Someone's comment about fly line reminded me of another, more obscure, "lesson" recently learned. I took a friend to the river not long ago for one of his first outings. After helping him out a little and then separating for awhile, we reconvened later and he shared with me how he'd accidentally cut his fly line when he went to trim his tippet with his combination scissors/forceps. We got a good chuckle out of it and I really didn't think much about it originally. Since then however, I've noticed how many times I find my line laying on or over my scissors/forceps also. Like my buddy, I have mine pinned to a zinger on my vest. I'm right handed, so I long ago figured out that the right side of my vest (closest to my right hand) was the most convenient place to have the scissors. What I didn't notice until recently was that I also have a tendency to put the rod and reel under my right armpit as I clip a fly off and add another. That seems to position any excess line disturbingly well to fall across the open scissors, and while it still seems hard to imagine not seeing your line laying in the crotch of the scissors before you close them, I moved them over to the left side of my vest just to lessen the risk. As my friend discovered, there's little that'll put more of a crimp in your casting, stripping, fighting a fish, etc. than a knot 15 or so feet down from the end of the line!
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