About eights months ago, I finally broke down and bought some nice Simms waders.  Previously  I had been using cheap waders and never wanted to spend money on good ones.  I didn’t think that it would make much of a difference but I was surprised.  They make fly fishing much more comfortable!  With that said, about a week ago I discovered a hole in my waders while fishing the Lower Provo River.  Needless to say, I was not thrilled about it.  I decided to send them in to Simms for a patch job, and that is leaving me about two weeks without waders.  To make it worse, March is just beginning, which is my favorite month to fish the Provo.  So what is an avid fisherman to do without his waders?  The answer is to tie flies in preparation of the upcoming season, or finally make time to try out that new pattern you have been thinking about tying but never had the time.  Since I sent my waders in a week ago, I have been able to tie a couple of different variations of sow bugs, pheasant tail nymphs, hare’s ears, and midge patterns.  These are patterns that flat out catch fish which makes them a major part of my fly box.  I’ve even had some time to tie up some czech nymphs that I have been wanting to tie for some time now.  I was first a little upset about the fact that I don’t have waders to go fishing, but it has been enjoyable to use this time tying flies when I otherwise would have spent it on a river.

I have also had a fly rod break which also allowed for more time spent tying than fishing.  Just because some of your fishing gear breaks, which will keep you from hitting your favorite river, don’t tune out your fishing mind-set until your stuff gets back.  Use this time, like I have explained, and fine tune your fly tying skills.  Another strategy that I have used to help me learn new fly tying skills is to get on fly tying blogs, youtube, or other websites and watch others tie flies.  Watching them will allow you to try out new patterns, new skills, and new techniques.  Fly tying became more enjoyable to me when I could look at a fly and pretty much know how I could go about tying it without having to write down each step.  When you start to do this, it will become easier for your imagination to wander and for you to come up with new and creative patterns.

So next time you rip a hole in your waders, or break a fly rod, or whatever the case may be, replace that frown with a smile and start to think of new patterns that you can tie up, and put your fly tying skills to the test!

Derek