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Publisher's Note: Al is taking a couple of weeks
off - a well deserved holiday from his weekly column. We
think you will enjoy Charlie!
I've decided that I have too much stuff and
have been spending too much time looking through
feathers, tails, dubbing and such and not enough
time actually tying bugs. So I've been trying to
keep my collection of tying materials down to a
half of a closetful. Some of my material boxes
haven't been opened in months, because, well,
they are behind the other boxes that haven't been
opened for a while either. Anyway, when I do get
in the back of the feather closet, it turns out
to be more of a treasure hunt than a bug tying
session. I usually discover things that I don't
remember buying, like my most recent find of six
blue bucktails. What is anyone going to do with
six blue bucktails? It's a good thing I found six
packs of blue saddle hackles to go with the bucktails.
I also found one large package of mallard flank,
dyed blue. I bought that to go with the saddles,
I guess. I know that I must have had something
in mind when I bought all the blue material. I
just wish I could remember what it was though.
Anyway, when you really think about it, all that
tying stuff in the feather closet isn't doing you
much good unless it's on a fish hook, is it? So,
I decided to clean house, so to speak. I went
through everything, box by box, Zip Loc bag by
Zip Loc bag and culled all of the stuff that I
hadn't used or seen in a long time. And parted
with some of the things that I had way too much
of, like rabbit dubbing. I mean could it be possible
that there are that many bunny rabbits out there
running around naked? I refuse to take responsibility
for the scarcity of blue deer though, because after
all I only have six of their tails. Well, actually
seven because I have a spare bucktail box and a
working bucktail box. I found another blue bucktail
in the working box. Okay then. I'll take part of
the blame for blue but not the pink deer because
I only have one pink bucktail. And well, there is
that sort of ruby-colored bucktail that I liked a
lot, but the fish didn't. I don't even want to think
about the chickens. But I will say that when I was a
kid I didn't realize that chickens came in so many
different colors.
I gave all the usable stuff to a friend that spends
the bulk of his money on college tuition. The lousy
stuff or you could say the stuff that I stored
because thought that I might use some day, I
tossed. It doesn't do any good to give it away
because even though it's free, it's still lousy
and may actually be discouraging to a new fly
tier. While I was at it, I put most of the
material in clear plastic storage boxes so that
I can actually see what's in them before I open
them. That saves me time, which seems to be at a
premium lately.
Now this is not to say that when I see a bargain
or some really neat fly tying material that I don't
buy it. Last week I found some extra long Craft Fur
in a bargain bin at a fly shop so I bought three
packages, one tan, one cream and one brown. I
brought it home and added it to the other packages
of tan, cream and brown extra long Craft Fur that
I have. I purchased it because, as you know, extra
long anything is not easy to find, and you never
know when you might want to tie up a bazillion bay
anchovy imitations. There was a spool of bright
orange, flat waxed nylon thread in the 'good buy'
tub that just kept calling to me too. I figured
that I didn't have that color, and for a change I
was right. I didn't. However, now I only have one
spool, so I better get a spare.
I'm now almost down to a half closetful. This is
good, because I was fishing stripers with Jerry
the other day and he was using an experimental
fly that the stripers couldn't resist. It had so
much flash on it that he jokingly called it the
Christmas tree fly. In any event, I don't have
the flash that Jerry used on his new fly. I looked
through my red bucktails too and I don't have the
exact shade of red that he used to tie the festive
fly with either. Nor do I have the hook he used.
Well anyway, I figure now that I've "cleaned house"
I have room for some new stuff. ~ Charlie
About Charlie:
Besides hosting the FAOL Chatroom on Tuesday nights,
Charlie Place writes a monthly fly fishing column
called "On The Fly" for On The Water magazine
which covers fresh and salt water fishing in New England.
In February 2004 Charlie's column won The New England
Outdoor Writers Associations 2004 writing award;
Best column in a magazine. Often his stories
are about fishing with Ernie Boutiette and Jerry Wade
his two best fishing buddies.
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