Like most of you out there my fly tying space hasn't been visited in some time. We ended the fall run of 2025 with a big dud and then went through all the joys of Christmas, or whatever your holiday is, and then New Years. It usually takes a show or two to get the motivation up to start tying for the spring. So my fly tying room had become a mess and a staging area for things that probably should have been stored elsewhere.
When it was at its best it was a cool place to hang out in and spin up some flies. While it looks well organized in the above pic that wasn't how it usually looked. So today I went into a hard edit mode with just as much fly tying material making its way into the garbage as well as into one of those black and yellow bins I picked up at Home Depot. They hold a bunch and are easily stackable in the staging area in a big first floor closet, the moving van for the way down south, and either in its final resting place in a garage or attic, or hopefully not, a storage unit.
I went through all of my books and put the doubles and the old ones into a box to be donated. I thought of donating the materials I have and will never use but who wants them. I've realized if I were stranded on an island and just had a fly rod and all of the SF Blends that I own I would stay well fed.
I got rid of things that were short, cut up, or twisted up. I also went through my flies and they either found a nice resting place in a plastic sleeve or the plastic of a contractor garbage bag. Going through all of my bucktail was a hoot and many had been infested with some kind of vermin or insect that made the hairs a home or a meal.
My prized fly fishing possessions were on display in the large case. They include Rich Murphy's #1 signed book in the leather sleeve, flies tied by Popovic's, Clouser, Murphy, and the one and only striped bass fly spun up by Pat Cohen. There was also a sweet striped bass cut out of metal by Skelfish, and I'm going to have him make a matching one in the redfish variety.
I spent most of the day getting that room all done and packed up. I left out a few things to tie this Saturday at TTFS but I'm sure I'll need to buy or borrow something that I forgot. While I'm looking forward to tying up buggy crab flies for the flats there's also pogies and mullet, big ones, down in and around Beaufort and Hilton Head to keep me needing those Hollow flies tied with Squimpish and the remaining bucktail that I salvaged. I hope by Saturday Brad doesn't get cleaned out as I'm in need of a good restocking.