fly tying tools Archives - blog.fishwest.com

A while back I bought the Loon Outdoors Accessory Fly Tying Tool Kit. I had seen this accessory tool kit and wanted to add a few of the tools that were in that kit. It was a better value to get them all at once rather than individually. After spending some time using these tools I wanted to share my thoughts with you. Hopefully this helps you decide if you want to get them or not. Tools included: Gator Grip Dubbing Spinner D-Loop Tweezers Ergo Dubbing Brush Zippy Hair Stacker Vise Pawn Gator Grip Dubbing Spinner ($18): This is a wonderful three piece tool set. It has a gator grip clip, a dubbing loop hook, and the powder-coated handle. The gator grip and the dubbing loop both screw into the handle. The handle has an open loop that should be usable by all sized fingers/thumbs. I have previously used a different dubbing loop tool and this one has a more usable length. The gator grip allows for combining some materials in new and fun ways. D-Loop Tweezers ($13): The D-Loop Tweezers have been a fun addition to my tying bench. Previously I would have to meticulously load materials by hand into my dubbing loops and hope that the materials wouldnt fall out or slide around too much. They allow for 3 ¾ inches (9.5cm) of materials (width of materials - not material length) to be held onto at once and slid into a dubbing loop. Ergo Dubbing Brush ($10): The Ergo Dubbing Brush is a great tool for brushing out even the gnarliest loops. The core is a stainless steel helix with nylon bristles. The handle is powder coated and offers a solid grip. I have brushed out plenty of dubbing loops, complex twists and released some trapped feather barbules. Zippy Hair Stacker ($24-$26) : One of my favorite tools in the accessory kit is the Zippy Hair Stacker. I have been playing around a lot with hair wing flies and spinning deer hair to create deer hair sliders and poppers for bass and overly aggressive bluegill. The kit includes the medium sized Zippy Hair Stacker. It has an opening of 5/8inch. I really enjoy the hinged design that allows me to avoid losing half of the stacker. The window opening also allows for a quick peek to see if the material tips are aligned and ready to be used. Vise Pawn ($10) : The Vise Pawn was one of the accessories that I was most excited to experiment with while tying. The Vise Pawn is a magnetic tool that is meant to pin materials to your vise so that they stay out of the way while tying. That is a great feature to have when dealing with wires, tinsel, hackles, etc. To my surprise my vise doesn’t have a user friendly point that I enjoy using. So for now (until I upgrade my vise to one that the Vise Pawn works better with) I will leave the Vise Pawn on the back end of my rotary handle as a fun decoration. I look forward to using it more. Overall I have really enjoyed using all (except for the Vise Pawn because of compatibility issues) of the tools in the Loon Outdoors Accessory Fly Tying Tool Kit. Buying the entire kit vs buying them as individual items saves approximately $15. In addition to the savings you get a quality, heavy duty travel case to help keep things from further cluttering the tying area. I would recommend purchasing the full kit, or individual tools if you only need one or two of them, to anyone in the market for tying tools.

fly tying tools

Loon Toolkit Review

Product Review: Loon Fluorescing UV Clear Fly Finish