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I have not been much help to the fly tying suppliers this past year. I
decided that I really needed to use up some of the material that I have
collected over the years. In my annual cleaning of my vest and boxes in
January and February I decided to carry that on to my tying desk and area.
I have several of those white frames with the sliding drawers in them and
several of the plastic open boxes that materials are stored in. There were
also several bags of materials in other spots and under the desk that I was
not sure what they contained. It was time to get all of the similar tying
materials in the same place so I could see what I really had.
Did I ever find out that I had more stuff than I thought that I had
accumulated.
I decided that all of the flash material that I had that was as wide as the
spooled Mylar would go into one drawer. I had more of this than I was aware
of. I do not remember where I got some of the colors that I have, but they
sure do make some interesting body colors.
Another drawer has all the material that is like Krystal Flash. I guess I
can not go by this type of material without picking up some of it. I have
seven hanks of silver and five hanks of pearlescent flash that have never been
opened.
Then it was time to get the feathers organized as to what I really had. This
turned out to be a real zoo to try to get organized. What I finally did was
to take one of the larger three drawer chests, those about a foot deep, and put
feathers in two of the drawers. Dry fly hackle in the top and, wet fly
hackle in the bottom. In the mean time I had found enough llama hair to fill
the bottom drawer with this material.
Two of the smaller cabinets with the drawers that are about four inches high
got filled with other feathers. One is filled with packages of feathers in a
ton of colors, that are useful for tails and also for the marabou on the
feathers. The second has all the weird feathers that have come into my
possession. There are some really weird looking things in there. The third
drawer has the pheasant body pelts that I have received and picked up at
various places.
The next drawer has all of the other body feathers I have accumulated,
grouse and other such birds. The bottom drawer has all the goose feathers.
I don't open it often as I am afraid I may get hurt when the stuff spews out.
Two more of these small cabinets are on the desk and they contain the
marabou and chenille I have accumulated over time. I have been in a few
places where they were having sales on these materials and I picked them up,
because I knew that I could use them. That means that I have a lot of this
on hand in almost every color know to be made.
I have one of these chests on rollers that is in my office also.
This is full of hair and different feathers I use. When I dye turkey
and pheasant feathers they go in here. One of the drawers is for all of the
weird stuff that I am not sure where else it should go.
There are eleven of the open plastic boxes that are filled with things. I have
embroidery floss in one, thread in another, biots and some body materials,
rat tail ect, in another. The other boxes contain other materials that are
used from time to time.
I have four boxes that have wet and dry fly hooks divided up in sizes. I use
size 10 to divide them, just because that works for me. I did find some
Aberdeen hooks that I had found on sale and had forgotten about.
I found material I had forgotten I had. I now need to
use some of this up, before I go out and get more. I did see some wonderful
feathers at Sow Bug that Denny Conrad (Conranch Hackle) was showing.
When some of these are gone then I will get those and use them.
I do have a tendency to loose flies as I am always casting to places where
there is a good chance that the fly may be lost. These tend to be places
where the fish like to be. I will get this stuff used up in a few years and
then will be back in the market for more.
I am not saying that you need to do this, but it is a decision that I have
made.
Hope you can get out on the water. ~
Rick
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