What is the best fly tying app?
Written by the developer of one of them — so here's the honest version, including where an app is the wrong tool entirely.
There isn't a single best fly tying app, because tyers use them for two different jobs: tracking what you own, and learning what to tie. Those need different tools. This guide explains how to tell which you need — written by the developer of Woolly Bug, so weigh the recommendation accordingly.
What are you actually trying to solve?
If the problem is duplicate purchases — you came home with your third packet of hare's ear — you need an inventory app. That's a database problem, and the features that matter are searchable materials, storage locations, and a shopping list that knows what you already have.
If the problem is not knowing what to tie, an app is the wrong tool. YouTube channels like Tightline, Davie McPhail and Fly Fish Food teach tying far better than any app, and they're free.
If the problem is hook selection — you can't find a TMC 100 and need to know what substitutes for it — that's a specification lookup, and very few apps handle it.
What should an inventory app do well?
Fly-tying-specific fields. Generic inventory apps offer "quantity" and "category". A fly tying app needs hook specifications, hackle sizes, dubbing colours and thread deniers. If you're typing everything into a notes field, it wasn't built for this.
Storage locations. Logging that you own something is half the job. The question at the bench is usually which drawer it's in.
Pattern-to-material linking. The genuinely useful trick is cross-checking recipes against your stash, so you know what you can tie tonight without opening a box.
Offline access. Benches live in garages and sheds; rivers rarely have signal. An app that needs a connection to show your own data is the wrong choice.
CSV import. If you already keep a spreadsheet, you shouldn't have to retype it.
What are the options?
Woolly Bug (iOS, free with paid tiers) — material inventory with storage locations, pattern recipes cross-checked against your stash, and a searchable database of 700+ hooks from 16 manufacturers with cross-brand equivalents. Strongest on hook specifications and CSV import/export. iPhone and iPad only.
Fly Tyer's Bench — the closest direct competitor, with AI-powered material scanning and a pattern library. If scanning materials in rather than typing them appeals, worth a look.
A spreadsheet — free, fully flexible, and genuinely fine if you work mostly at your bench. Weak on mobile, which is where inventory data earns its keep.
Nothing — a legitimate choice. If your collection fits in your head, an app is overhead you don't need.
Where Woolly Bug isn't the right answer
It's iOS only, so Android users are out. It doesn't teach you to tie — there are no tutorials. It doesn't log catches in the detail a dedicated fishing-log app does. And if your collection is a dozen items, cataloguing them costs more effort than it saves.
The case for it is narrow and specific: you own a lot of materials, you keep buying duplicates, and you want hook specifications on your phone at the shop counter.
Try Woolly Bug free
20 materials, 5 patterns and the full 700+ hook database at no cost.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best fly tying app?
It depends what you need it for. To catalogue materials and avoid duplicates, an inventory-first app is the right category — Woolly Bug and Fly Tyer's Bench are the main options. For pattern tutorials, a YouTube channel serves you better than either. Most tyers who try an app are solving the duplicate-purchase problem, which is an inventory problem.
Is there a free fly tying app?
Yes. Woolly Bug is free to download and lets you catalogue 20 materials and 5 patterns, with the full 700+ hook database included at no cost. Most apps in this category are freemium rather than paid upfront.
Do I need an app, or will a spreadsheet do?
A spreadsheet works and costs nothing. The trade-off is that spreadsheets are poor on a phone at a fly shop counter, which is exactly where you need the data. If yours works for you, the main reason to switch is mobile access — and any decent app should import your CSV rather than make you start over.
Which fly tying app has a hook database?
Woolly Bug includes a searchable database of 700+ hooks from 16 manufacturers with cross-brand equivalents. Free specification pages are published at woollybug.com/hooks/. This isn't a common feature — most apps focus on materials and patterns rather than hook specifications.
What should a fly tying inventory app actually do?
Four things: fields specific to fly tying rather than generic inventory fields; storage locations so you can find a material once logged; pattern recipes linked to what you own; and offline access, because benches and riverbanks often have no signal.