More than one person has asked if I’ve got my flies tied for next summer. Maybe the insinuation is “since you’re retired, you have all winter to tie flies.”

Hmmmm, the ugly truth is I haven’t tied a single fly yet. And it won’t get any easier now that we’ve got enough ice for ice fishing.

Last year, I spent most of January researching and tying flies for bonefish. With no bones in the immediate future, that pressure’s off.

But, while I haven’t tied any flies, I have inventoried and cleaned my fly boxes. I don’t count every fly, but I do sort them, making tying lists.

For example, I’m short on Black Foam Ants and small Grasshoppers but long on sowbugs and Ray Charles’ because I made fewer trips to the Mo last summer. I also want to carry more heavily-weighted streamers, like Clousers and Double Bunnys.

In addition to sorting, I carefully examine each fly, cutting off any tippet tags and making decisions as to whether or not a specific fly can be salvaged or the hook must be stripped. Rust on the hook automatically triggers a trip to the garbage can.

Bent dry fly hackles will spring back to life when held in steam.  And sometimes rather than remove and replace a dry hackle, I just wrap a new one over the existing one.

Sometimes I find tying thread unraveling at the eye. On large flies, I tie in, wrap over the existing head, then whip finish. On tiny flies, I soak the tying thread off the bobbin with Super Glue, wrap and clip on hackle pliers until the glue dries.

Wings, tails and legs can be replaced. Fish can’t count, but an unbalanced fly may twist during the cast.