Fly Fishing Checklist

The simplest things in life are often overlooked.  Unfortunately, these often include fly fishing items that you always frantically rummage through your gear bags for once you’ve reached your fishing destination.  I cannot even begin to count the number of times that I have stepped out of the truck only to find out that I forgot something (or several things).  The initial phase is the mad search…..dumping out the contents of your bags and violently throwing other gear around in the back of the truck and digging desperately for that piece you swear you packed.  This is usually followed by cussing and second and third attempts to locate that item you can’t find.

Early this morning, I shuffled around my cluttered half-lit garage looking for certain items such as specific rods, matching reels, bags, and fly boxes.  My search was half-hearted and whimsical because I had still not un-packed my half-dozen gear bags since my last big trip to the White Mountains.  There was gear laying around everywhere and nothing was where it was supposed to be.  After looking at my watch several times and throwing a couple of rod-cases into the back of my truck, I headed down to my favorite local pond.  After joining together the ferrules of my rod of choice, I unzipped my backpack that usually holds my reels, only to find some of my children’s clothing, a bottle of water, and some diapers.  Routinely, I dumped the entire contents of the backpack, triple-checked that my 5 wt. reel with floating line wasn’t hidden somewhere in there and then began to recite every 4-letter word I could think of.  Fortunately, I had also decided to bring several rod cases with me this morning that carried rods with reels attached.  This was not my rig of choice, but it was better than having to drive home angry without ever having wet a line.

To avoid this stressful excitement again in the future, I decided to come home and make a checklist to help myself stay organized.  Since I’m a gear junkie, I have equipment scattered throughout my house.  I can think of at least 4 different places in my home that have reels, fly line, fly boxes, and other miscellaneous fishing related items.  Although it might help to keep everything in one central location, I am still apt to overlook a few things and forget to grab things right in front of my face. 

Depending on the type of gear you own and prefer to use, there are a dozens of different types of pieces of gear and gear bags that you might already have assembled.  Because of this, I have to break my personal checklist down into several stages, starting with an essentials list, graduating into a list of things that are supposed to be within each essential.  Here is an example of my personal “Essentials” checklist:

THE ESSENTIALS

___ Fly Rods                         ___ Fly Reels                        ___ Fishing Vest

___ Spare Spools                ___ Waders                           ___ Wading Boots   

___ Fanny Pack                    ___ Fishing Vest                   ___ Chest Pack

___ Lucky Hat                       ___ Polarized Sunglasses   ___ Net

___ Digital Camera              ___ Float Tube                      ___ Fishing License

Since I am constantly changing and swapping gear between my bags and vest, I also had to devise a checklist for each.  There have been more than several instances where I have worn my chest-pack for a stream fishing trip and found that I left my dry fly box in my vest or fanny pack.  There have also been dozens of more instances when I have been left fishing without a pair of hemostats or  nippers.  Times like this occur far too often for my liking.  I have also purchased additional fly boxes and spent the time to tie a few of each favorite fly and put them in these boxes.  Having only a small variety is much better than having no variety.  Purchasing several sets of certain things such as nippers and hemostats also might be in your best interest so that you have necessities like these with you all the time.  It’s more money to spend, but you should never be without items like these while out on the water.

THE VEST / FANNY PACK / CHEST PACK

___ Dry Fly Box                     ___ Nymph Box                     ___ Streamer Box

___ Terrestrial Box               ___ Midge Box                      ___ Tippet    

___ Leader(s)                       ___ Nippers                           ___ Hemostats

___ Dry Fly Floatant             ___ Weights                          ___ Hook Sharpener

___ Strike Indicators            ___ Flashlight                        ___ Thermometer

___ Knot Tool                        ___ Leader Straightener      ___ Scissors

___ Knife                               ___ Measuring Tape            ___ Camera

HARDWARE

___ Fly Rods                         ___ Reels                              ___ Spare Spools

___ Waders                           ___ Fleece/Sweat Pants     ___ Wading Boots   

___ Gore-Tex Socks            ___ Wading Belt                   ___ Float Tube

___ Float Tube Pump           ___ Net                                  ___ Float Tube Fins

___ Patch Kits

Terry Chia

AZOD Fly Fishing Editor