January was consumed by house buying. I made an offer on a house on January 7th and moved in the 28th. I was pretty busy with closing and moving. I enjoyed being so busy as it took my mind off my want to be on the water. For me, in these colder months, the constant craving to fish starts to manifest in purchases for the upcoming fishing season, often unnecessarily. Even with buying the house and a new computer I still managed some budge in the budget for fishing supplies.
I was attending my girlfriend's vet school white coat ceremony in Louisiana and convinced her and her family to stop by the nearby Bass Pro Shop. I headed straight for the fly fishing section, only to be disappointed. The section was composed of a five foot reel case, two small wall displays, a few dozen fly choices, 20 rods, and three handfuls of tying materials. I asked the nearest associate if that the whole fly fishing section and he seemed surprised. He claimed fly fishing was fairly popular in the area but I believe it would be difficult to maintain this hobby with that meager selection from what should be a major sporting goods store. I walked solemnly back to the few hundred rows of regular fishing items. I picked up 3 different soft plastics that looked promising then wandered the rest of the store without purchasing anything else. Except for circus peanuts because of this post. That's the last time I take advice from him.
Later in the week we were driving through Baton Rouge when I spotted an Orvis tucked in a shopping center. We headed home but after a little convincing and a day later, we were on our way back to the Orvis. The last Orvis I went to was only an outlet store which was also a disappointment as they carried zero fly fishing items this Orvis, however, was the fly store I was hoping Bass Pro would be. I went through all the flies getting some new ideas, looked at some 8 weights, some new reels, and all the tying materials. I grew concerned when I noticed many of the items didn't have a price tag on them. I quickly set those down as I'm pretty sure that meant they were more than I was willing to spend. Both the store worker and my girlfriend eventually started thinking I was over staying my welcome so I stopped ogling and chose a grab bag of materials. I ended up getting some materials I have wanted to buy and a lot of stuff I probably wouldn't have bought on my own. The bag seemed more geared towards a warm water or salt water fly tier though. If someone bought this for trout they would probably never use half of the items. I think these new materials will force me to be more creative with my fly tying.
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| Orvis Tying Materials Grab Bag |
The bag did come with some stuff that I have no idea what to do with. I wish the bags were labeled so I could at least look up what they are. If anyone has any ideas what I can use any of this stuff for please let me know below. The picture below is some flashy rope with a tinsel type covering, some foam with gold leaf covering on one side, some orange woven tubing, and some stiff black monofilament.
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| Unknown tying materials |
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