WINDY'S TIPS AND TRICKS
Over the years there have been plenty of columns and articles featuring handy tips and advice for folks on making small tools and accessories for fly tying and other crafts, as well as for repairing, and maintaining fishing tackle and the like. On this page, I'd like to share with you some of the "tricks of the trade" that this humble fly tier and angler has learned over the years. Some of these are my own ideas, and plenty of them have been "borrowed" from other fly tiers and anglers - I'll certainly try to give credit where credit is due. Some of these things will probably seem obvious to anyone who's tied flies for a while; my hope for this page is really just to illustrate some of these "tips" that other tiers might find useful or interesting. - Chris Windram
Here's a quick one to get things started - a simple bobbin/thread rack to help keep the fly tying bench organized. I used to toss the bobbins in a drawer with all my other tools at the end of the day, but the bobbins and thread really got tangled up with the rest of the stuff. So, I made a very simple little rack to hold the bobbins by drilling some holes in a bit of hardwood - if you make the holes small - close to the diameter of the bobbin tubes, it keeps the thread in place nicely in the bobbin tube when the bobbin is in the rack. Some hard, heavy wood is better than something lighter, and I got the best results from a bit of wood that's just about an inch thick - it stays where I put it on the bench and doesn't get jostled around too much. The cost of this is virtually nil - just a scrap bit of wood with some holes drilled in it, but it sure made a difference in organizing my bench.
The best fly tying bodkins on my bench are usually the handcrafted ones. There's one with a handle made out of driftwood that my good friend and fishing mentor Don McCue made for me. Don's out in Montana now guiding trout fishing trips under the big sky. When he's not reeling in big trout, Don collects bits of driftwood from the riverbends and makes beautiful things out of them. There's a very sweet one made out of a length from an old split-bamboo fly rod that was given to me by a very kind and considerate customer. The ones with the staghorn handles were made by D.L.Goddard. I remember DL used to sell these at the fly fishing shows that go on here on the east coast in the wintertime - I recall paying about twenty bucks apiece for those, and they are worth every penny. The staghorn handles fit the hand really nicely and don't roll around on the bench too much. They each have their uses; if you want to make some of these yourself just go to a sewing supply store and get a small assortment of needles, find or make some handles that suit you, then drill holes in the handles and set the needles into them with some strong epoxy. I like to have a variety bodkins on hand, and it's nice to have some variety in the length of the handle, and also in the stiffness of the needle.
A very useful fly drying rack can be made quickly and cheaply from some scraps of 3/4" thickness pine and some "alligator clips" which are available at radio shack for just a coupla bucks. The clips have cylindrical bases that easily fits into a hole drilled to the appropriate size - I don't even glue the clips into the holes. We have all sorts of rigs to put our flies on as they dry, including drying wheels and other larger racks, but I find myself reaching for these again and again for many of the flies that I tie because they hold the flies very securely, and are so portable when I want to pick up a set of flies and move them away from the work surface until they dry completely.
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