SalmoSalarFlies

Hi all! My plan has always been to tie flies upfront and sell what I have. This simply translates in to tying Ally’s shrimp in red, yellow and orange as well as Ally’s cascade in sizes 7-11. This counteracts taking on more than I can handle and I should easily shift what I tie as these are the most popular flies in my local systems in the sizes most used in summer fishing. I’ll also look into breaking down my process – I have a rough idea how I’d do so already. Tidewaterfly: Marking the vice! So simple! I tried using a piece of card to hold behind the fly at different stages but I soon lost that! Thanks for the advice! Stu

Hi guys, I am considering trying the whole commercial tying thing on a small scale - I've done so before, but only for friends etc. At present, I'd consider myself an intermediate level tier - my flies look good, fish well and most importantly, they last more than one fish! I'm aiming to find ways to streamline my process and I've identified that the slowest part of my tying is creating mixed hair tails for salmon shrimp patterns i.e Ally's shrimp and Cascade shrimps. Has anyone got any tips on how to streamline this process? It usually takes me ~4 minutes to mix a tail up to a level that I am satisfied with (I might just be overly fussy) Having assessed my average tying time and cost of materials, I'm keen to shave a few minutes off my process as I'll be turning ~50% profit and averaging 3-4 flies per hour. I have considered mixing the tail hair up in bulk in a hair stacker but I'm unsure if this will yield consistent tails across, say - 30 flies. Also, has anyone got any tips on increasing durability apart from waxing thread before each material is added and gluing/varnishing everything in? Furthermore, has anyone got tips on improving consistency? I've considered breaking my flies down in stages for this i.e tying tails in for each fly, then continuing to the bodies, then wings, hackles etc - or should I tie one at a time? Regards, Stuart