Fly Fishing Outings - Travelling Light

Travelling Light

Sometimes circumstances force you to rethink the way you do things.

Recently I managed to injure my hand badly enough to require an operation. Apart from the obvious inconvenience, it also meant I couldn't drive and suddenly had to rely on family and friends to get me from A to B.

Normally that would be frustrating enough, but I had a six day fishing trip to Ladybower Fisheries in Derbyshire booked. It had been organised for months and, injured hand or not, I wasn't particularly keen on missing it.

Thankfully, friends and family rallied round. Lifts were organised, pickups and drop-offs sorted and the trip was still on.

There was, however, another problem.

The Big Box Was Staying at Home

For boat fishing I've traditionally used one of the larger roller boxes. They're brilliant for carrying everything you could possibly need — and quite a lot you probably don't.

Although I was not quite one handed dragging a large, loaded box around simply wasn't practical. More importantly, I didn't want other people having to lug all my tackle around for me as well as helping me get there. Fortunately, it wasn’t my casting hand!

So, I decided to do something I probably should have done years ago.

I emptied it.

An older tackle bag was brought back into service and I started deciding what I genuinely needed for the trip. The fly boxes were the first casualty.

Like many fly anglers, I've accumulated boxes containing enough flies to tackle almost every conceivable situation. Normally they come along for the ride because, well, you never know. The boxes were the fashionable A4 sized see through, six of them!

This time I had to be ruthless.

I downsized the fly selection, took the patterns I realistically expected to use and left the rest at home. I re-employed the redundant Snowbee ultra slim system.

The same rule applied to everything else. If I couldn't see a genuine reason for needing it at Ladybower, it didn't go in the bag.

Rod, reels and lines required for the fishing. A sensible selection of flies. Leaders and tippet. Essential tools and accessories.

That was about it.

And Do You Know What?

I didn't miss all the other stuff.

That's probably the biggest lesson I took from the experience.

My decision to travel light hadn't come from some great revelation about minimalist fly fishing. I'd done it because I'd injured my hand and simply couldn't manage my usual amount of tackle.

But once I was there, I began to wonder why I'd been carrying so much in the first place.

Everything I actually needed was in one manageable bag. I wasn't rummaging through numerous fly boxes looking for something that probably wasn't necessary. I knew what I'd brought, where it was and why I'd brought it.

There was also something quite liberating about having less choice.

We fly anglers can be terrible for convincing ourselves that the answer must be in the other box.

If the fish aren't taking, perhaps it's that particular buzzer we left in box number four. Or the slightly different shade of olive buried somewhere underneath 300 other flies.

Strip the selection back and you start concentrating more on how you're fishing rather than endlessly searching for something different to tie on.

Necessity Might Have Taught Me Something

I'm not about to claim I've suddenly become the world's most disciplined minimalist angler.

Old habits die hard.

And travelling light doesn't mean travelling unprepared. Particularly when you're away from home for several days, you still need to cover changing conditions and have sensible backups. Safety, suitable clothing, food and everything else needed for the day obviously come before saving a bit of weight.

But there's a considerable difference between being prepared and simply carrying things because we've always carried them.

My injured hand forced me to discover that difference.

When I eventually unpacked after Ladybower, there were still things in that smaller bag that I hadn't used.

Which probably tells me I've got a little further to go yet.

The big roller box hasn't been thrown away. I'm sure there will be occasions when it comes out again.

But the old tackle bag that I brought back into service?

I don't think it's going back into retirement anytime soon.

Sometimes it takes an inconvenience to make you change a habit.

And sometimes you discover that the inconvenience actually taught you something.

Fish Smart. Fish Astute.