Newbie's $3 fly tying bench.

All about flies Fly Tying
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Hi Folks. My name is Greg and I’m a newbie fly fisherman. I’m also learning to tie my own flies. I bought the Trout Fly Tying kit from Bass Pro Workshops and so far I’m enjoying this part of the hobby.

Now, it’s not TOTALLY fair to call this my $3 bench. I had most of the wood laying around my workshop ready to be used for some project. But my total cost for new stuff was about $3 for some dowels and a 3" bolt.

The original problem was that I didn’t like the way the fly vise clamped onto the table. I didn’t want to mark up our table so I always clamped it to a board. Well, that didn’t work so well because I had to hand the board over the edge of the table and my arms didn’t rest on the table the way I wanted them to. So I made a little clamp from a couple blocks of maple, a threaded T-nut, and a 3" long 1/4-20 bolt. That’s screwed to the workbench from underneath.

Now I can just put my bench on the table and start working.

I soon found that I was collecting more materials than what would fit in the original box that the kit came in. So I build a box for my materials. Being a woodworker I couldn’t just glue 4 pieces together, I had to box join the corners and dado the partitions. :slight_smile:

I built the box so it was just a bit larger than the workbench. It also has a lip around 3 sides on the top. That way the workbench fits right on top of the materials box. I think I’ll add some handles on the sides to make it easier to carry.

See that block of wood with the slot in it? The white piece under it is a piece of 1/8" plywood with paper glued to it. It sits in the wooden block to give me a white background to work against. That really helps my middle age eyes see those tiny flies.

So that’s my little $3 workbench. I’ve been having a lot of fun learning how to tie flies with it. I joke around with my wife saying that it’s just one more thing for me to become obsessive compulsive about.

I’ve been busy.

There’s some pheasant tail nymphs in there as well as some hare’s ear nymphs, some Adams attractors, some Elk hair and Deer hair caddis flies, some winged ants, a few tiny midges, a few wooley buggers and a couple that were suppose to be one thing but ended up looking like “fuzz on a hook”. (But I’m getting better)

In any case, I thought I’d introduce myself and share the pictures in case it inspires someone else to make there own bench. I’m having a fun time with it and I hope you are too.

Greg

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Hi Greg,

Welcome to the group. You are definitely in the right place. There are lots of friendly people here, many of whom are fellow obsessive-compulsives. You should feel right at home. :smiley:

Your fly tying station looks absolutely great. Very functional. You may want to start on your next project which will be building shelves in a closet to hold all your fly tying materials. That box will be good for another month or two but soon you will definitely need more space as your material inventory grows :shock: . Trust me on this one! Your flies also look very good. I believe that you have natural gift for this addiction.

Once again, nice job all the way around and welcome to the FAOL gang. 8T :smiley:

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Greg I hope that $3 included some felt pads under your woodworking–That is a nice looking table and your wife wouldn’t appreciate any scratchs. Fill in your profile. I’d like to know where you live. Great work from another woodworker. BILL

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You may want to start on your next project which will be building shelves in a closet to hold all your fly tying materials.

Yep, I’m finding that to be true. If nothing else, just the need to be organized is causing a need for more cubby holes. I’d like ot have a space for dubbing, a space for chenile, a space for hooks, etc.

Greg I hope that $3 included some felt pads under your woodworking–That is a nice looking table and your wife wouldn’t appreciate any scratches.

I’ve thought about that too. Yeah, I think that would be a good idea. After all, my wife is the one that bought me a fly rod for Christmas and some flies, a book on fly fishing, etc. So I need to make sure that she knows this isn’t a mistake. :slight_smile:

Actually, she’s looking forward to going fishing together. I think she’s gone fishing more times in her life than I have. So this could be a good activity to do together.

I (probably) won’t even mind if she catches more fish than me. :slight_smile:

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Nice job I wish I could work that well with wood.

A tip I learned that might help your old eyes a little more is to use a matte green paper instead of bright white. ( you could glue it onto the other side of the board you have now ). It shows the outline detail of the flies just as well as white and doesn’t reflect back at you.

I copied that idea from Renzetti fly vices when they went from white backboards to the duller green. The store bought one costs $40.00 so you can tell yourself thats how much you saved. Which will justify going out and buying $40.00 bux more supplies.
Cheers.

Ps. At flytiers anonymous they use the first line of your post as a standard introduction to the meetings.

Eg. “Hi Folks. My name is Greg and I’m a newbie fly fisherman.”

It is good that you have already made it to the acknowledgement stage at least. It took courage and we are proud of you. :wink:

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So I just started at Christmas and you’re saying that I need an intervention already? :shock: :lol:

I realized that a darker color would work better last night when I was tying with pale yellow thread. It was just lost against that white background. I’m going to take your advice and put some pale green on the other side of that board.

