How to Improve and Fix your Flies on the River

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Have you ever purchased a batch of flies online only to realize they aren’t at all the quality you expected and paid for? This can often be the case as flies are tied quickly when sold in batches and quality may be sacrificed. Believe it or not, the way a fly looks can make or break your fishing trip. In this tips and tricks video of the week, In The Riffle demonstrates how to prep your flies and get them ready for the river.

Prepping your Flies for the River

Often times, dry flies come with too much material. Maybe the poly-yarn on your Adams is too thick, or maybe the tail of the fly is too full. Maybe your flies look bland and need some finishing touches. This leads us into our tips for the week.

Tip #1: Trim and Tidy up Factory Flies

  • Don’t be afraid to give your flies a haircut. Factory flies can be messy and often need some handy work.
  • Use your tying scissors to trim any hackle fibers, tail fibers, poly-yarn, etc. to make the fly look more life-like and less like an eyesore.
  • Take your scissors with you on the river as well. You never know when you’ll need to make adjustments on the water.

Tip #2: Add Some Spice to your Factory Flies

  • As mentioned previously, factory flies may come looking a little bland. Lucky for you, there is plenty of room to make adjustments. Loon Outdoors makes colored UV Resins which are perfect for adding hot spots or life-like touches to your flies.
  • Use Red colored resin to add an attractor or hot spot to your flies. Green can be a nice touch to add to the butt of nymph to represent an emerging caddis.
  • Carry your resins with you on the water, you will be surprised how much of a difference this can make.
  • Sharpies work just as well if resins aren’t available.

Tip#3: Use Velcro to Spruce up your Dubbing

  • Often after repeated use, dubbing can get matted or worn down. Using a small piece of Velcro can bring life back to your fly with just a few swipes.
  • Use the Velcro to pick the dubbing fibers out to bring back a more realistic appeal.
  • You can find Velcro at your local craft store along with tongue depressors. Attach the Velcro to the tongue depressor and put it in your pack and you’re set for your next trip.

Tip #4: Repair Deer Hair with Super Glue

  • After a long day of fishing, your flies take a beating. Dry flies that use deer or elk hair heads often go through the ringer. Super glue is an easy fix for this.
  • Apply a small dab of super glue to your flies and allow it to seep in and cover the fibers completely. Remember less is more.
  • Those broken fibers will become strong again with a thin coating of super glue. Throw a bottle in your pack for your next outing, you won’t regret it.

There you have it, 4 quick and easy tips to improve the look and use of your flies on the river. These are the types of products that often stay at the tying bench but having them on you in person is a game changer. Give it a try and best of luck!

For more information and tips, check out In The Riffle by clicking here.

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