Temperatures
Control the Fun #32
Recently, Northern Maine has seen a
tremendous drop in the outside temperature which causes us to bring our
activities indoors for a time. Temps have fallen into the negative numbers at night
and also subzero temps during the day. Outside activities consist of running
out to start your car so it will be at least a little bit warmer and you won’t
stick to the seat when you leave. Some temperatures have dipped to -23 in spots
during the night which often causes you to be concerned about your vehicle and
whether or not it will start. Thank goodness this sort of weather does not last
long. Now, enough with the weather forecasting. So I am sure you are sitting
there reading this and asking yourself, what in god’s green earth does he do
when it is this cold. My reply is, great question, and here is the answer, I tie
flies. I would like to go on record of
saying that my best friend when tying flies is “You Tube.” You can find almost
everything you need on there, including how to tie a certain fly, what patterns
look good and even what equipment is good and how does it work. I recently purchased
a new fly tying vise, and in an effort to find the right one, I researched it
using You Tube. I looked up a number of different vises and watched as the
person on the other end showed how they worked. I finally arrived at a vise I
felt would work for me and made the decision to order it. I got it this week
and have been using it with great results. The Peak rotary vise serves my needs
well and the fact that I now have a vise that rotates is very cool. Now, I have
many flaws, but one of them is that when I get something new, I have a very
hard time not wanting to use it right away. In this particular case, I set it
up and started tying right away. I found a pattern on You Tube that I was
really interested in and it looked like it might be a winner, so I tied 10 of
them. As is the case, the first few left
a lot to desire, but as I continued, they came out better and better. So, the
Bullet head Caddis is the new fly in my box and I can’t wait to try it out. Oh,
and this is the first time I have tied a fly that requires spinning deer hair.
Now I want to tell you that that is a lot of fun. The more you do it, the
better you get at it. So, now that I have my 2013 supply of Bullet head’s what
is my next adventure? How about some triple wing caddis flies or maybe I’ll
just ask SIRI. I am sure she will have some advice.
One of my readers and good friend
just sent me a box filled with different feathers he collected. They were
exactly what I needed and I plan to dive into them soon when I start making the
flies that require them. I wonder if he was trying to make a point when he sent
them to me. Not to worry, I plan to have a few flies tied for him when he comes
to Maine in June for our annual fishing trip.
