Recreational Tying with Peacock

There was a time when I tied flies a lot.  Almost every night in my smoky one room apartment you would find me drinking cheap beer and adding to my inexhaustible supply of flies.  There were, and still are, certain flies that I can’t ever seem to have enough of—things like trout and steelhead nymphs or smallmouth poppers are good examples of flies that even today I need to keep after.  But back then I worked at a fly shop, surrounded by the finest tying materials and hooks for most of my day.  Since tying materials are pretty cheap, it was easy enough for me to constantly augment my supply of fur, feathers and synthetics.  It was a pretty simple, yet enjoyable existence.  The fun of tying more tarpon flies than 100 guys could use in a 100 years.   I wish I had some pictures of the old apartment.  I’m sure that it resembled a cross between a homeless shelter and a tackle shop.  In fact one night a friend crashed on my floor, he complained the next morning that when he woke up he had rolled onto a pile of crankbaits. Somewhere along the way it appears that the smoky apartment has been replaced by a nice house, a wife and two kids have appeared, and the never ending 12 packs of cheap beer has been replaced by...

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