Another year has clicked on by and if you are reading this I guess you have made it through one way or another. The “to do list” is still longer than the “got’er did” list and half the fishing trips read like a chapter out of a Pat McManus book. On the positive side, the trees along the local stream are well stocked with my flies and I celebrated the fifth anniversary of my lifetime fishing license. Speaking of flies in trees, Len take note, I have managed to extend my back cast a good five or six feet and can now reach limbs that were formerly completely out of reach.

The past year was not a total disappointment. I did learn some new words and phrases, like peripheral neuropathy and frequent and urgent. Geez, for all this time I thought “frequent and urgent” described the need to go fishing but it seems it may also refer to something else. And, I think I might be able to use peripheral neuropathy as an excuse for an inherent clumsiness and the state of my fly tying. I have also learned to throw a full fly line as long as it is still in the box and the cats are in the other room.

It is now time to make plans for the coming year. Certainly this will include refilling my fly boxes. I have heard rumors that Chartreuse over White Clousers and Black Wooly Buggers occasionally work. I will have to look into that… However, that will entail modifying my theory that the longer it takes to tie a fly, the more complicated the pattern and the more arcane and expensive the materials required, the better the fly. After all, there needs to be some justification for all the stuff I have scattered about. Perhaps I should start by yet another futile attempt to organize all that stuff. Who knows, I may find some arcane, expensive, exotic and nearly unavailable material to work into the Clouser/Wooly Bugger matrix.

It is raining like hell today, a good time to get started tying, let see, 5 each of 6 different color combinations and 4 different hook sizes with 3 different size weighted eyes of the Clousers, that makes 360 Clousers and I would guess about the same for the Wooly Buggers. I am thinking about 500-600 flies will be a good start with these patterns. And then there are the deer hair bugs, hard body poppers, Dahlberg divers, Bloomington Minnows, a few crayfish patterns… Gonna need a bigger boat! Or, maybe I can put a tether on my float tube and drag it behind me while wading. At any rate, hitting the water with anything less than 800-900 flies seems irresponsible, and, I am talking about flies size 4 and up. I’m just sayin’

Where were all those 10# Wipers this year? Most of the fellow anglers I talked with at Monroe have the same question and are of the opinion that it was never windy, rainy, cold and physically uncomfortable enough to catch these fish. That and it is always better in the spring. The Smallmouth fishing wasn’t too bad this year, it could have been better and maybe the addition of the aforementioned CWCs and BWBs (see above) to the fly box will help next year. There is also the substantial progress that has been made toward the required 10,000 casts needed to catch a Musky on the fly. I sometimes wonder what price our buddy Ben is going to have to pay for not making the required 10,000 casts before catching several Bass Lake Muskies. Surely, whoever is keeping score on such matters will exact some price from the kid.

Merry Christmas, tie some flies, have some fun, save some tensile from the tree, you may need it…

Tim