As many of you may or may not know, at this years Fish In at State College, Pennsylvania , Dan Rupert,
a.k.a. Old Rupe was pretty well confined to his hotel room for most of the week.
Now, Old Rupe is not much on complaining so he just set up his tying station and had at it for
most of the week. He tied a lot of flies, and probably gave away far more than he was able to tie
during that week.
This weeks Tying Tip comes directly from Old Rupe, though he did not 'submit' it per se, it was
more or less observed and subsequently borrowed for this column.
Now Old Rupe can turn out a significant number of flies in fairly short order, and to do so he doesn't
spend any time searching for his tools. They are always at his fingertips and ready to use. No time
wasted looking through piles of debris for items like his whip-finishing tool.
When Rupe is ready to tie off, he simply retrieves his tool from its proper place and puts a whip
finish on the fly.
The type whip finisher shown here has a neat little 'kink' in the wire frame that allows it to rest quite
nicely on the thread post which many of us use on our rotary vices.
In order to keep the tool in a specific position; he further employs a couple of clips that are commonly
used in store displays. They fit the stem of the thread post quite nicely and prevent the whip finisher
from wandering about.
Several other observations were made while watching Rupe ply his craft at the vice. In the coming
weeks we will see them, and hopefully though he did not necessarily set out to make our lives easier,
the net effect will be exactly that!
If you have any tips or techniques, send them along, most of this
material has been stolen from somebody, might as well steal your ideas
too! ~ George E. Emanuel
(Chat Room Host Muddler)
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