Chris Jackson builds custom fly tying tables out of his garage in Tulsa, Oklahoma, under the name Lone Bison Fly Tables — and he fishes some of the most underrated smallmouth and trout water in the country practically in his backyard. His conversation with Christian on the Fly Fishing Insider Podcast covers both: how to actually set up a tying space you'll use, and what's turning Ozark smallmouth into six-pound fish.

Design Your Tying Space Around Efficiency, Not Size

Chris's core complaint with most commercial fly tying tables: they're huge. A bigger table doesn't solve disorganization, it just gives your mess more room to spread out. His approach instead is deliberately small and modular — built around exactly the tools you actually reach for, not every tool you own. His travel table, The Nomad, has slots for twelve tools total, on the theory that almost any fly can be tied with a dozen tools and a couple of bottles of head cement or UV resin. The takeaway for your own bench, store-bought or homemade: before you buy more storage, cut down to the dozen tools you actually use every session, and build your space around those — everything else can live in a drawer.

Separate "Creative Tying" From "Production Tying"

One distinction worth stealing directly: Chris treats creative tying (figuring out a new pattern, working without a set recipe) and production tying (cranking out a dozen size 16 Parachute Adams before a trip) as two different modes that need two different setups. Creative tying wants more surface area and materials within reach. Production tying wants the opposite — a known recipe, a known tool set, and a tiny footprint so you can set up on a tailgate, a raft seat, or even a hotel desk the night before you fish. If your tying space is currently one-size-fits-all, it's worth building (or clearing) a second, minimal setup just for pre-trip production tying.

The Ozark Forage Study That Changed a Local Guide's Fly Box

On the fishing side, the most useful detail is regional: a local guide Chris fishes with worked with state biologists to study exactly what Ozark smallmouth were eating, and found that roughly 92% of their diet in that watershed came down to a small handful of forage types — crawdads and baitfish patterns chief among them. Chris had fished the same water for years on generic streamers and leech patterns with decent results; switching to flies built specifically around that forage study is what's produced the six-and-a-half-pound smallmouth he mentions. It's the same lesson as our recent Southwest travel piece from a different angle: a real, local forage study will always outperform a generic "smallmouth fly" pulled off a shop wall.

Fish the Shoulder Seasons

Chris's other practical tip: fish the Ozarks in fall and winter, not summer. Low, warm summer flows push anglers into heavy wading and tick country, while a cold front in October drops the commercial float traffic to zero and can put you on eight to ten miles of river without seeing another person — all while the fish are still perfectly catchable in the region's mild winters. If you've written off a warmwater fishery because you only ever fished it in July, it may be worth a second look in November.

Gear

Whether you're rethinking your tying bench or your fly box for the season ahead, our Tips and Tricks for Fly Fishing eBook is a good next stop — and if you want to celebrate a newly organized tying setup, our FFIP Anglers Coffee Mug pairs well with a late-night vise session.