Good flies to learn to tie.

[singleVI]

I started fly-fishing 3 years ago and I love it. Im sick of paying so much for flies so I dropped some hints and got a Beginner Fly-Tying kit for Valentines day. I fish for bass and panfish. What would be some effective flies for these fish that arent very hard to tie? Ive made some nymph like things and they look pretty good. I havnt tried woolly buggers yet because I dont have any black feathers. Could I dye the white weathers black?

[muskydx]

   Black is considered the hardest color to dye.....one must first de-grease the feathers, then dye them a dark color such as brown, then dye them black.    I think for the $3 it would cost to get 1/4 oz of marabou and strung saddle hackle you would be better off just buying the feathers.  If you still want to dye your own fethates(as I do for some hard to find or expensive things Eg. stripped hackle quills) I suggest you refer to Dyeing and Bleaching by A.K. Best.       



         now for the bluegill patterns......try a plain foam spider   in its simplest form you can tie a rectangle of closed cell foam and put some legs on it.  i am not explaining this very well so here is a link.   http://copperfly.net/foamspider.php

       another thing to try would be the gartside gurgler, this is a lot more complicated but it catches a lot of fish..http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/fotw/051799fotw.html   feel free to add lots of rubber legs, change the color, ect.   forget the flash unless you want it in your fly, it is unnessicary complicates things.   Hope this helps.....

                   

[msouranis]

Bass will hit a white bugger.  Don't limit yourself to just black.  If you have chartreuse flash, tie it into your tail section.  You might want to tie up some various colored clouser minnows or lefty decievers also.  Add a little red in the under tie to mimick blood. aka- a injured minnow.  Finally, tie ups some bunny leech patterns also.  For gills, try using a San Juam worm in red, brown, or wine color.
God & tight lines!

[corbanzo]

battle creeks use a white feather, they work good on trout.  If you are going t tie flies, dont let feathers limit you.   a side of hackle will set you back 5-15 bucks, but will get you hundreds of flies.  egg sucking leeches are also a good one I like.  Im really into streamers..., though for panfish little black nymphs and shrimp patterns work well. 

[SingleShotShorty]

for bass I tie Deer hair bugs in var colors as for panfish a black ant is a very good choice. to tie it all you need is a hook some lead wire and black thread.

[Jim Stacy]

I like bend back streamers in white and yellow with a red throat for bass or perch. Just different sizes. You can also make a bream killer with a piece of black chenille , rubber legs on a bend back size 8 or 10 stainless or gold hook

[liljohn]

There is a LOT of good tying info at: http://flyanglersonline.com

Click on the fly of the month pic. at the top left corner of the homepage, and then go to the archived fly-o-the-month page for a LOT of homespun flies.

AND on the left side of the home page click on "fly tying", and then click on  "beginning tying".
This will get you a real good start!

Also in the search box type in "simple streamers" and down the page mine is the number 5...#214FAOL article.

(I use bright colored plastic-canvas yarn for these and use them all year long!)
For the article I used a nylon chalk-line that I had dyed.
The bright colored line that construction workers use, (on a handled spool) for laying out foundations works good too!
(You can buy a spool for about 4 bucks and tie flies for a lot of years!)

There is a wealth of tying materials at your local craft store for cheap tying also, plastic bead-chain for eyes, feathers, all sorts of glittery threads,..etc.

To see the flies I use most go to: http://flytyingworld.com/PagesJ/jm-johnmcbride.htm

You can go to the homepage here and go to the tyers page and see tyere/flies from all over the world!
Hope this helps you!