Viking Lars | Saturday, 31 October 2020
It's quite important to be able to see, when you're tying flies. Have you ever tried tying blind folded? I have (yes, stupid things happen at fly tying gatherings late at night when you've have a beer and a wjisky too many). Basically you need proper lighting - you need good light and lots of it. In fact when I first thought I needed readers for tying the smallest flies, it turned out that I just needed more light to begin with. The readers did come eventually, but that's another story.
I have really come to like the newer, modern portable flytying lamps that clips onto the stem of your vise and at the same time provides you with a small tool rack.
There are several makers of these and they offer some advantages over the traditional desk lamp (or in Paul's case, head lamp).
- They're portable.
- They provide a good light source.
- They run on both a wall out let and they plug into a power bank. I have a big power bank (not sure how big), but I know it continuoisly runs this lamp for 4-5 hours. That's handy if I'm in a shop giving a demo.
- The tool rack - a nice, hand place to stick your tools, so they're fast and easy to pick up. I turn the tool rack to left, so it's out of the way. I need that when working with long dubbing loops, and when I turn my waste backet, so it's sits just under the vise (most people leave it there, I think, but I like it off to the side).
- I never take it off and never use it for anything else, so there's never any repositioning. I grab the vise and place it in fromt of me, tuen on the light and I'm ready to tie.
The rest of the setup is a vise, a waste basket, my two glue- and varnish holders I've written about and a back ground plate. The back ground plate is nice for really small imitation in dul colours. And then I use it a lot to place materials on. For instance, if I'm tying several flies of the same pattern, I'll cut say a long piece of ribbing material rather than cutting a piece for each fly. That saves time and material. And the back groud plate is a handy place to put it.
If you haven't already, you should consider getting a good fly tying lamp. It doesn't have to be a dedicated one like this. but good light really is important.
Have a great weekend!
Lars