Keeping Tying Materials Tidy

Keeping fly tying material tidily is not something that came naturally to me, or it appears to many tiers. My tying table was a mess and I had two large containers with materials, and a bass fishing soft bag with pockets for other materials. The latter served me well when travelling and tying, but was not large enough to keep all my materials in order.

In 2015 I saw a video that immediately appealed but I have subsequently lost. It was a guy who suggested keeping all the materials for a single pattern in a single box, to make it easier to quickly set up to tie. This made a lot of sense, and I adopted the broad suggestion of keeping materials separate.

The adaption I have made is that I have some containers full of materials only for a specific fly, but as I do not tie that many different patterns and most are simple I didn’t need that many containers. What I did get extra containers for was to keep all my materials ordered. As the photo shows I now have a shelf with two stacks of boxes with materials for specific flies and generic material boxes and another single stack with hooks, tools, threads, glues & epoxies & beads.

This system has sped up my tying and improved my enjoyment when tying. It is well worth considering if you are serious about tying.