gadabout

Glad to hear you’re doing better!

If there are no scented candles in it, it’s a man cave.

Thanks Mark. I’m not happy with the amount of bucktail I used, but like the overall look.

Thanks MuskyFlyGuy and niveker.

Keuka Sunset

Agree with all of the above. If you want to practice whip finishing before you start, that’s not a bad idea. You can even use a toothpick, instead of a hook..

I enjoy Matt O’Neal’s videos. Seems like a good guy. Also Dressed Irons and tightlinevideo.

I still use my Orvis Super-Tackle-Pac. I agree with you. It’s a great layout. I really don’t think about what it weighs when I’m fishing. I’m too absorbed in what I’m doing.

I generally stick to the established pattern. If I don’t have the materials on hand for a particular fly, then there are plenty of other flies I can tie until I get them. Too much substitution causes fly patterns to evolve away from their original design. This just causes confusion. If you change materials on a fly, give it a different name.

Good to see you back! I will take a pass on this swap though.

Very nice!

Hang in there buddy. The fish are waiting for your speedy recovery.

TV snack table in front of your recliner is probably the easiest short-term solution. You’ll probably want a Dust Vac too.

My fly tying desk is in my living room, so when I’m tying, the TV is usually on and my wife will be watching it. If I want some other background, I’ll play YouTube videos on my iPhone. The scenario you’re suggesting is not ideal for fly tying, as you’ll usually want some kind of light-colored solid background in your tying space to view the fly against. That being said, when I first started tying years ago, I made a portable fly tying station and set it up on a TV snack table in my living room. While the TV was usually on, I don’t think I was literally trying to watch TV while tying.

Steeldrifter’s answer pretty much spells it out. It’s a bit of work, and the results may or may not be very satisfying. Sliding a pre-made cork grip over the blank will rarely give as good a result as building a grip right on the blank out of individual cork rings and then shaping it. A poor fit between the grip and blank will definitely be felt when you’re casting. Maybe the smartest thing to do is to learn to appreciate a cigar grip.