What are the 5 most important and most used materials in your flies?

RCF

RCF

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Thread and hook do not count.

Trout:

I use only 3 materials to tie most of my flies. KISS attitude...

Carey Special - marabou, deer hair and chenille
Humpies - deer hair and Grizzley hackle (could use just deer hair)
October Caddis - deer hair and Grizzley hackle (could use just deer hair)
Salmon Flies - deer hair and Grizzley hackle (could use just deer hair)
Streamers e.g. Wooley buggers - chenille, marabou and pheasant rump/tail
Pheasant Tails - deer hair, hare's mask and pheasant rump/tail
Emergers - deer hair, hare's mask, pheasant rump/tail

So my five materials are and would be: marabou, deer hair, chenille, hare's mask, pheasant rump/tail

Obviously I use thread color and a lot thread in my ties...

Do I have a lot of materials in my stash? Absolutely!

If I was just starting out to tie I would recommend these.

Thoughts?
 
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For the flies that I tie the most of, here's what I could get away with.

1. bucktail
2. saddle hackle
3. chenille (pretty broad brush stroke, I know)
4. longer length dubbing like Titan dub (you can always make a longer dubbing short, but ya might experience issues trying to go the other way around)
5. pheasant rump (I LOVE this specifically for my CAPR flies, but could easily get away with saddle hackle)

bonus: flashabou (I honestly rarely add flash to my flies, but probably would need to for some trout stuff, so this could easily replace the pheasant above)

sadly, not much room for rabbit strips for trout streamers...

🍻
 
Fine mono thread
Hot orange 8/0 thread
Brass dumbbell eyes ( psuedo or real eyes plus)
Flat diamond braid
Loctite control gel super glue
 
I'm with Zak on one and two.
1) Hare's Mask
2) Partridge Skin
3) Gold Wire
4) Gold bead
5) Pine Squirrel Zonker
Hare's ears and jiggy craws.
 
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I mostly tie for Puget Sound species and buy most of my trout flies outside of a few select patterns.

If I could only have 5 for the sound, I feel like I could tie 75% of the patterns I use effectively with these materials.

Marabou
Schlappen
Bucktail
Flat Diamond Braid
Flashabou GITD

One big material missing is eyes (dumbell, stick on and easy shrimp). If I could have 6, (or 8), those would be my next three choices.
 
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If I could only have 5:
Marabou
Dubbing
Pheasant (skin & tail)
Beads
Hackle
 
On my tying binge for Baja right now I could probably just get away with three items:
1. Synthetic fibers (EP/SF/whatever)
2. Brushes (foxy/craft fur/whatever)
3. Tabbed eyes

For local PNW stuff it'd be:
1. Chenille
2. Hackle
3. Marabou
4. Krystal flash
5. Bucktail
 
Tuna: EP fiber (or Congo Hair from FTD), FisHair, saltwater flashabou, dome-type eyes, craft store sheer decorative ribbon (eye tab material), UV resin, and Prismacolor markers.

Salmon/steelhead: Variety of dubbing colors/types (bright/natural/UV...etc), saddle hackle, schlappen, flashabou, krystal flash, and of course marabou.
 
It has varied over the years, but in recent times the materials I use the most of are: died yak hair, died grizzly hackle, flashabou, died guinea hackle, jungle cock eyes. Since the fly is used for fishing winter steelhead, I go through a lot of them. Many other flies can last for years in the fly box.
 
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The most important tying materials are somewhere to be found in this conglomeration of stuff. Depends on the day and what I am tying. I will comment on two materials mentioned by the OP and others—thread and chenille.

Although I am sure I have a huge stash of traditional chenille in there, I rarely use it. Instead, just about any pattern that employs chenille can be replicated with long strand dubbing. Why? A lot of chenille is constructed with a cotton core or a core material that stretches when wet and the fly put under casting acceleration and deceleration. If the core stretches when wet, the chenille can loosen and other materials can loosen as well. A long strand dubbing like simi-seal will function just as well as chenille but there will be NO stretch when wet.

No doubt that thread is an essential fly tying material, but using the smallest thread possible for the size of fly being tied will significantly improve flies. Although 3/0, 6/0 and 8/0 (210, 140, and 70 denier) are standard, the availability of sizes from 10/0 down to 18/0 can significantly improve the tying of small flies. Surprising how many flies I tie with 18/0 thread.
 
Gold Dazl-eyes in various sizes
Flashabou - gold, silver, and copper
Rabbit zonker strips - black, white, olive, cerise, flesh
Fishair - white, flo pink, chartreuse, moss green
EP fiber - white, black, pink, chartreuse, sculpin

If I had to pick one single color of each, it would be gold flashabou and pink rabbit, fishair, and EP. I reckon a fella could fish a pink leech/minnow/fathead pattern for pretty much every species available in AK with success.
 
Heron
Seal
Bronze Mallard
Jungle Cock
Teal

I'm only tying a few things lately
 
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