Fly drying patches can get out of hand if you let them. Photo by: Louis Cahill

Do yourself a favor and clean out your foam drying patch on your pack.

Especially during the cold months, when you’re not going to be on the water for a while. You’ll be surprised how much your fly boxes will fill back up once you’ve done a thorough cleaning, and also just how much trash you’ve accumulated over the past season in the bottom of your packs. I’ve got a horrible habit of leaving my flies on my drying patch day in and day out. I use my drying patch as a fly box in itself and although it saves me some time on the water when I’m guiding, it ends up destroying dozens of flies during the season. That translates into quite a bit of money thrown down the drain, and significant time lost at the tying bench that could have otherwise been avoided. Don’t let your fly drying patches get out of control. They’re not meant to be used as permanent fly storage, rather, they’re a place to organize flies for your day out on the water or for drying fly patterns out until you can safely put them back in the appropriate fly boxes.

If you’re like a lot of folks right now, your probably sitting inside staying out of the cold, tying flies and praying for a warm sunny day. Cabin fever has probably set in, and you’re finding that you’ve developed a chronic case of checking the extended weather forecast on your iPhone, in the hopes of seeing a warm break in the winter weather. While you’re waiting for a positive turn in the weather, make yourself useful, and do some much needed gear maintenance in the meantime. Doing so, you’ll feel much more prepared when you do find time to hit the water, and you might even find a couple of those deadly fly patterns that worked so well this past season that you thought you were long gone.

Keep it Reel,