Some nights it just doesn't work

I'm waiting on a shipment of scud hooks to come in so that I can continue with my caddis collection. If you don't know, scud hooks are simply another form of fly tying hooks that have an arched shank to better imitate a pupal caddis. Since the hooks were not here, and won't be until Tuesday at the earliest, I decided to tie a few Little Yellow Stonefly nymphs. Have you ever had one of those tying sessions where things just aren't working? The first fly I tied looked like crap, and it only got worse from there. So...I decided to take a hint and I walked away from it for the evening. On nights like these, an X-Acto knife is your best friend. It makes salvaging a hook from a sloppily tied fly very easy. I just start at the bend of the hook and saw the wrapped materials off towards the eye. A few seconds later, I'm left with a clean hook and my sanity intact.

Over the weekend I went to a seminar where Tom Ames (the author of the fantastic hatch guide I wrote about earlier) gave a discussion of aquatic entomology and fishing strategies. It was a great session, and I hope it pays off this spring in terms of my success. I'm learning and retaining an incredible amount of knowledge by focusing on his book and correlating it to the flies I'm tying.