I have heard that wars drive technology. It's sad but true, some of the luxuries we enjoy today are directly related to their invention in Combat. Do you think little Billy's Costco Drone was designed so he could go and run it into the side of your neighbour's house? Anyway back on topic, we are at War with the Coronavirus and I have self deligated the job of showing you these fly tying hacks that I have come up with.

Heres Three quick ones:

1. DONT SPILL CRAZY GLUE ALL OVER YOUR DESK !!!!!!!! This one is soooo annoying, expensive and really really messy. Zap a gap brush on has become extremely important in nearly every fly I tie. Zap brush is a lot better than the crusty topped squeeze bottle counterparts for me anyway. You have to be careful tho. If you spill it you've got a serious mess on your hands. Also, try to keep the lip of the bottle reasonably clean and store it standing upright or next time you screw it down tight, it'll be the last time. A little trick I have come up with after many many failures is that I will glue a small piece of cupboard liner to the bottom of the bottle. This will not eliminate tip-overs but it makes them a lot less frequent. I also like to take a razor blade and trim half the brush off so that It doesn't pick up so much glue on each dip and it makes it a bit more fine-tuned for doing the heads of flies as well.

2. A lot of my fly business is done by mail order and I'm always coming up with new ways to package things cleverly. Say you have some flies to send in the mail. You don't want them squished, but you also don't want to box them up and pay a bunch of shipping. Put them in an old material bag with a thick rubber band. It provides enough of a safe zone to keep the flies from pancaking. Even if they do get smooshed a little, the rubber band will bounce back up and give them a safe resting place again. They will also send as a regular piece of mail with a stamp.

3. Measure your trailer material. Although I have moved away from trailers quite a bit and now use tubes, I still do have a few of my patterns that require trailer material. I've learned this one from personal mistakes and watching others waste materials. I won't talk too much to the, too long of a trailer topic, but you can have a look here to learn about that. So you are going to tie a couple. Cut what you think will work. Have a look to see that it’s correct. then put a set of marks on your desk, piece of wood or cutting board for the proper length to cut your trailer material. For wire, I've found a cheap pair of side cutters to work best (DO NOT USE YOU GOOD SCISSORS) or go ahead actually and you can help support fly shops and go buy another pair. For braid material, I have found any sort of sharp blade works well X-acto, OLFA or razor blade is fine.

Hope these make sense and help you with your lockdown tying.