By Bob Reece

As a junior high science teacher, my daytime work environment is chaos. 

While all of our professional lives vary, the constant of stress remains.  Fly tying can provide great respite from the challenges of adulting.   Creating a tying environment conducive to this exponentially enhances the healing element of this pass time.  

On a basic level, I believe that it is fundamentally important to have a permanent location for your fly tying adventures.  By establishing a dedicated tying area, the process of setting up and taking down your materials is eliminated.  This provides you with more time to construct the flies that fill your boxes. 

In a deeper sense, I personally see fly tying as both an escape from stress and a source of healing.   I’m blessed to still have the desk that I tied my first fly on as a kid.  That has and always will be the foundation of my tying area.  I’ve always been a highly visual and deeply emotional person.  As a result of this, I layout the walls of my tying setup with pictures of my kids, adventures and moments that are nothing but positive.  When I sit down to tie, I want to leave any stress and negativity behind me and be engulfed by good thoughts and memories.  This may sound cheesy.  Yet, the reality of it is that a relaxed mind creates and constructs at an exponentially higher level than one filled with stress. 

Consider your fly tying home.  Set yourself up with a permanent tying location that helps you escape the chaos of life.  Your mind, emotions and fly box will all thank you. 

To see Bob Reece fly tying videos, click on the link below:

http://www.thinairangler.com/tying-videos

To explore Bob Reece’s Wyoming fly fishing guide operation, click on the link below:

http://www.thinairangler.com/horse-creek-ranch-fly-fishing

To shop for Bob Reece’s current Umpqua Fly Patterns, click on the link below:

http://www.thinairangler.com/flyshop