Something I love about being a fly tyer in this day and age is the amount of access to information. Facebook, Youtube, Forums, WhatsApp groups, clubs and more, to be honest there has never been a better time to be a tyer… in my opinion anyway.

Another thing I love is learning tricks from guys who have figured out solutions, or hacks, to common problems. And these hacks often come from guys who do this shit for a living, so you know they have tried a bunch of things before finding something that works really well.

No doubt most folks are familiar with Alec Gerbec’s brilliant Flexo Crab. It’s done the rounds, caught a gazillion fish, and also frustrated more than its fair share of tyers who have tried tying them. Alec so kindly ran through the proper way to tie these buggers in a previous post HERE:

Rupert Harvey, (www.ukflies.com /Insta: @ruperharvey_ukflies  FB: UK Flies) is a brilliant fly tyer who specialises in high end saltwater patterns and who ties more than a few of this magic pattern commercially, shared this brilliant little hack for helping manage that infinitely annoying Flexo material, especially in the smaller sizes. This little tool helps get the flexo over the dumbbell eyes without it turning into a mess of chaotic fibres, especially when tying the smaller Flexo versions, such as on size 6 and size 8.

From Ru:

“I first burn the edges to stop it unraveling. I found if I don’t it unravels when I push it over and I spend ages trimming off the excess.
The problem is that the burnt edge makes it harder to get over the eye, especially on the smaller versions. So I put this on, thread the Flexo tubing down it and tie it in and pull it off and tie in at the eye.“

And in Pics:

Simple, and ingenius… like every good fly hack should be!

With the new found interest in fishing Crabs for Smallmouth Yellowfish again, this little hack could also make tying those smaller Flexo patterns for Yellows that much easier.

Big thanks to Ru for sharing…