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These flies get their name from the Tutu, the short skirt worn by female ballet dancers

British Nick Thomas has come up with a way to form legs and feet using a tool we all have to hand in the kitchen, the common fork.

Some 25 years ago, I experimented with what I back then referred to as "linked flies". Today they’d be called articulated, and I have taken the tying method up again.

I have been making my own intruder shanks from straight hair pins for a while, and they are easy to make, inexpensive and work really well.

Make your own large eyes for pike and saltwater flies using inexpensive materials and a little time. Some adhesive marker dots, a handful of waterproof pens and some LCR and you can start your own stick-on eye factory.

Don't tie flies
- if you want easy access to tons of flies.
- if you want to save money on flies.
- unless you live alone.
- unless you have an understanding partner and/or family.
- if you want to appear cool to the opposite sex.

Tie flies
- if you want something to do off-season.
- if you want to fish the best.
- because you like being creative.
- because you want to spend many great hours alone or with friends.

I have always been annoyed by most commercially available zonker strips. Most of them are far too large and long haired for my use. 90% of all available strips are cut from rabbit, and in most cases they are both too wide in the skin and too long haired for anything but larger flies.

David Cowardin's concept for preventing flies from sinking is slightly different—as are his flies. They are different creatures! Most anglers can put a name on them, but the way they are tied... or more like built. Different is not quite enough to say that these are not like your average dry fly.

Five pairs of mono eyes dipped in epoxy for just around 5,50€ or 7$. It sounds like a good business opportunity, but as a consumer it just pushes you to make your eyes your self.
On a trip to Fyn this spring two Danes and an American-wanna-be-German made their own.

Tired of buying eyes, that make your shrimps look great? They are expensive and yet it is hard to find the color you want or the right size. It is not complicated and a good pursuit during winter time.
Make your own in all sizes and colors you want.

The C&F extended tube body tool is more than two darning needles in a fancy holder. If you - like Dutch Henk Verhaar - like doing it yourself, this might be worth looking into. The flies tied with extended bodies can become very realistic and still be simple to tie.

Make your dry fly dubbing in bulk quantities while washing your clothes! It's that easy! Harvest the fibers that come from you tumble dryer and prepare it for fly tying. Read the whole story by Steve Schweitzer here.

Almost everyone has the right stuff at their tying bench to make a great batch of dubbing. But not many people know they have everything they need to make an outstanding seal's fur dubbing substitute. This dubbing is a viable replacement for SLF, angora goat and seal's fur, and the trick to making it is so simple it will amaze you!

Siman Ltd. has taken the Turbo dubbing twister a step further with this tool, which enables you to easily make your own dubbing brushes - stiff or soft and from almost any dubbing material.

This small section with advice on dyeing fly tying materials was made after a discussion took place on the European fly fishing mailing list. The text was put together from input from several people of this list: Graham Ward, John Davies, Pat Orpen and myself.

When I recently reached the bottom of my last tube of Overton's Wonder Wax, I decided to try making my own instead of buying one of the newer commercial dubbing waxes. Like a lot of other tyers I had made my own dubbing wax years ago, but I didn't do it with a critical frame of mind.

Making your own or improving store bought dubbing. I recommend that all dubbing be passed through a coffee or spice grinder prior to using. The grinder tends to separate and air out the fibres providing a lighter product than would be normally accomplished by just using the blend out of the bag.

You don't need to raise birds to get feathers for fly tying, but it's both easy and fun. Here's the story about how I have chickens for eggs, meat and not least feathers

Here's a quick and simple way to make your own dubbing wax if you don't have the patience or confidence to custom blend your own.

These eyes are actually quite easy to make, but can tease a bit if you want to do them both on the same piece of monofile -- which is the neatest way to do things.

There are other ways than bead chain eyes to make eyes for a fly. Here are two ways: Copper thread and pearls and melted monofile.

Dyeing with picric acid yields colors between a gorgeous olive and an electric yellow.