By Gordon van der Spuy. Last year saw the kick off of the inaugural South African Fly Tyer of the Year. The competition was won by Philip Meyer who tied a really solid selection of flies. The defining feature of all of his creations is that they seem to break…

Most spools of fly tying thread come with a slightly angled groove cut into in outer upper rim of the plastic spool itself into which the thread, floss, silk, holographic tinsel or wire, as they case may be, can be locked between use. But not all spools have this facility…

In a recent posting on this website (http://www.tomsutcliffe.co.za/fly-fishing/fly-tying/item/1101-para-rab-with-spun-squirrel-hair.html ) I included a Para-RAB, Philip Meyer's celebrated pattern, tied with spun squirrel tail fibres set in a dubbing loop and tied in parachute style around a Poly Yarn post. (Any suitable wing post of your choice would do.) The method is…

 Article and images Tom Sutcliffe - It always struck me that the way squirrel tail fibres are tied in on Philip Meyer's Para-RAB is at best haphazard and arbitrary. Most of us tie in a small bunch near the post or between the post and the eye of the hook,…

 - There is little doubt about the importance of ants in the diet of trout, but I suspect that most fly fishers, myself included, have tended to focus more on floating than sunken ant imitations. I also suspect that we haven't given nearly enough attention to fishing ants as micro-patterns…

Further thoughts on fly design by Ed Herbst.   Jiri Pechar and jig hooks. At one of the Vice Squad evenings, held every second month at the Cape Piscatorial Society in Cape Town’s CBD and organised by Tudor Caradoc-Davies, I watched the coach of the Czech national junior team tie…