I just saw a book yesterday on fishing the Sacramento valley (which is just downhill from where I live) and it has lots of places where I can fish before the river fishing season opens up at the end of April. So it looks like I may be able to go out and get my line wet pretty soon. THAT’S when I’m going to need an intervention. :lol:

Most of the rivers up here in the foothills of the sierras certainly have fish.

But it’s still a little cold.

Although according to my fishing regulations book, there are some sections of the Yuba and Feather Rivers further down the hill that are open now.

I think that next weekend a road trip is in order.

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Welcome aboard Greg…great looking fly tying station and box ! I saw your last note about CA regs and there are a few rivers north of you that are open year round for steelhead and even good trout fishing…there might be a creek north of Chico and something around/north of Reddding comes to mind !

Cheers,

MontanaMoose

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Hi Greg,

Welcome! Nice flies and what a great bench!

I too started with the BPS kit (saltwater) and I love it. Liked it so much I picked up the others when I found them on sale.

I look forward to seeing your further woodworking creations as you accumulate more materials, books, tools, and miscellaneous stuff you can’t remember why you bought it but you have it anyways!

Ken

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I look forward to seeing your further woodworking creations

Well, you can see some of what I do for (mostly) fun and occasional for profit at my website at www.gbguitars.com

Essentially, I make these:

and these:

I hope I’m not violating any board rules by posting this. I’m not trying to sell my instruments here. In fact, I don’t have time to build any right now and I need to finish 3 of my own instruments before I can build something for someone else.

In any case, when I’m not teaching music, that’s what I do.

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Why wait until the end of April?? I live in the Sac Valley, and can tell you that there are fish in the Lower Yuba, Lower American, Feather below Oroville, Trinity, Lower and Upper Sac, etc. RIGHT NOW, and it is legal to fish them…

In addition, there are going to some rivers to open up to FFing year round, and they will open on March 1. The following is a correspondence between myself and Dave Lentz of the DFG.

[b]From Me:[/b[u]]<<Hello Sir,

A while back, I wrote to you about the FGC’s consideration of the
possibility of there being a winter fishery to include the following
waters:

  1. American River and tributaries, Section 7.00(b)(6)
  2. East Fork Carson River, Section 7.50(b)(38)
  3. Hot Creek, Section 7.50(b)(78)
  4. Little Truckee River, Section 7.50(b)(103.5)
  5. Upper Owens River, Section 7.50(b)(134)
  6. Pit River, Section 7.50(b)(141)
  7. Truckee River, Section 7.50(b)(196)
  8. Tuolumne River, Section 7.50(b)(198)
  9. East Walker River, Section 7.50(b)(205)
  10. North Fork Yuba River, Section 7.50(b)(211)

Word is that the waters in question have been approved for a winter
fishery, and that the regulatory changes will take place this year. >>[/u]

the Reply

[i]<<Mr. Owens

Yes, the Fish and Game Commission adopted these new winter season
catch-and-release fishing seasons, the new regulations become effective
March 1, 2007.

Regards, Dave Lentz
Trout Management Coordinator

California Department of Fish and Game
Fisheries Branch
1812 Ninth Street
Sacramento, CA 95814

916 445-3773 office
916 445-4044 fax>>[/i]

Hope this helps, and gets you out there sooner. After all, someone has to fish around here.

Mike Owens
Woodland, CA

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If I could figure out how to put pictures on here I would put one of my box. I built this so I could take it with me on fishing trips so I would have what I needed to match the hatch. The box is 10" high by 12" wide and 18" long. The top folds up and the front down to form a working surface and a place to clamp the vice on. There are seven drawers and an open shelf space at the top for storage of materials and supplies.

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Pap-Pow

You owe it to this board to figure out how to post pictures. 8)

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If I could figure out how to put pictures on here I would put one of my box.

You have to have your photos hosted on a web site somewhere. I put mine on my own web site in an “images” directory.

Then click the Img button, paste the URL of where your photo is located, then click the IMG button again.

Flickr http://www.flickr.com/ is a decent place to upload photos if you need to share them and don’t have a web site of your own.

I hope that helps.

Greg

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I started right after Christmas as well. I didn’t realize that I had gotten so bad, so quick, but last night my wife said, “You’re so obsessive about this fly tying thing”. I guess I’m not the only one…

Eric

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Welcome and nice tying box. here is a hint for future add-ons… “Magnets are your friends”

Rich

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On feb 7th I said if I could figure out how to put pictures on here I would post some of the travel box I built. It cost me a little more than $3 But it was mostly from scraps from other projects. So here goes with the pictures.

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Pap,
Great Job! Quality workmanship!

Two Weight, aka Caddisfly