what is your worst fly tying blooper

[flytire 0]

similar to the worst fly fishing bloopers

 

please keep it related to fly tying

 

i'm sure this will be a common one but my newbie blooper was spilling out a full bottle of head cement on the kitchen table.

 

ex wife was not too happy. (thank god she's gone)

 

luckily it was a formica topped table and not wood.

[mikechell 0]

A couple of decades ago, I got my fly tying kit. I tried tying deer hair bass bugs until I ran out of deer hair. I dabbled in tying over the years, but never really got into it.

Fast forward to a few of years ago, when I got onto this site. I finally found out that the deer hair I'd used up all those years before, was bucktail and you can't "flare" bucktail.

The blooper was using up an entire tail ... trying everything I could think of to get it to flare out when spinning.

[retrocarp 0]

Sticking myself to the fly, bench and glue lid at the same time ( zap a gap)

[cheech 0]

I used to hold the cap to my super glue in my mouth... until I glued half my mouth shut one time.

[TheCream 0]

Nothing makes you feel worse than shaving the belly of a deer hair bug and going too deep, nicking the thread. All your work goes "poof." I haven't done it in a long time because I changed the general shape of the bugs I use. I don't have to shave the belly as close to the shank any more, but more than once destroyed bugs by trying to shave the belly too tight.

[utyer 0]

Way way back (my second fall of tying,) I was given an order for some flies. One of the patterns, was the Red Quill. I lived in Utah, and we didn't have any connection to the "Catskill Traditional" flies. I tied up a half dozen RED quill using dyed red hackle and died red hackle stems for the body. Even the tails were RED. By RED, I mean scarlet red. Not red as in Rhode Island Red (which as I now know is really a dark Ginger or Brown.)

 

My customer was a family friend, who never said a word about the flies. I'm sure glad the order didn't include any BLUE Wing Olives or Blue Quills. It did include Ginger Quills. While exact color is a interpretive thing, fly tiers can endlessly split hairs and hackles on just what some colors actually are.

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

While applying a bead of CA to my tying thread, the tip of the superglue bottle caught on the thread and "twanged" it like a bow string causing the CA on the thread to fling into my eye - dried on my eye and scratched it - had to wear eye patch for three days!

[Jaydub 0]

I had one of those 24 compartment hook boxes, full of hundreds of hooks, all nicely sorted by type and size. I dropped the open box from about 6 inches onto the table, instantly radomizing the contents.

[BattenkillBum 0]

I once had a large hook in the vice tying tandom streamers, a magog smelt or nine three, anyways I reached across my table over the vice and sank that hook into my arm by my arm pit pinning me to the vice. Gritted my teeth and pulled back opisit(sp?) way to free myself.

[Fisherboy0301 0]

I once had a large hook in the vice tying tandom streamers, a magog smelt or nine three, anyways I reached across my table over the vice and sank that hook into my arm by my arm pit pinning me to the vice. Gritted my teeth and pulled back opisit(sp?) way to free myself.

 

had a similar thing happen to me. had a size 8 streamer hook in the vice, leaned over and it stuck into my upper arm, just below the shoulder, i jerked up in reaction, and the weight of the vice puled it out, but it gashed me pretty well.

[utyer 0]

This didn't happen while tying, but rather moving into a new house. I was putting both my Umpqua hook boxes up on a shelf in the closet. I don't remember exactly what I hit with the boxes, but they both ended up on the shag carpet. I started cleaning them up using a magnet, and later set about the task of trying to sort them out.

 

While doing the sorting, I decided to count them. I stopped counting when I hit 12,000. It took me several days to sort them back into some semblance of order. For the last 12 years, I am only guessing as to exactly what hook and what size I am using. If it look right, and is the right size, then I use it.

[Fish For Life 0]

I just finished a nice big pike fly. It must have taken me close to an 45 minutes to complete it, It was one of the best pike flys i have tied. After i made my whip finish i grabbed a lighter to clean off any stubs of material that were sticking out of the head. A trick that i have been using a long time and has been working great. Anyways, i accidentally got the lighter to close to the body and poof, it all went up in flame. By the time i got it out most of the material was burned. All i was left with was a big smouldering pile of fur, feathers, and flash, along with a room that stank of smoke. Not my best day.

[artimus001 0]

I just finished a nice big pike fly. It must have taken me close to an 45 minutes to complete it, It was one of the best pike flys i have tied. After i made my whip finish i grabbed a lighter to clean off any stubs of material that were sticking out of the head. A trick that i have been using a long time and has been working great. Anyways, i accidentally got the lighter to close to the body and poof, it all went up in flame. By the time i got it out most of the material was burned. All i was left with was a big smouldering pile of fur, feathers, and flash, along with a room that stank of smoke. Not my best day.

 

i have one of these....

 

http://www.stoeltingco.com/neuroscience/surgical-supplies-62/cautery/high-temperature-disposable-cautery-pens.html

 

cleans out an eye in seconds.

[Stevester 0]

How about a continuing blooper? I get into these phases where I tie in the ribbing, proceed with the rest of the fly, whip finish, then notice that the rib is still hanging off the back. Not as much the last few years but it still happens occasionally. Is this a sign of ADD?

 

Steve

[mikechell 0]

Naw, Steve ... probably a sign of OLD.