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Matt Klara | Monday, 28 January 2019
At long last, I’m tying flies again. You see for the past 4 months, we’ve been remodeling our basement, which is where my fly tying workshop is located. The entire place was stripped down to the studs, and in fact, one of the wall of my workshop was torn down completely (the new shop is bigger). All my tying stuff was packed up and covered in plastic sheets to keep the dust off as much as possible.
Not being able to tie flies was harder on me than I expected. Not because I ran out of flies to fish with – I have piles of backups. The real hardship was not having my hobby to fall back on in the evenings when I just wanted to hang out for a minute and relax. I tie flies as much for that as I do for fishing purposes. My mom is a quilter, and she is the same way. You can only use so many quilts in your house, and then you need to start giving them away. But the fun is in the making and the giving at that point, and it’s that way for me with flies. Being the heart of the winter “fly tying season” probably made going without tying even harder.
But I digress. The basement remodel is complete. My workshop is functional again, though far from “dialed in”. The desk is up and my materials are sorted. I’ve already started a huge batch of steelhead flies for a friend who is hosting a trip to BC this spring. My favorite, string leeches, of course. So, I’m happy again. I have a huge list of ideas staked up as well that I need to get out of my head and onto hooks. New lake flies, nymphs, and dry flies. I was pouring through the Hareline catalog yesterday too, making a list and checking it twice, like Santa, but with more selfish motives.
I’ve also got an incredible chance now to essentially build a new workshop from the ground up. I’ve got an extra shelving unit and a table for rigging reels, and other messes. I’m hoping to get a bookshelf in there soon so I can un-box all of my fishing books again. I also have big plans to build a bit of a shelving system that will become a back splash of sorts for my tying desk. I’ve drawn up a couple of ideas for that so far, and I’m hoping to build it out of mainly reused materials that I salvaged during the original basement demolition. Lots of nice old fir 2x4s and a couple of sheets of peg board like you find in fly shops. Once that all comes together, I’ll hang my favorite pieces of art and fishing mementos. I may do that sooner or later.
It's just good to be back at the bench, again.
Take Care and Tie On,
Matt