the teeny stuff! Choose good quality tools, threads and materials and take things steady and it really isn’t rocket science to create elegant, ultra small patterns. We’ll show you some simple favourites shortly, but first, let’s look at some tips:
· Your basic toolkit must be up to the job. A high-quality vice helps, that will grip very small hooks securely, midge jaws are a good addition if you get a taste for this! You’ll also want to treat yourself to a fine-tipped pair of scissors that cut right to the tip. Do also make life easier for yourself by using a light source and possibly a magnifier if focus is an issue.
Tiny yet tough, Turrall midge hooks are ideal for dries in sizes 20-22, while Drax Ultra Fine threads are intended for flies of size 16 and smaller.
· Pick fine threads and quality hooks for trouble free tying. Modern low diameter threads are a godsend. As for hooks, find what you can in sizes 20-24 but don’t panic if you cannot find a precise pattern. Many of the hooks sold as dry fly or midge models will also create excellent lightweight nymphs and spiders.
· Keep materials and tying steps to a minimum. When you have less space to work with, every wrap counts! Flies involving lots of materials or tying stages are too much of a headache for most of us with the wee small stuff. Besides, so many of the best flies are simple. Just look at classic spiders- some are just a thread and a hackle. A sensible rule is no more than three main materials or tying stages- for example a tail, body and hackle will be more than enough to take care of.
Keep materials simple and fine.
· Trust your skills and reduce your thread turns: tying tiny flies is a great discipline because it forces you to take out the unnecessary stuff. The biggest example of this is extra turns of thread- a bit like casting, we all like to add an extra one or two! With tiny flies, we don’t have the space to do this- so cut out the excess and make every turn count!
· Go for finer ribs and tinsels: Diddy hooks quickly get filled with wider and heavier materials, and this is especially true of tinsels and flosses. Fine copper wire is ideal for a rib, or try Crinkle Flash Micro to add a hint of bling!
· Finish with care because with a small hook, it’s very easy to crowd out the head or clog the hook eye with varnish. Where a spot of varnish is required, a great tip is to apply a drop to the tying thread just before you whip finish, instead of applying to the finished fly. This way, the varnish will cure inside the final knot, rather than running where you don’t want it.
Apply a spot of varnish to your tying thread just before you whip finish, rather than “on top” of the final knot, for a stronger, less messy result.
Tiny killers! – Six of the best ultra small flies
Miniature favourites in sizes 20-24 (L to R): Diawl Bach, F-Fly, Griffiths Gnat, Beaded Hare’s Ear, PTN, Glass Bead Micro Buzzer
While you might attempt to tie just about any fly in a tiny size, classic patterns with just 2-4 materials tend to work best. Spiders, for instance, work beautifully if you can find suitably tiny hackle feathers. Buzzers are another staple, well suited to simplicity. Here are half a dozen others I wouldn’t want to be without, especially for tricky fish in the clearest of water:
Diawl Bach: No surprises that Wales’ original “Little Devil” works well on a tiny scale! Keep things really simple with a tail of ginger cock, and a peacock and wire body- and you can dispense with cheeks and bib hackles altogether. Awesome for stillwater fishing when fish are gorging on midges.
F-Fly
Ever so simple, this pattern is just three materials (thread, dry fly dubbing and CDC). Colour is your choice, but while black is classic, a green-bodied fly with a pale wing is superb for fish picking off aphids.
Griffiths Gnat
A must for any fly box and just perfect in micro sizes! Its only three key ingredients beyond a midge hook are black thread and the finest peacock herl and grizzle hackle you can find. A “get out of jail free” card for dainty rising trout, not to mention a killer for dace, roach and rudd.
Beaded Hare’s Ear
Get hold of beads right down to 2-2.4mm if you can, for this simplest and scruffiest of flies. Hare’s mask, wire and thread are all you need, although a tiny tuft of partridge makes a nice tail.
Micro PTN
The beauty of this all time classic of wet fly patterns is that you can create a tail, body and thorax cover all in one, out of the same three strands of pheasant tail! Other than that, fine copper wire and the merest pinch of hare’s ear dubbing complete the fly.
Glass bead micro buzzer
Tie as small as you dare – and don’t be too surprised if you hook that large trout not convinced by much bigger, heavier buzzers! This pattern consists of a tiny glass bead, peacock thorax and a simple black thread plus red tinsel body.
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