Clearing out the clutter – Simplify your fishing.

Out of clutter, find simplicity. – Albert Einstein.

I find my mind cluttered now. It is as if my time is a garage stuffed with junk. I have things I want to get done, and things I want to do. But due to the clutter I am left taking everything out of the garage piece by piece, just to get the lawn mower that I need to check something off of my list.

As I mentioned in previous posts, I am not the most organized guy. My tying bench can look like a small explosive just ravaged it. My real life garage is a constant struggle to find a place for everything, let alone to keep everything in its place.

Tying bench disaster or creative genius at work. Photo – Billy Williams.

Luckily my mind is much easier to clean and maintain than my garage. I do my best to keep things simple, keep a schedule and I make lists.

Of course I apply this approach to my fishing. Well I try to. I nymph when I know where fish should be. I flymph or swing streamers when I don’t. I only fish dries when fish are rising and I mean really rising, not just one fish’s splashy rises.

As for my fly box I am pretty boring. I like to have sizes from 8 to 18 in light, dark and a natural medium colours. I carry some Lucian Vasies style caddis patterns and Gary Lafontaines Sparkle Emergers and Deep Pupa and a few beads, and some flashy attractors and you have the nymph box.

Soft hackles, dries and streamers round out the collection. Of course I fish warmwater species as well so my streamer box looks ridiculous. But I’ll save that for another post.

I keep a schedule out of respect for myself and others around me. I can plan a few hours each week to slip away. It takes the stress out of trying to go fishing when my wife has other plans, like cleaning the garage. I do a lot of fishing from 5am to 7am before work. It is a great time to be outside.

As for lists, I learned an important rule that works for me. All of my lists are required to be 5 items or less. This is to avoid the monstrous multi-headed hydra that is a page long list. You know what I get done with a long list? A lot of staring, that is what. But with a short list, I get stuff done.  For example, I can get this list done in a day.

– Book cottage for mid-may.

– Tie a dozen bead head GRHE.

– Clean garage on Saturday or Sunday morning (weather dependant – if the weather is crap, go fishing.)

Some folks worry about forgetting things that would go on their list but they are not going to get to in the near future. But I don’t. Believe me, the long term jobs you want to get done before the summer ends will find a place on the list in due time. No use writing it in January.

With so many flies, styles of fishing and gear combinations it could be easy to over think fly fishing. But I have found a way to find simplicity out of the clutter.