Well I can prove I am a rookie. I have been tying on tightly wound thread and chennile type flies. First time I tied on a Sailor’s Ant…made with foam cylindrical tube looking stuff…I focused on the knot tying it on…and just held and pulled on the body of the fly to watch and tighten the knot. Dumb. I tore the tail of the foam ant almost completely off. Threw it in the water and a trout hit it and then…he “went away”. NO more tail on the fly. I learned to be a lot more careful how I tie on a fly.
I’m still a fairly new fly fisher, but I have been holding the fly at the bend with forceps. Helps me from dropping it. Then, for clinch knots, I hold the tippet ends still in one hand and spin the forceps with the other. I end up minimizing tippet waste this way.
An Orvis instructor showed me a technique of sticking a pinky in between the tippet ends and twisting the fly with the pinky to make a clinch, but I tend to stick myself with the hook and use more tippet this way.
Here is a nice hint. When tying a clinch knot, run the mono through the hook eye and then take the end and twirl in between two fingers. The twist in the mono will get the hook to spin around and make the twists for yoy. Tuck in the end, bring it around for an improved clinch and your done. No twisting-finger-hooking involved.