Cabin Fever ~ Or Why We Tie Flies

Around the beginning of September here in Ontario, fly folk start to feel a little strange. Its not the lack of rain, its not the late summer heat, its the onset of winter that gets us shaking. For many, winter is a time to allow the rods & reels to collect dust while the ground outside collects snow and ice. This my friends is the time to kick back and review the year that passed. If you were smart this past season, you probably kept some sort of a diary about the wheres and the whens of your success and defeat over the last season. Its time to pull out that diary, pull up a seat at the tying bench and get to work on those patterns that did you well over the course of the year.

For most fly folk, tying becomes an integral part of the picture. I think it has something to do with the self sustaining ideas that fly fishing instills in our psyche. It allows us to become part of the fishes world. It allows a great understanding of what it really means to take a fish from its world, by means of tricking it with a tasty morsel. As you move through your fly fishing years, your style of fishing becomes ever more personal, to the point where you will take that style to the tying bench in order to better your ability to present and mimic the creatures that live below the surface.

Well, its the middle of February, I hope you've been working on filling those fly boxes!!




'The Chocolate Bunny'

Hook: wet fly #8 -#16
Thread: uni camel 6/0
Wing Case: turkey feather segment
Body: hares ear (plus) dubbing
Ribb: wire (gold, brass, silver, etc.)
Tail: squirrel tail

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