consistency

[flytyer166 0]

i tie some pretty consistent flies but i was just wondering if anyone had any tips on how to increase conistentcy

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

Consistency produces flies/lures that will act as you designed them to act, which to me is important. The methods to achieve consistency is likely to vary depending on a person's strengths, you know, what you're comfortable with. Some may like counting, others measuring, others eyeballing to a certain mark; I do all three actually depending on the materials I'm fooling with. Also, consistency in under body materials is as important to the consistent action of a fly as consistent appearance contributes to consistent action.

Some people may cringe at the thought of making flies consistent, however, for myself, making things consistent takes out the guess work and approximations that burn up your brain and prevent you from relaxing.

I do several things to keep things consistent so I know what lengths things need to be and the distances other things need to be so when I get to that part, I don't have to think about it, I already know. I have lengths marked on a thin board and sometimes my desk for weedguards, lead wire, mylar tubing, frog legs, etc. for certain length hooks and different flies; that way, I don't have to re-measure something that I may have had to experiment and field test to achieve a certain action or sink rate. When I'm doing more than one fly, I'll pre-cut and pre-select as many of the fly's components as I can.

For tying in winging or tailing materials, I use the old standard of measuring my materials against the hook shank. For tying in materials, I usually count my wraps for initial set - 1,2,3 - now, check alignment - now 4&5 wraps go on and material butts are trimmed - or whatever works.

Also, when tying in lead wire or barbell/beadchain eyes, I usually determine where I want them to be tied in and I'll start my thread at the hook eye and count thread wraps back say 15 for a thread base and then back 4 towards the hook eye. Now, realize, I'm not counting and watching each wrap, that would require to much thought; its more like reading when you're skimming a page or maybe like a certain speed of my wrapping hand with a certain cadence count so counting to 15 may not mean I have 15 wraps of thread, I may have 10 or 18 but it will be consistent.

With flash materials, I usually take a quarter or half as much as I need and either double it over the thread and tie it in or cut in half and double that bunch over the thread on shorter flies.

Now, I didn't just sit down and decide to do these things, they just have become part of my tying ritual over the last twenty five years.

Again, for me, taking these measures allows me to clear my mind and relax and the end result is consistent flies both in action and appearance.

 

Kirk

[carlp5351 0]

What Kirk had to say is great. My best piece of advise for you is, Consistency comes with time at the vise. Tie a fly every day, consistency will come.

 

 

carlp

[RagingBull 0]

Well said kirk

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

What Kirk had to say is great. My best piece of advise for you is, Consistency comes with time at the vise. Tie a fly every day, consistency will come.

 

carlp

 

I agree. That brings to mind what many tiers say about learn a pattern or fly by tying at least a dozen of that one before moving on. Master a or several techniques at a time and over time what CarlP said will happen.

 

Thanks RagingBull - or you a boxer or just happened to walk across a cow pasture on your way to the stream and was greeted by a territorial bull?.

 

Kirk

 

[Johny Utah 0]

Kirks advice is great. Especially the counting. I would like to expand on calrps advice. It goes like this tie, tie, tie, tie and tie more and more and more. The more you tie the better you will become for sure.

[notenuftoys 0]

Now, I didn't just sit down and decide to do these things, they just have become part of my tying ritual over the last twenty five years.

 

That's probably the biggest key to consistency. I haven't been tying long, but for certain flies that I've tied quite a few of, the later ones tended to be much more consistent.

[Steve P 0]

Wow kirk nailed that puppy and could not have explained it much better..... I'll be about the 10th to "ditto" what he said but only with 22 yrs of tying.

 

Steve

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

Since I'm a commercial tyer when I'm not on the water consistency is important to me. Here's something I wrote about in another thread that covers my take on it....

 

First thing, is consistency. If I generate a pattern or tie from a sample (I'm strictly saltwater and have great admiration for those working with smaller flies..) I save a copy of what I've come up with - and it's absolutely the best of the bunch... If tying a dozen or one hundred of a given pattern I'll tie one or two extra. When the run is finished completely and before the flies are packaged I line them all up and look at them critically... the absolutely best fly is saved and set aside as a "master pattern". That way whenever I get another order from a shop or individual for that pattern I can accurately reproduce it - that is in every sense, colors, proportions, amount of materials.... In some cases that means an exact copy of something I haven't done in 10 years or more if it's needed. It greatly speeds up my tying to have a sample right there on the bench that I'm tying to, particularly when cutting materials or sorting out tying in points. No need for anything other than a comparison before each portion is tied in, etc.

 

Hope this helps.

 

[Bob T 0]

Since I'm a commercial tyer when I'm not on the water consistency is important to me. Here's something I wrote about in another thread that covers my take on it....

 

First thing, is consistency. If I generate a pattern or tie from a sample (I'm strictly saltwater and have great admiration for those working with smaller flies..) I save a copy of what I've come up with - and it's absolutely the best of the bunch... If tying a dozen or one hundred of a given pattern I'll tie one or two extra. When the run is finished completely and before the flies are packaged I line them all up and look at them critically... the absolutely best fly is saved and set aside as a "master pattern". That way whenever I get another order from a shop or individual for that pattern I can accurately reproduce it - that is in every sense, colors, proportions, amount of materials.... In some cases that means an exact copy of something I haven't done in 10 years or more if it's needed. It greatly speeds up my tying to have a sample right there on the bench that I'm tying to, particularly when cutting materials or sorting out tying in points. No need for anything other than a comparison before each portion is tied in, etc.

 

Hope this helps.

 

I pretty much agree with all of the replies. I have been tying for some 35 years or so and for me it just kind of crept up on me like others said with time at the vice. I have always when I am tying on a fly to pick out the best looking one as I feel confident tying on a well made fly and I kind of realized after a lot of years at the vice that they all look pretty good. Another thing that I noticed it I usually take a break from tying after the season is over and it used to take me a couple of tying sessions to get back into the swing of things proportion wise. Now I notice that I usually start out good from the start. But.....tie tie tie tie amd tie some more.

 

Bob

 

[buggybob 0]

You can also use A.K. Best's approach to consistency. Tie a dozen of the same pattern, same size. Line them up from first to last, and when you are done take a look to see when the consistency kicks in. He says it usually comes after the third or fourth fly. But then again, he doesn't feel like he's got the feel of any pattern nless he's tied 5 or 10 dozen of them.

[Mr. Vegas 0]

You can also use A.K. Best's approach to consistency. Tie a dozen of the same pattern, same size. Line them up from first to last, and when you are done take a look to see when the consistency kicks in. He says it usually comes after the third or fourth fly. But then again, he doesn't feel like he's got the feel of any pattern nless he's tied 5 or 10 dozen of them.

 

I have read ak's production tying cover to cover several times and use all his techniques. When I started tying I wanted to learn soooo many patterns. I only tied a couple of flies per pattern and when I went back say a month later and tried to tie the same one again it would look a little different then what I did before. I learned if I started a new pattern I have not tied before I will do 2 dozen of them. Like Capt Bob LeMay said, I would then pick the best one and save it aside. From there when I want to retie that pattern I have a good example I can look at it and copy it from there