Re: Favorite shortcuts
Go for the peacock herl strung on a wire, it is relatively expensive but fantastic to use, and extremely durable to fish with.
My latest time saver is to string my completed flies on a strand of copper wire (through the eye) as I found even though I religiously clean out the eye after tying with a dubbing needle, sometimes a piece of thread or whatever underneath can still occlude it- resulting in much frustration on the stream. At least if they are strung as suggested I KNOW that the eye is clear. Also I end up with a nice little string of flies.
"We do not inherit the earth; we borrow it from our children."