Bench Time

Well, it’s deep in the heart of winter and that usually means one thing to most fly anglers, bench time. The winter months usually signify a time of reflection for most fly anglers. Memories of the big fish or the one that got away fill your head. A lot of time is spent reading fly fishing magazines, looking at all of the new gear for the year, fantasizing about mid-winter fly fishing trips in an exotic locale in the tropics, and investigating new fly patterns to tie for the upcoming year. I’ve spent the past couple of weeks at my desk tying some flies. The first dozen or two of flies always seem to take a while to complete, though usually it’s enough to knock the old cobwebs off. I didn’t lose a lot of flies last year, which is nice since I won’t have to spend half the winter refilling my fly boxes. Instead, I’ll be able to spend much of my time trying new patterns to use for the upcoming year. Last year my focus was on tying a lot of clouser minnows, zonkers, bunny flies, and other large streamers. This year, my main focus is on carp flies. I have been tying a lot of larger nymphs so far. I’ll probably add some more crawfish patterns and other variations like the clouser swimming nymph, carp candy, etc. to my fly box before winding down on the tying season. The most interesting pattern I have sent this year is a clam pattern. I am intrigued and will tie a bunch up to try on some carp, buffalo, and redhorse. Happy tying!