If are a fly fisher for Trout and other Spring through Fall species, you may have hung your gear up and won’t give it another thought until Spring looms near. Maybe you will pursue Winter Trout on a few year around waters or Salmon and Steelhead. A few hardy souls fish year around. But, a couple things, as my annual reminders, to consider.
~Did you organize your gear before you stuck it away? Did you put any part of it away wet or damaged? Did you clean up your fly lines and do a tune up on your reels? Is there anything you stuck away in a hurry, at the time, saying to yourself ‘I take care of it later…remember to take care of this later’. Did you?
~You considered learning to tie flies. Have you explored classes/lessons from a fly shop, community college, private lessons, fly fishing club etc. Maybe none of those options are available in your area. There are excellent on-line (S-B-S…Step By Step) tutorials on how to tie that are better than not trying it at all. Also, they are excellent to visit after you take person to person instructions.
~If you do tie, now is the perfect time, while this past season’s fly selections/losses are fresh in your memory to inventory and make lists of what flies need to me replenished via tying (or purchased, if you don’t tie). This is best done while anticipating a timeline of when and where you will fish this coming year. What are the hatch sequences or subsurface life forms available in the waters you plan on fishing this coming year. Keep a plan pinned up and look at it, especially if you are a new tier so you don’t flit around tying this and that and never really tie all you needed.
This will help you in planning and enjoying your fishing outings and of course having plenty of ‘fishtails’ to expand upon for years to come. Now go check on that gear bag you filled with wet, stinky clothing and then zipped up last month.
