If at first you don't succeed........

I think I shamed myself into doing some of the fly fishing off season tasks that I said I would do.  I had an easy day at medic duty last night which afforded me the downtime I needed to read my hatches book and try out my vise.  It is a nice job sometimes..... sometimes.

Over the years I have accumulated an assortment of feathers, hooks, and threads that basically amount to a big bag of crap.  I rummaged through my big bag of crap and pulled out Grizzly Hackle, Peacock Herl, and a couple of hooks.  I figured I would tackle the Griffith's Gnat as an easy start.   It looked simple and easy.... so I thought.  I think my peacock was a little old because I broke several strands of herl off trying to wrap them.  So much for tying with old crap. 

After a few minutes of cursing and replaying the tutorial on my tiny Blackberry screen I did manage to tie the materials onto the hook shank and get the herl rope twisted into place.  I was very satisfied with my choice of the Renzetti Traveler 2000 vise as it's rotary action made winding the herl a snap.  I continued onto the hackle and produced a bug that looked good but had hackles that were way too long, extending far beyond the hook gap.  I stripped that fly down and tied it over selecting what I thought was a smaller hackle.  I finally produced a reasonable facsimile of a Gnat.  Wow!  That Matarelli whip finisher nearly kicked my ass!

I had produced a decent looking fly and was even able to duplicate it a second time quicker than the first one.  All in all I tied two usable flies in..... THREE HOURS!  I saved four dollars in the process and wasted materials to tie four flies.  I hope this gets easier as I practice more.  Now onto bigger and more complex flies.   After a lot of practice.

I marveled at my accomplishment and compared it to the commercial ones in my fly box.  "Hey, I'd eat that!"