Which fly tying vice do you buy?

Choosing your first or upgrade fly tying vice is a bit like choosing a new mobile phone – you can look at the wide array of shiny vices online, watch a few demos online where the key features are outlined, you perhaps have a budget in mind but there is always that nagging doubt … will I like the one I have selected and will it meet my needs? My first bit of advice would be to beware of the Gollum shiny shiny effect … this is a general rule in fly fishing, there are lots of very good looking shiny rods and reels, and in this case vices, with handsome price tags and you need to resist their allure and buy with a clear head. If you attend a fly fishing show like BFFI, the fly tyers row is littered with Law vices at £1500/vice (if you can find one for sale) and you may be left wondering if spending more will benefit you in the early stages of learning the art. The advice I was given at the show many years ago and which is repeated in many places on the web is to buy the best vice you can afford. I don’t necessarily agree with this advice looking back on the early days of my fly tying tuition. Firstly, like all crafts there is no guarantee that you will be any good at it, that you will enjoy it and that you will have the time to devote to learning and practising the craft and lastly the vice is just the first in a massive financial outlay.

I started by reading the advice and course contents on the Fly Dressers Guild website. Their bronze award for beginners recommended the Snowbee Flymate vice. I also reviewed the vice shootout on Fly Fish Ohio which is a very good source of information and followed up by watching YouTube reviews of candidate vices. In the end I decided to go with the recommendation of the Fly Dressers Guild and bought the Snowbee Flymate ball pedestal vice. It was a good vice to start out with. On the plus side – having a vice that rotates so you can inspect the fly on all sides as you tie it is a major plus although I should note that I never quite managed to get the vice setup that the rotation was consistently and smoothly along a fixed axis. I also found the ball joint helpful as I could tilt the fly at key stages e.g. when whip finishing a fly on a down eye hook to stop the thread slipping off over the eye if I got too close to the eye as is often the case when you start tying flies and before whip finishing is old hat. The downside is that opening and closing the jaws is a real faff and I was also quite heavy handed in the beginning and the ball joint would sometimes adjust unexpectedly when I applied too much force which generally resulted in a fly tying mishap. It wasn’t long before I decided to upgrade and while some may suggest that I should have outlaid more at the beginning and “bought the best vice you can afford”, I don’t regret evolving my fly tying having decided to progress with the craft and move to the next level. There is a good market for second hand fly tying equipment and materials on EBay if you sell at the right time of the year, i.e the colder months when people aren’t out fishing as much, so don’t be afraid to experiment a little.

Following a lot of research it was down to two options – the Peak Rotary Vice or the Stonfo Kaiman vice. The decision was largely made for me by a wicked special offer that tilted things in the favour of the Stonfo Kaiman and I ordered it. I really like the vice, it is much better then the Snowbee Flymate and it meets all of my fly tying needs and most importantly I paid less than £150 for it. What I really like about it is the spring loaded jaw, which makes it really simple to load and readjust hooks. It also rotates 360º so inspecting flies as you tie them is simple. It is fully adjustable in terms of the angle of the head, resistance of the rotation, etc. The only thing that I am uncertain about is the plastic elements of the head and I do wonder how durable they will be in years to come. Having mentioned a rotating head several times it might be worth touching on this – when I started looking into vices the ability for the head to rotate was often portrayed as a major feature. Unless you are fly tyer that will mass produce files and time is of the essence, there are few situations in which you need to spin the vice head rather than move your hand. In addition, setting up the vice that all hooks rotate smoothly exactly along their axis to facilitate this takes some effort which largely negates the feature in my view. Being able to rotate the head that you can inspect the fly tying in 360º is really useful but there is no need to be concerned beyond that.

Obviously the choice of fly tying vice is quite a personal one so do your research and decide what you are prepared to invest and then keep your eyes open for a bargain. The fly fishing shows and fishing megastore open days are a good place to chat to other fly tyers and pick their brains as to what they think about their current vice and others that they have tried. The retailers also have an array of vices on display so you can try the different aspects of the vices e.g. see how easy it is to adjust the jaws on the vice. I should sound one word of warning here – watching an experienced and skilled fly tyer at work is a thing of wonder, however, don’t be fooled into believing that an expensive vice and an array of nifty tools will suddenly change you into a better fly dresser … no more than an expensive set of golf clubs will turn you into a scratch golfer. There is no substitute for practice and even then, like all things in life, there are some people who are naturally better at it than others. Below are three resources that would be worth reading as part of your research into vices ahead of your first or next purchase: