7 Tips to make fly tying fast and easy

• Have the right tools.

Your tools are the most import part in tying if you don't have good or even the right tools fly tying becomes a huge pain. There are a few tools to make sure you have and make sure they are quality. First off have a pair of fine point tying scissors. A pair that either can be sharpened or a pair that are micro serrated so you can be sure they will cut right every time (it is incredibly annoying when scissors miss cut). Another tool one should have is a ceramic bobbin. The ceramic part is key, it stops the metal tube from cutting your thread. Have a whip finish tool handy also. There are a few other tools that make tying easier: 4inch hair scissors,  dubbing brush, dubbing twister, bodkin, half hitch tool, hair stacker and a few others that can help based on what flies you tie.

• Tie one fly at a time

That seems like the biggest problem with fly tiers is the mess. So one of the best ways to cut down on the mess and clutter is tie one type or just one pattern at a time. This helps you not loose material, keep things separate, and quickly recover if you mess up. You can never lose all the mess, but this helps.

• Save the scraps if you can

The scraps do have value. Save your feather scraps, wire, dubbing, some fur clippings (use in custom dubbing blends) and bits of flash. You can tie 2-3 flies with a single neck feather (4-6 with a saddle feather) and most of the time you cut too much wire and you can use the leftovers for the next flies and it also cuts down on the mess, clutter, and waste.

• Sharpen your whip finish tool

What? You might be saying. If you sharpen the base of your whip finish tool, after you finish a fly you can just cut your thread with your tool and you don't have to pick up your scissors. I have tied flies using my scissors once or never. It definitely speeds up tying. How you sharpen the base is get either a file or some scrap sand paper and spend 10-15 seconds on both sides of the base and it is plenty sharp to cut thread.

• Ditch the head cement (if you can)

Head cement is the the most touchy material a fly tier uses. It uses up a lot of time and has the possibility of ruining a perfectly good fly. When you finish a fly and whip finish it do a 4 or 5 turn whip finish and then do another 4 or 5 turn finish. Two whip finishes is as strong as a layer of head cement. I use cement on thread heads and on paraposts and wings just for stability and so they don't pull out. Also head cement tends to make flies sink so try your best to not use it on dry flies.

• Cut corners

It's not what you think. Cut the corners off the bags of dubbing. This makes all the bags of dubbing into dispensers. This makes pulling small amounts of dubbing easy and reduces waste. I keep all my dubbing on zip ties or binder rings and hang them next to my desk, it works great.

• Practice, practice, practice

Practice doesn't make perfect, but it sure makes you better. You always get what you put into anything. If you are willing to learn, be taught, and practice you can be a great tier. The best flies to practice with is a woolly bugger for proportions and a hare's ear for dubbing and thread control.

What is a Lightning Bug?

What is a Lightning Bug?

Filtering through the seemingly endless lightning bug patterns.

If you google image a lightning bug you are probably going to see a lot of pictures of the insect, but if you narrow your search you are going to see dozens of patterns of different flies. The name lightning bug is just too vague of a category so I'm going to do my best to help make sense of it.

Orvis sells a number of patterns that they may not necessarily call a lightning bug, but the patterns do all fall into a "lightning bug" category. The fly they call a lightning bug is a curved shank, silver and pink pattern with a bead. They have a dubbing body one that looks and fishes really well (its a variation on a prince nymph). The last lightning bug like pattern is the one that looks like the original with a silver body, a pheasant tail and legs, and a bead.

The original pattern is a cool pattern that is tied in red, blue, silver, gold, pink, black, and purple for different waters and conditions. I personally like the red, silver, and purple for around here and silver especially in the winter. The pattern doesn't need a lot of materials and if you already are into tying flies then you should have either all of them or nearly all of the materials.

Another fly that might be also considered a "Lightning Bug" is a Rainbow Warrior. This is a competition fly that works really well over here in the west. The difference between these two flies is one uses pearl flashabou  for the body so the thread can "glow" through. It's a awesome dropper fly. There is a great video that I will link here on how to tie it.

The class of over flashy flies is a intimidating group of flies to fish. They don't look like naturals and that doesn't put a lot of confidence in people when they have a chance to fish them, none the less they work really well as searching flies especially in muddy, pressured, and winter water. Personally I always have a few in my nymph box just in case the river calls for it. 

