In such circumstances I resort to the fly tying bench or a good book. I've recently completed reading Hal Moore & Joe Galloway's account of the 1st Cavalry's initial forays into Vietnam. The book was made into a movie a few years ago starring Mel Gibson, though the movie is a Hollywood representation generally of the book. I haven't decided upon the next book I'll read, maybe because I simply haven't been to the library. So it's back to the tying bench.
I only began tying my own flies 3 years ago. Mainly under the influence of many wonderful tiers at my fishing club, and from other anglers I met. I began with some simple but essential New Zealand patterns, went through the "tie everything I see on the web" phase, before returning to a few choice generic and some specific patterns. Recently I received a bag of CDC from a fellow forum member on The New Zealand Fly Fishing Forum - see my links box. Generally CDC feathers are expensive to buy as they are imported here (and in New Zealand most imported items are at a premium), so I have tended to be quite sparing with them. However, this source is from a duck shooter and in New Zealand there are plenty of those. The CDC feather is amazing and I'll be endeavouring to make more use of them this season in my tying now I have secured a good supply.
So, back to the bench. Enough of the computer. Time to get tying. Tonight I'll be dreaming of hooking a big trout on one of my flies. Oh, hold on, I've done that already.
Tightlines.
