What’s in the box?

On Sunday I had one of those quiet days at home. After week-end, upon week-end of a days fishing plus a day of some other activity, I needed to re-group, and sort out my fishing tackle. Fly reels were turning up in cool-boxes in the kitchen, leaders in my briefcase,  fly floatant smeared on my drivers license, that sort of thing. It was time to sort it all out. I also needed to empty the fly-patch, since I am sure I have been dropping flies off of there into bankside vegetation all over the province. So I emptied what was

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A Detail for Eyes

A recent topic of discussion has been that of eyes on our Trout flies. It occurred to me that we have come a long way in that department. My earliest memory of eyes on flies was that of the Clayne Baker swimming nymph, in which one was required to tie an overhand knot on a bunch of marabou fibres. Now that was a trick! I think at that time we normally made eyes by simply cutting a stub of tuff chenille either side of the hook. Those were not very pronounced eyes, and come to think of it, the snipped

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Picking them off

I was on the Eastern shoreline of a small lake that we sometimes fish.  For my last minute day off from work,  I had been blessed with mild sunny weather.  It was April,  and the blue sky was dotted with drifting puffy white clouds. There was a slight Northerly breeze.  Just enough to ripple the crystal clear water. The fish were small. Tiny in fact. Last year’s stocking had clearly been a success,  and as a result we would have to put up with these ankle biters until following seasons,  by which time the fishing would no doubt be superb.

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