Snow is on the ground and the temperature is low with chilly nights and ice frosted windows. Tying season is here again. Between Holiday cooking, shopping and decorating, a few flies have been getting tied to replace those lost to trees and submerged branches. As those are replaced, new patterns will be attempted for the year to come.
The first to get tied were the CDC and Elks. I really liked this pattern and it worked very well for me this past season, so I tied size 16's and 20's to fill in the first fly box holes.
The next to get tied up were a batch of size 16 guide's choice hares ears. I had success with this pattern early last season during runoff, but had only tied two due to the lack of decent options from a bag of loose partridge feathers. I invested in a partridge skin as an early Christmas present to myself and am much happier.
The empty spaces in the fly box will keep me motivated and the tying will keep me thinking about the spring, hot summer afternoons and cool fall days of next year's season. I am not a big winter fisherman, so this will have to do until then. I hope everyone is having a good holiday season and wish you luck refilling your boxes as well.
Happy Holidays!
