JVice – one of my favourite things!

I have got to admit that I am terrible at tying flies – I mean, I used to be half decent however over the last few years the quality and amount plummeted. I guess it was the birth of my first child that caused it and don’t get me started on when the other two came along. 

Actually, when I think about it I have probably tied more flies in the last 6 months than I have done in the last ten years combined. I guess the standard is slowly starting to rise and I am taking heed of such pearls of wisdom of “less is more” and “take the amount of dubbing you think you will need for your fly – no half that amount” and then you discover that the amount is still too much. 

Thankfully, when I had no kids and money to burn as well as when the current political party of the UK was not stealing all our money (you can see the length of time we are talking about here) I managed to invest in some very nice materials which now I am taking full advantage of – like this lovely silver badger cape – each hackle ties around a dozen flies. I shudder when I look at the cost of these things now!

Anyway, I might be terrible at fly tying however what I do actually have is one of the most fantastic vices that one can buy – namely a JVice. However I am mindful that like excellent cameras do not take excellent photos you can still tie awful flies on a great vice – but it does help a fair old bit to use nice stuff.

Many moons ago when lots of people actually read blogs and toured sites on the internet instead of just going on facebook and all the other corporate sites that now make up the internet I very naively asked the maker of the JVice for essentially a freebie in exchange for some advertising – essentially I would write a review which you can find here, I am embarrassed now in my basic awareness of the serious bit of kit I was reviewing to be honest now that I look back on my writings and musings however it was the early days of the internet and this old blog was quite popular back then so Jay Smit (the creator of the JVice) did not have a lot of options so I guess I was in the right place at the right time. Back then the whole kit came in at a total steal of just over £200.

 Now you are looking at just under £700 for the same package. You might think this is a lot, however Jay, like then, still makes every part of this vice with his own two hands in his own workshop on his own machine. Plus you are not getting a Vice that is bog standard, you are getting a vice with its own serial number.

Current top of the range vices come in at around this price point – so if you have the cash to splash then gaining something that is made specially for you is an investment for the future and will not lose it’s value like some of the more off the shelf brands.

Back in 2013 his 1000th vice was auctioned off for charity – I wonder what serial number he is at now? I scouted around and found on the JVice facebook page and found someone with a 1619 which makes me feel sufficiently ancient 

However Jay does not just make his JVice – he also makes a lovely Coffee Tamper and a rather nice looking Hair Stacker. 

Bottom line – if you are wanting to splash out on something a little special for your fly tying then you cannot go wrong with one of these bad boys. You can order one by going direct to the man himself Jay Smit in South Africa via any of these methods. You can aslo check out some of the photos on Jay’s facebook page.

See you at the Vice!