Many tiers favor the extra step of coating the lead with head cement or nail polish because it protects the body material from becoming discolored. I had never before coated my lead wire wraps because I didn’t want to wait for the coating to dry.  The problem was that I was tying one fly at a time. That night I prepared a couple dozen hooks with wire wraps and nail polish coating. I have since found that after a dozen hooks are prepared, the first hook will be a bit tacky but nevertheless dry enough to complete a fly.

This system also helped me realize that thread size or color can be changed in mid-stream, so to speak. That’s not exactly rocket science, but I had never thought about that before. The hooks in the images here were prepared for three sizes of fur-buggers. I will finish the fly using Danville 3/0 or 6/0 thread; but, in preparing the hooks as pictured, I used Danville Flat-Waxed because it allowed me to cover the hook shank and wire wraps quicker and more thoroughly.

Finally, if you haven’t already discovered this, the white foam trays that come from the meat department of any grocery store make great hook trays. They come in a variety of sizes and depths, and are perfect for keeping your finished flies organized until you put them away in your vest or stock box. Just stick your flies along the edges, as shown here.

Fur-bugger sizes from L to R: TMC 3769 #10, TMC 5263 #10, Mustad 79850 #8.