Fly Tying Tips and Tricks

[fishfrnzy2 0]

lots of good tips by flytire and others.

 

some of the best so far:

I was told to get used to tying with your scissors in your hand to save looking for them on the table and you got em when you need them.

Learn to tie whip finish by hand.....tied several tens of thousands of flies over 45 years before buying a whip finish tool.  Finally broke down about 5 years ago and bought what because in wintertime hands get so dry and cracked it was fraying the thread too much.  Was told god gave you a whip finish tool, use it!

In the post just above, using chenille from zip log bag to save waste, yes to this.  I now usually wrap all body materials from the spool or card if it is chenille or the bundle it comes on including wire, lead wire etc instead of cutting off a 8" length or what ever and working with an ever shortening piece.  I seldo make one or two of anything so economy at scale.  Also saves time when you are in production mode.  This is darlon from making quite a few sparkle duns.

 

some others:

Along the same lines when making multiple flies, usually I would make at least a half dozen of a pattern( I tie for 3  of us in the family and give many to friends) any material like flashbou, darlon, etc pull the 6 or so strands out of the bundle instead of cutting if bundled in the middle and tie a knot in one end to keep everything aligned.  keeps the ends even as you cut and saves time.  Tie the ends in from the cut end very close to the end and you do not need to cut off any excess toward the eye.

Use the gap of the hook for measuring hackles, wings, tails etc.  That way your size 10's will look right and so will your # 20's

Steaming duck, goose, turkey quills etc to restore folded or buggered up feathers to they way they came off the bird.

Started tying when synthetic dubbing choices were very limited and dear and elk hair were rarely tanned.  Almost always washed in dawn dishwashing soap(shampoo works too) to get rid of animal dirt and oils.  Pat dry on paper towel and let dry or blow dry if you are in a hurry to use..  makes tying with natural materials soooo much easier.

make dubbing needles from 1/16" stainless steel TIG welding wire.  Put an 8" length in a cordless drill and run against a belt sander with fine belt or grinding wheel, easy enough to bend loops/hooks in the end when you are done for dubbing twister.  2 36" lengths will get you about 8 a lifetime supply or give some away.  

 

 

Keep the amount of thread between your bobbin and the fly to a minimum.  Gives you much more speed wrapping and much more precision for thread placement.  If in doubt try a little experiment with 1" of thread out vs 5" of thread and see.

When your nail polish head cement gets thick add some acetone with a eyedropper or straw.  When your Fleximent gets thick, add some toluene, or you can just make your own with shoe goo, E6000, GOOP etc by putting in empty jar with about 2x the volume toluene to the glue and let it sit for a day to dissolve.  Shake the bottle a few times during the process.

 

 

 

[niveker 0]

Some good tips there, @fishfrnzy2. 

[flytire 0]

[flytire 0]

[Gene L 0]

To shave down a leader to use the Krazy Glue affixation,  hold the leader in your non-dominate hand, with a foot of the butt end exposed.  Take a double edge razor blade and touch it to the leader butt.  You'll feel it bite into the leader.  Then drag the razor blade against the butt, unsupported.  It will shave the leader into a fine thread, which you can thread a needle and insert it into the end of the fly line.

[DarrellP 0]

These are great ideas.  My wife has some pillow/quilt stuffing material that I will experiment with for wings and tailing on minnows

[flytire 0]

[flytire 0]

[flytire 0]

[RickZieger 0]

This comes from a Friday night tying video with the Beatty's. When tying in rubber legs use a very little dubbing under the legs and the legs stay placed better.

Use a very minimal amount of dubbing. Supposed to help with ice dubbing also, but have not tried that. 

Rick 

[livetaytay 0]

These are helpful. Thank you! 

[flytire 0]

[KnottaFly 0]

As I’ve gotten older my fingers don’t always work the way I want them too (brain and eyes also). In tying in CDC, I’ve been tying in by the tips because I couldn’t get the cdc to stay in a dubbing loop. Every time the cdc would fall out before I could spin it. Dumb me finally picked up the dubbing wax right in front of me. Little wax and yep, it worked. Brain malfunction, finally engaged.

[flytire 0]

[WWKimba 0]

To help tie a hackle quill onto a hook shank, flatten the quill.  As any baseball player knows - the hardest thing to do is hit a round ball with a round bat!  Also, most scissors have a spot where you can do the flattening - it's the flat spots on each blade located just above the hinge.

Kim