Efficiency, organization and shortcuts all add up to make fly tying a little easier. Below are five tips to help make filing your fly boxes quicker.
1. Poster Board. I like to use an inexpensive light blue poster board on my desk as a backdrop. By doing so your eyes will have an easier time focusing on the fly in the vise and not on the wood grain or messy table behind the fly. Less eye fatigue, too. This poster board becomes disposable if you should spill some head cement or other adhesives on it. I also sketch on the board when designing flies and often have a list off to the side of needed materials to buy and fly patterns that need to be tied.
2. Scissors in Hand. Keep your scissors in your hand as you tie. This makes tying so much faster as you aren’t constantly picking up them up and putting them down. It really does make a significant difference. At first it will feel awkward, but with some perseverance you won’t even notice having them in your hand. Large looped and heavy scissors like Dr. Slick’s All Purpose or Arrow models make it easy to flick the scissors from an idle position to a cutting one. Sure, there are times when you need to put the scissors down to do a particular technique, but the majority of the time they should be in your hand. Yes, you can tie with both your scissors and bobin in your hand – try it.
3. Side Cutters. Tying with various wires like copper and lead is quite common, but if the wire is heavy gauge using your good scissors to trim the wire will quickly dull or simply ruin them. I keep a pair of inexpensive side cutters near the vise for such occasions. These side cutters come in handy, too, when you need to cut off a hook when tying shank-style flies — using only a trailer hook which is attached to a hook that needs it’s hook removed from the shank. Click here for an example of a shank-style fly.
4. Book Rings. As your material collection grows larger, having things organized makes tying faster. I use book rings from the office supply store to keep similar materials together. For example, all dry fly dubbing share a ring, sili-legs and round rubber legs have their own ring, etc. Most fly tyers who have seen this organizational method have adopted it and have been really pleased.
5. Dryer Sheets. Using hair eveners for materials like deer or elk hair can be frustrating when a little static is built up within. Use a fabric softener sheet from the laundry room to wipe the unit and discharge the static cling to get those ends even.