How to Choose & Use Fly-tying Thread

By Paul Marriner

How to Choose & Use Fly-tying Thread was prepared for UNI Products by Paul C Marriner and Gale's End Press. This 53-page digital booklet is available in an ePub version for phones or eReaders. It aims to help beginning fly-tiers understand the types and sizes of fly-tying threads and how they can best be used to tie today's incredible variety of fly patterns. It is also a valuable teaching aid. More advanced tiers may find new insights into thread manipulation techniques and the sizing distortions present in today's marketplace. Some of the topics covered in the booklet are: 1) thread materials, construction, and sizes; 2) basic thread operations such as tying-in and tying-off; 3) dubbing techniques; and 4) spinning hair. All techniques are fully illustrated with color photographs, more than 90 in all. UNI Products offers threads to tie everything from a 1/8" long caenis mayfly for trout to a 12" Sea Habit Bucktail for marlin.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Paul Marriner
• Release date: Aug 20, 2017
• ISBN: 9780992148744

Paul Marriner

Paul Marriner owns and operates Gale’s End Press. A member of the Outdoor Writer’s Association of Canada, his articles have appeared in magazines on six continents and number in the hundreds. He has written nine print and three other digital titles (Modern Atlantic Salmon Flies, Atlantic Salmon: A Fly Fishing Reference, and Fly Fishing in Lakes & Ponds) and contributed to several anthologies. In 1991 Paul won the Gregory Clark Award for outstanding contributions to the arts of fly fishing and in 2008 the Jean-Guy Côté Award for continuous contributions to the arts of fly tying. A flyfisher for more than fifty years he has angled for a host of fresh and salt water species in fourteen countries and made numerous appearances as a presenter of programs about fly fishing and fly tying. Paul has five decades of experience at the vise and only a little less time teaching new tiers.

Book preview

How to Choose & Use Fly-tying Thread

Paul Marriner

Published by Paul Marriner, 2017.

While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

HOW TO CHOOSE & USE FLY-TYING THREAD

First edition. August 20, 2017.

Copyright © 2017 Paul Marriner.

ISBN: 978-0992148744

Written by Paul Marriner.

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Introduction

Thread is the most important ingredient in fly-tying. A bold statement, but easily supported. What about the hook? Well a wide range of patterns are tied on tubes but only a tiny fraction of patterns are constructed without thread. And some flies are entirely built of thread.

As the most important ingredient it’s vital to pick the right thread for the job and once chosen know how to use it. Choose the right thread and your tying will be easier and the end products neater, fishier, and more durable. Sometimes a single thread is all you need but the right choice may be several colours, types, or sizes at different stages of tying the fly. Regardless, you can trust that in any situation UNI Products offers all the threads you will need.

To make intelligent choices about which thread(s) to use it’s useful to understand something about the materials used to make thread and the various types of thread construction. It’s also key to be aware of how fly-tying thread is sized and the distortions currently present in the marketplace. Included below are sections covering both topics.

Do you need a selection of thread colours? That depends. You could tie all your flies with, for example, white thread; but then, like substituting nutmeg for oregano in a spaghetti sauce, a recipe calling for red thread wouldn’t taste the same. Moreover, having only one colour of thread precludes a variety of useful techniques. Nonetheless, beginners are best served with a small selection of thread types and sizes, filling in their colour needs later. Like Henry Ford, begin with black, particularly as a vast number of pattern recipes call for it. Certainly one can colour white thread to match Picasso’s palette but most of us are happy to leave colouring to the youngsters.

Finally, once a thread has been chosen for a tying task, knowing how to use it is the secret to a pleasurable bench-side session. So this booklet illustrates many of the tasks thread is called upon to perform. Master these and fly-tying will prove to be an interesting and satisfying hobby.

Note 1: Discriminatory it may be, but all instructions and photographs in this booklet are for right-handed people.

Note 2: Frequently large hooks and large threads are used for the illustrations to facilitate photography.

Thread Construction

With the exception of monofilament types, fly-tying threads are produced by combining finer filaments. These filaments vary in diameter depending on how they were processed. What diameter and how many filaments are used governs the size of the thread. Size is in quotes because, as will be described in a following section, Thread Sizes, it’s a rather nebulous concept. As for nylon monofilament, it’s a familiar product that’s extruded as a single strand.

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In what are commonly called flat threads the individual filaments are parallel or have, as a group, only a few twists per foot. If you take a non-bonded and unwaxed flat thread and flick the end with your finger, the individual filaments will separate from one another. They are the little brothers of floss and like floss can be difficult to handle with rough fingers. Also, without treatment flat threads have a disagreeable tendency to spread out at the