Your Bad Habits

[flyfishingheaven 0]

Cutting my fingers. I had a terrible habit of getting the hand with no scissors in the way. Thsi seemed to always happen when I was working with deer or elk hair. I would grab the bunch and ship away, taking a little bit of my fingers with it. I got over it by my wifes continuous laughter. It gets pretty embasrassing after a while.

[fishyfranky 0]

Reading fly tying internet forums while tying! Sometimes I take 15-30 minutes for a wooly bugger!

[Guest]

My biggest bad habit is not sitting down and just tying for myself anymore. Mostly tying jigs and flies for everyone else. Then putting time aside for trying to do my slow workouts to get back to work. So just sitting and "relax tying" just isn't happening like I would like it to. After sitting down for a couple hours tying for others, want to get away from the bench. I enjoy tying for customers (thank god it's not production tying). But even then, I have to get away from the bench.

 

I think my worst habit is not knowing when to stop. Usually I want to tie one more fly, or just cranking away. Especially on big orders. That's when I get sloppy. Usually not on the fly, but things like mentioned above (nick thread on hook point, cut the thread when trying to trim, etc).

[Essoxfly 0]

I often whipfinnish more than needed and when i'm trying to make fly better than my average then i sometimes forget to tie in the rib

 

Best regards

Jakob

[bentflyrod 0]

QUOTE

fishyfranky   Reading fly tying internet forums while tying! Sometimes I take 15-30 minutes for a wooly bugger!

 

 

I'm guilty of this. (Like right now)

 

[Guest]

Like most I had the tendency to crowd the eye and make to big of a thread head.

Finally it dawned on me. I need to leave room for the whip finish.

[Guest]

I rush things when I shouldn't. The hardest thing I had to learn when tying atlantic salmon flies is patience.

[Joe Hard 0]

I never put anything away.and when I need something,and cant find it, I get mad.Then I clean my desk, and find old bills.

 

Terrible,terrible bad habbit

[Hywel 0]

One of my many bad tying habits is a lack of patience when working on an especially complex pattern - or waiting for multiple coats of head cement to dry.

 

Jerry,

 

You tie flies (and jigs?) for everyone else, 'especially big orders' - and you're *not* production tying? What exactly are you 'cranking away' at? *g*

 

 

 

 

[Guest]

Scott, I'm nowhere NEAR tying what I did when I tied "production". Worse thing of all, I got some good advice about 12 years too late from a guy off another board on what not to do (already had done it way back when). Luckily, he did give me some good info on getting my wholesale accounts I had been wanting (only had one, now about 20 lol). But I'm tying about a 1/4 of what I'd tie per day when I tied production. Production for me is assembly line work. Lots of the same pattern. I'm tying a variety now on a smaller scale. Add jigs, and it's QUITE the variety. Setup takes more now, because I'm tying alot of little orders that are different. Today, tied up 2 dozen jigs (marabou and some off the wall customs) and another 2 dozen steelhead and SRC flies. Thank God it's not like that everyday. LOL. I may be "producing", but not doing a "production" line tying. I don't have such a "finite" time schedule to try and meet as I did before.

 

Plus, I have almost always worked at high "production" type jobs. Worked at a box company where I was timed on production and had a machine that kept me at that production level. UPS is notorious for time studies and "production" standards. I had to hear about it daily on our operative reports. I don't have them now when it comes to tying. I tie at my own speed. Though I still want to get them done, I don't have to hurry (with shops, I had a time frame and didn't leave much time trying to live a life on top of it). I put a little more "love" into them. But, still get times where I don't want to sit at the bench. Plus, with my spinal injury, can't fish like I want to (and can't hunt at all). And yes, sometimes I get a big order. For me, a big order now is anywhere in the 100 fly/jig range for one customer. Way I like to keep it.

 

So, hopefully that explains it for you?

[Hillbilly 0]

My biggest problem is the lack of experance.

[flyfishingboys 0]

My bad habits in order...

A- breaking the thread on the point of the hook

B- lose track of time while tying and miss other commitments

C- knocking over the bottle of head cement on my tying desk (3 TIMES!!!!)

[Mato Kuwapi 0]

I no longer crowd the eye.

The best way to solve that problem is to try and tie on those crowded eye flies (the only fly you KNOW will work) in the heat of the moment...(trophy rising in front of you.) After you've fumbled with them and missed a Trophy oppertunity, because you had to cut the head off the fly to get the line though the eye... then the fly falls apart in mid air... well....... You remember at the bench...eventually.

 

I still nick thread. I know a sure fire way to stip it...but I'm lazy. Cut a piece of tubing like larva lace and put it over the hook point). The other way is to slow down and pay closer attention...but then you won't get as many flies tied.

 

The bad habit I really need to work on is to PRE PLAN what I'm going to tie...then stick with tying that pattern and varients until I know I have enough, for at least one season. (not two of this and three of that...when I know I loose about a dozen flies in any given day)

 

THEN....CLEAN THE SPACE before going on to the next pattern.

 

My tying bench is a disaster area.

 

I waste more time looking for what I just put down....

 

 

[tidbit 0]

For me it was not keeping the scissors in my hand. I'd lay them down and pick them up several times during the tying process.

 

I have a shop about 50 miles from where I live. I had the owner watch me tye ( we made a home video) and then critique the work. WOW, does it open your eyes. I found several things I kept doing over-n-over again. Laying down the scissors, having too much thread out of the bobbin, and the worst---far too many turns of thread. If two turns will hold the material---only use two. Sometimes it is necessary to add wraps but usually LESS is better. Especially up near the head and whip finishing.

 

That has been quite a few years ago now. But having someone watch you and discuss the work helps alot. You need someone who is an experienced tyer---that way, you have some added interest and that tyer has probably worked through most of the problems we all encounter.

 

I think just tying and tying over and over again will not always help you. Sometimes a class is of great benefit. If I wanted to tye Atlantic salmon flys ( and do it well) I take a lesson. Most of the good tyers are more than happy to give you some pointers.

 

Me, I'm just a duffer. Still learnin and I've been tying for about 12 or 14 years.

 

tidbit

[pacres 0]

Leaving too much room on hairwings at the head so the flu looks sick and thin. A messy tying room. At least the wife stays out. Buying stuff I'll use once, or never.