How To Set Up A Fly Tying Station

Having a dedicated fly tying space is disquisitional for taking your tying skills to the side by side level.

If y'all ever accept to set and break downwardly your fly tying area y'all are apt to tie less often. Setting upwardly and breaking down volition presently become an unpleasant chore. If there is any negativity associated with your tying sessions you will tie flies less often, guaranteed. Also, fourth dimension setting up and cleaning up is time taken away from tying flies.

Necktie more flies and become a ameliorate fly tyer

The key to getting better at anything is repetition. It'due south simple, the more you tie flies, the amend fly tyer you will get. Having a dedicated tying space with your tools and materials at the gear up will allow yous to tie flies more often.

Your tying space should permit you to store your tools and materials so you can access them quickly easily. You will no longer accept to dig out that shoe box containing your vise and fly tying tools. Tool holders let you store your fly tying tools safely still go along them accessible. Your vise, sitting there at the gear up, will beckon you lot to sit down and tie every fourth dimension you pass it.

Being able to store and organize your fly tying materials will make life easier as well. Fourth dimension spent digging through boxes, bags and bins tin now be spent at the vise when all of your stuff is organized and accessible.

Proficient lighting is central

Tying upward some Double Barrel poppers.

Once you have somewhere to tie, it is critical to take a well-lit workspace. Give careful consideration to lighting; admission to natural sunlight is a bonus, but declining that an artificial light source will practice the play a trick on. Daylight spectrum lightbulbs volition prove colors every bit they would appear outdoors.

Before I fix a permanent space I was tying flies at the kitchen table and proper lighting was ever an outcome. I used a portable desk lamp, only it quite provided enough lite for fly tying. I have noticed as the years laissez passer the need for well-lit workspace has become more than and more critical for my aging eyes. I now have several light sources on my tying demote.

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In add-on to excellent lighting, a clean groundwork to necktie against is helpful. A profile plate attached to you lot vise works well simply a piece of low-cal-colored paper-thin propped up behind you vise works besides.

Requite yourself room for expansion

A small, sturdy tabular array volition work, a desk with some storage is even amend. Give yourself more room and so yous recall you demand, you will fill it up quick. When I moved into my first desk, the drawers of the desk-bound swallowed up my meager supplies with plenty of room to share. Unfortunately, that did not concluding long. The trouble with having a defended tying space meant I did more than fly tying. Tie flies more than oftentimes, and y'all will need more materials. Buy more materials, and you will need somewhere to shop them. Do you meet where this is going?

As the years passed all of the desk's drawers were flood and plastic bins of materials started showing up in the corners of the room. Something had to be done to make clean up the clutter. My search for a solution resulted in me buying a massive roll-top desk-bound, with enough of drawers, nooks, and crannies to put my stuff. This solution worked for a while. In fourth dimension, the tie more/buy more/store more dilemma caught up with me. The desk drawers were overflowing, the nooks and crannies became filled, and the ringlet summit stopped rolling because at that place was too much on meridian of the desk-bound. A new desk needed to be purchased. This fourth dimension it was a beautiful, custom, purpose-built fly tying desk with cedar-lined drawers, subconscious compartments, it's own power and lighting systems and a ton of storage room.

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This new desk swallowed up all of my materials and all was correct with the world, for a while. Fast frontward 9 years later and yous guessed it. The tie more than/buy more/store more syndrome has one time again reared its ugly head. The plastic bins and boxes have reappeared. I don't know if I volition ever accept enough room for this hobby of mine.

Happy spouse, happy house

Having a dedicated tying space will as well go along peace in the household if y'all share information technology with someone else. This could be the unmarried most important benefit of having a defended tying space!

When I first started wing tying, my material collection was small and fit into a few boxes. I would ready upwards on the kitchen or dining room table and have at it. When I was done it often looked like a small bird or mammal blew up on the table. Try as I might, I could not incorporate my mess to the table. Inevitably debris, including hooks, would end upward on the floor only to be tracked elsewhere into the business firm. The quickest style to observe a hook on the floor is to walk effectually barefoot!

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Living alone it was non a big deal, I could always consume standing at the kitchen counter, and a piffling rabbit fur in your dinner never hurt anyone. In one case I found true love, married, and starting sharing a home, it was a different story. Information technology was not long before the dominate put her human foot down and demanded I remove my "expressionless animals" from anywhere food is consumed. The kitchen and dining room table were strictly off limits. Fortunately, in that location was an extra bedroom in the house for me and my "expressionless animals."

Find a place to set up a fly tying area of your own. You will become a meliorate fly tyer if you do!

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About Bart Lombardo:

Bart, the creator of Panfish On The Fly, has been fly line-fishing and fly tying for over thirty years and writing about it for almost as long. Although he is known to fish for trout and salmon all over the country, his true passion is chasing bluegill and other panfish with a fly rod. He is a member of the Flymen Wing Tyer program as well equally a featured fly angling and fly tying instructor for Orvis and LL Edible bean. Follow him on Instagram @panfish_on_the_fly.