 Lightning Bug

Hook: 2x nymph hook (Dai-Riki 285)

Thread: Grey or Brown 6/0

Bead: Silver

Tail: Pheasant Tail

Body: Silver flashabou or holographic

Rib: Silver or wire to match

Thorax: Rainbow scud dubbing

Legs: Pheasant Tail

Crayfish

Crayfish for smallmouth bass

Crayfish, crawdad, mud bug, crawfish: just a few names that describe one of the most under utilized fly for both bass and trout. This staple food source in many rivers and lakes rarely gets any room in a fly box for some unknown reason. People have caught countless bass and mega trout on this common crustacean. I am specifically going to talk about tying and fishing and tying this fly for smallies, but just about everything can be applied to trout.

A crayfish is a forage feeder that mainly eats small fish, nymphs, and decomposing flesh (i.e. fish, crayfish, dead animals, waste). They are nocturnal and sometimes move around during the day. They like to hide in cover like a bass. In places like bolders, rock piles, erosion control areas, bridge pilings, alge, root systems and undercut banks. A crayfish, because it is a crustacean it has to molt to grow so for a time they are extremely vulnerable.

Tying the fly isn't hard and you have a number of options for imitating the crayfish.

The first and the easiest is an impressionistic way of tying. even though you might not even include a hackle, legs, claws, or color you give the right profile and movement that gets the fish to strike. Patterns to look for or tie yourself are the mixed media and foxy red clouser.

The other way you can go is a dead drift or fighting style. This looks like the natural that is drifting through the water and current confused, but alert. I works great when fishing deep holes. It tends to work better for larger fish because they aren’t as intimidated by claws as small fish are. Some flies to tie: clouser cray, and some kind of fighting craw.

Lastly you can go complex. With crab eyes, articulations, stinger hooks, and a multitude of other features that make the fly catch fish and catch fishermen. The ad-on’s aren't necessary, but they do look cool. the best demonstration of this style is on vimeo. I'll link the video so you can see. https://vimeo.com/70833593

The final note to tying and fishing crayfish.

• Fish them at dawn and dusk.
• Fish them close to cover, mainly rock structures.
• Dead drifts sometimes works better than stripping them.
• Use them for trout also!
• Tie them in local colors (red, orange, grey, blue, olive, sand, etc.).
• use materials like fox and rabbit for great movement.
• It doesn't need to be perfect rarely do you see naturals in perfect proportions (i.e. missing claws, molted, tail/ body broken).
• Have fun fishing and tying them.

What the heck is Clear Cure Goo?

What the heck is Clear Cure Goo?

If you haven't been living under a rock for the past few years then you probably know what CCG is or at least heard of it, but for those who don't know what it is here is a recap. CCG is a UV resin or epoxy. It works just like 5 or 30 minute epoxy except it only sets up when it is exposed to a UV light (i.e. UV flash light/ laser). It is an incredible product that people get way too overwhelmed about and then won't use.

The concept of UV epoxy came from all over. The car decal industry uses a UV curable product and so does the manicure industry with acrylic nails. With that being said the fly tying world first really started using it with salt water flies and epoxy heads. It made tying large epoxy heads easier, faster, cleaner and just better. Then the rest of the fly tying world took it and ran.

Here a few places you can use this product practically:

1. Wing Cases - The CCG thin is the product for this. It isn't too thick that it doesn't "slump" and not so thin that is soaks through the material so it works great for flies like copper johns and stoneflies.
2. 

   Wire Bodies - Wire is pretty tough, but it does eventually break. Use on flies like Brassies, and some caddis pupae. for a almosts "glow" look. It also makes smooth wire underbodies for czech nymphs.
3. Head Cement - The CCG Hydro has a watery consistency like head cement. Most people use it as a clear coat over wing cases, and exposed thread wraps. It's also tack free unlike some of the other CCG products
4. Turkey Wings - Traditionally people coated full turkey feathers in flex cement to make them durable to use as wing buds for stoneflies. Now with CCG you can coat individual feather barbs and not the whole feather. There is no wait time for drying because It cures in seconds, also it doesn't cause the feather to curl as much.
5. Midges - It makes killer midge patterns. Chironomids look even better when coated in a UV resin, almost makes them glow. (look at Buzzers from the UK or Canada)

The main two problems most people face when deciding whether or not to use clear cure goo is price and practicality.  The full brushable kit is $80 pretty steep compared to 5 minute epoxy at $5, but the kit does come with a light and three different bottles of brushable CCG. If you just buy a single bottle is around $20 and a light can be $30+ so you do save when you buy the full kit. All in all CCG is a wonderful product that has saved me many headaches, and ruined flies. The fact it sets up in seconds is a life saver. Give it a try to see if it belongs on your tying desk.