Ed 7: In these troubled times

 This SI s really making me sigh! What’s a poor boy to do? (besides plagiarism, that is).  There is something that we fisher-folk can do which isn’t available to the rest of humanity: we can tinker with our tackle! Most of us regret that we don’t normally have enough spare time to fiddle about and do some sorting. But now we do; normal has gone, leaving spare hour upon hour over the coming weeks.

 I’ve already spent the odd hour tying flies at the vice, but don’t want to overdo that, else I become jaded, and stifle the innovative creativity that sometimes arises within when I’m vice-side.

Thankfully, there’s plenty of other stuff to occupy a fisher, even a non-fly guy (or gal, but it doesn’t rhyme as well). I have just washed two Intermediate fly lines, so next time (?) I’m using one, counting the seconds as it sinks, I’ll be much more accurate with my depth assessment. Next, I can look forward to cleaning the reels and lubricating their mechanisms, then there are floating lines that will also need cleaning and re-treating as well. That’ll mean time spent going through my ‘store’ of stuff, hunting for line-slick and whizz-lube, in turn a further opportunity to find out what else I’ve got ‘in stock’. Next up, maybe I’ll check and clean my rods, but only a few at a time, in case someone is counting. Perhaps tackle boxes will be next, along with tapered leaders, spools of tippet, micro-rings, and so on.? I might even check my landing nets, go through all the pockets of my fishing vest, then there are all those smaller boxes of odds and ends, and God-only-knows-what? I will even find stuff I’ve forgotten that I have!

 There is, however, one major task which will have to be broken down into separate, substantial chunks of time, so that I don’t run any risk of becoming a tad bored and start to cut corners. This is the biggie, el numero uno task: I need to go through every one of my seventeen fly boxes (or is it nineteen now?) to review and assess each fly therein: those that fail will probably ‘go to the knife’, which means cut down to the bare hook, to be re-used if in good condition. Some that don’t meet the blade, will go instead into a plastic box which temporarily houses my ‘give-aways’ (until they are given away, of course). Some end up with people I fish with, sometimes those met fishing, or possibly if our FDG branch is demonstrating at a country fair, or something. This process eliminates quantities of flies from my boxes, those that I no longer have confidence in, therefore won’t use, and those that are no longer of a ‘good enough’ standard, (continual improvement is one aim of my fly-tying). Thus, I reduce the total number of flies I lug about, but not for down-sizing purposes (not yet, anyway, though the Lord knows I should), instead it means I can validly tie replacements, new patterns, new materials, etc., to fill up those newly created gaps in the serried ranks. I just hope I can find the time.

Be strong, we can do this.