Little teensy flies are hard to tie on the hook, especially when standing in a river in the early morning light. So, here’s an inexpensive way to make you a fly holder to capture the fly while you tie it on. You can purchase 4 retractable pens from the dollar store for a buck. Use some stiff wire to make a hook holder and some plastic stiff tubing to replace the ink cartlege. Here, I used the broken tip off a fly rod.. You’ll need something to hold the spring in place. Here I wound some dental floss around the old rod tip and secured it with 5 minute epoxy. I also used 5 minute epoxy to secure the wire in the old rod tip, which was cut to the exact length of the ink cartlege. You can see from the second photo that this devise holds the tiny #16 hook securly while you insert the tippet. You can then twist the device while holding the tag end of the tippet with the other end, and after inserting the tag end into the twist loop, you can pull the standing end and form a cinch knot; simple and cheep.
