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.