Change

I'm pretty set in my ways.  Age does that. My fishing tools usually work and keep me happy.  I try, often unsuccessfully, to keep things simple.  Having said that, I still have a sense of wonder.  Is there a better way to do things? A way I might enjoy more.  A way to make things simpler, even if its not quite simple getting there?

I've used hemostats to remove fish hooks for 45 years.  I've changed back and forth from straight to curved, with and without a poker tool, bought and found, and they've all worked fine.  They smash barbs, remove hooks, and hold flies, to name a few.  

Sometimes though, I gotta hold the fish to get a grip on the fly.  Wet hands are cold in the winter.  Enter, the Ketchum Release Tool.  I know, its been around since 1996, but as I said, I'm pretty set in my ways. (It was the first product from Waterworks back then). I'm never the first one to the party.

So, tired of getting my hands wet last fall as temperatures began to drop, I supported my local fly shop and bought a standard sized one.  Now I've used it for every hook removal over about 25 days of fishing last fall and winter, and exclusively this season.  From size 8 leeches and terrestrials to size 20 midges, it has worked as advertised, and kept my hands dry.  Slide it down the tippet, over the fly, make a quick push, and the hook is out.  No smashed feathers either.  My flies are noticeably lasting longer.  No damage to the tippet either. I don't need to hold the fish, and there's no struggle trying to clamp to a fly embedded in a fish's lip. How did I ever get along without it?  I'd feel naked without it now, and the flies love it.  They've been telling me so.

Speaking of flies, I'm just over two weeks into this trip now, and it's kind of odd. I have not lost a single fly, to a fish, a bush, grass, or anything.  I haven't tied on any tippet other than 4x, whether size 10 Brown drakes or 18 PMD spinners.  I have three green drakes that have chewed up abdomens, but will be quickly repaired at the vise someday.  So yeah, it's a good thing I'm carrying over 3,000 flies.🙄 There's no help for me.  I need to tie a few Organza hangers.

I am not supported by Amazon (quite the contrary!), there is no link to click for a discount or a code, Water Works probably doesn't care that I've written how much I love this thing to my three or four readers.  They (you?) are probably using one anyway, but now I'll remember when I started using it, as if that matters now.

I'm posting this today, a catch-up day. It's cold and pouring rain, with a little snow up higher, and I don't need to catch a trout that bad. Besides, I think this journal is full of enough fly and fish-in-the-hand pictures.  Oh wait, that's right, I still need the hemos to hold the flies for the pictures!  So much for simple.  And temporarily, so much for summer.