Fly fishing has evolved dramatically over the past years; rather than using live bait on a hook, we can now add any number of materials to attract a fish to bite.

No more worms or minnows, just imitations of them along with seasonal bugs; a cornucopia of pitfalls for the obsessive-compulsive amongst us.

Let’s start with the hooks. The standard fly hook looks like this:

Stuff gets tied onto the hook in many ways; the most difficult part of fly tying is keeping their feet still:

Flies can have a lot of hackle to make them float; these are “dry flies”:

Other flies have very sparse dressings and are meant to swim just below the stream surface; these are “wet flies”:

Weighted flies are meant to sink to the floor of the stream; these are broadly called “nymphs”.

and finally, bigger flies that are meant to be cast across a river are called “streamers”:

David Williams