How creative can we tyers be?

[Guest]

Yeah, go ahead, whatever-

[vices 0]

Thanks alot guys.. this site is truly for the people.. You guys are the best..

[vices 0]

I fogot to mention this stuff i use instead of head cement.. it dries a 1000X quicker and its super thin.. so it will soak and it sets without changing the head of the fly at all .. The name, LePage8 accu-flo (automatic pen) its cleaner, faster and easy..

[Pujic 0]

caughtonlures*com, another great way to keep your mess to a minimum when clipping deer hair is to lay a sheet (about 24inches by 16inches, available at WalMart for .33 cents) of felt on your knees.

 

The deer hair which flies off the bench, and all too often onto your clothes, will cling to the felt, leaving you clean I saw a tyer do this last year at a show. Works great!

[rougetrout 0]

collecting roadkill is a touchy subject. There is a good book out there called "From fur to fly" it covers preserving game and very basic tanning a pickling for those out there who haven't done much work with preserving and tanning hides. It isn't difficult to preserve skins...tanning is a bit harder but the only way to make soft skins for zonkers. I have also found that deer hair is much easier to work with from a tanned skin.

 

about roadkill, it is iffy in most states. most of the time it is okay to collect from small animals, and game birds if in season and you have a lisence. Waterfowl and non-game birds (song birds in MI) are a big no-no and will get you a misdemeanor. large mammals such as deer (the bucktail thing) is a no no. if you do find a fresh roadkill deer call the police and they will give you a permit (in MI) to take the deer, but you have to take the whole thing). Also taking a non-fresh roadkill is a very bad idea. you will never be able to preserve it right and it will continue to rot from the chemicals that the bacteria responsible for decay have deposited this can ruin your other supplies such as the expensive hackle necks you have bought.

[artimus 0]

Next time you are at the takle shop, ask the owner for the discarded bulk line spools. They are great for storing fly lines and backing on. Oversized coils for less memory, stack and store, and a quick sticker on the spool will help you remember which line is which.

 

Art

[Uncle Buck 0]

I got this idea from AK Best's book "Production Fly Tying"

 

I made a dubbing brush with a popsicle stick and some velcro hooks glued around one end of it and it works great

 

Buck

[nightfish 0]

For a toolstand, I use what was known as a "potting frog"...used for floral arrangements before the days of the green block foam. I got mine from a grandmothers' basement. It's a molded round glass base with 14 holes in it. It's about 5" across & 2" high, and in a domed shape. The holes are about 1/4" dia, so scissors, bobbins, other tools fit very easily, and it weighs enough that it won't go flying if I bump it. Plus it's old, so that's cool too.

 

I saw this one posted elsewhere on the site, but a slightly different version:

Empty film canisters, clear type for wire dispensers. I use a bodkin to poke a hole in the side of the container, then thread the wire thru the hole. I also drill a hole thry the bottom & cap, and stack them on dowels (thru the spool), which are glued into a board vertically. I have 3 stacks...copper wire, gold wire & silver wire, 3 diameters of each. I just pull out the length I want, bend it slightly to keep it in place against the canister, & snip off.

 

 

For fly tying demonstrations, I take along a bunch of electrical lead clips...holds the fly securely & passes the bugs around the crowds safely, with an easy 360 degree view. You can then mount them for display for the remainder of the demo in a drilled block or plastic cartridge box (303 british works well.

 

Those spent cartridges work well for stamping out foam discs too. Sharpen them a bit with a round file.

 

Final tip for now...

Get yourself a couple of sisters who are into scrapbooking, & have them hunt for unique materials in the crafty shops...things like superfine glitters to mix in epoxy, unique raffias, synthetic materials, etc.

 

[getholdofjoru 0]

Nightfish I love the idea about keeping wire in film canisters. That stuff always jumps off the spools and gets tangled up, good thought.

 

One thing I do is that I keep good foam that comes as packaging for different items. I bought a lamp and it had big styrofoam disk that keeps the base safe. I took that and used it to stick in glued popper bodies to dry. If you tie bass poppers this will work for you, especially if you need to dry painted popper bodies or glue popper bodies to hooks.

 

Another good tip I picked up was using newspaper bags for tying wings. It does split pretty nicely and is very thin.

[DavidMcNicholas 0]

one thing that is great to do as a fly tier is to visit hobby shops and specialty sewing stores. You would be amazed at all the materials you can use for tying at these places. Many of the materials you will recognize and be plesantly surprised at how much cheaper they are and how much more of the matierials you get for the money.

[DavidMcNicholas 0]

Go to your local drug store and use nail polish as head cement, particularly the clear nail polish. The cheap stuff works great and is only 99 cents. There are also nail polishes that have glitter and sheen and subtle colors that are great to add touches to flies and finish of heads with different effects.

[MuskyOnTheFly 0]

Instead of those pricey garbage bag attachments that you can get from Orvis, etc. I take the top to a CD spindle (the clear part) that 50 blank Cds or whatever it is (like you can get at Best Buy), flip it over and it makes a great trash receptacle.

-MuskyOnTheFly

[conehead 0]

Great tips for the bench. Hey guys post a pic of your inventions and tips. Will could put a "Tips for Tying" book together, sell it and pay for the site work.

 

Here's mine. I picked up an inexpensive white cook's apron from Wal-mart ($4.99) and wear it while tying (I know, not a new idea). Here is the twist, I attached two squares of velcro to the bottom hem at the extreme sides. I attached to opposite squares of velcro to the bench. The apron makes a trough about 30 inches wide

 

All scraps fall in the apron while tying (cutting hair, snipping biots, dropping tiny beads, jumping hook, and even tools dropped from butterfingers like me). Nothing falls on the floor, and I could tie a dozen flies in a velvet tux and nothing sticks to my clothes.

 

Just hang the neck strap over the vise when done, and take it all outside and give it a good shake once a week.

 

Conehead

 

[crooked river 0]

I picked up some thick foam door knob signs at the craft store in different colors on a whim (thought I might make poppers or hoppers out of them). When I was tying a bunch of Clouser minnows I thought it sure would be handy to prep a bunch of bucktail and flash bundles ahead of time. I ended up cutting some slits along both long edges of the foam and clamping it to my desk. Now I cut off bundles of hair and/or flash and slide it into the slots. You can prep about a dozen flies worth of materials on one "card". When you are ready to tie, you just pluck the bundle out and tie it in. For me, it really makes tying a batch of flies much quicker and it's easy to make sure your hair bundles are consistent from fly to fly, both in length and in density.

[Bud Guidry 0]

hey artimus, in reply to an earlier post here about roadkill, since i started this hobby i had no interest in roadkills but now i've hit the brakes quite a few times for roadkill. i've picked up some great feathers and fur from fresh roadkill, one of my best friends works for the sheriffs depatment here, he,s animal control and i even got him bringing road kill here . wife dreads riding around with me now. especially when we're dressed up and going out to dinner or some other nice nightly event. Bud