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2. Fly Tying
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3. Good basic materials?

I am thinking about trying fly tying this winter. I would like to tie basic attractors like wooly buggers, elk caddis, parachute Adams, hares ears, pheasant tails, Prince nymphs, and foam terrestrials. What basic materials will cover most of these patterns? I figured I would need some elk hair, foam, hackle, and dubbing- what kinds are the most versatile?

Also what kinds of thread work for a wide variety of patterns

Yes, elk hair or deer hair, foam, a few hackle capes or saddles, and dubbing will get you started. Collins has good hackle and you can Google to find the farm, call, and the owner will send what you want. Whiting hackle is good generally too. I like rabbit fur dubbing, and there are many brands. Hareline is popular, and I like their dubbings generally, especially their hare's ear. Others will have differing opinions, I'm sure. You'll need some peacock eyes or strung peacock for the prince nymphs. I'm liking Veevus 8/0 or 6/0 threads these days. Unithread is also good in those sizes. I'd recommend poly yarn for the Adams posts. It is easy to work with and floats well. You can try a variety of colors too. I'd tie white, orange or pink for hard to see situations, perhaps some dun and black (sometimes useful in glare). The fish don't seem to care about the color of posts--at least in my experience. With small flies a bright post can be very useful.

A little different way to go about building a tying inventory, but starting out I obtained some basic tying books such as Dave Hugh's Essential Flies then purchased the materials for the flies I wanted to start with. Starting with basic flies such as the Adams and so on allowed me to build a tying-material inventory over time as my expertise- and curiosity- increased. Basic materials go a long way since a lot of patterns are similar enough to substitute hackle/dubbing in some cases.

Roguerat

'Less is more...'

Ludwig Mies Vande Rohe