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.