I know that New Year is usually the time for resolutions but I don’t think my back can wait until 2021 rolls around for me to break a certain bad habit.

I first became interested in fly fishing during the early 1990’s whilst living in Alice Springs and suffering withdrawal symptoms after being wrenched from my home waters in the “Top End”. My solution was purchasing fishing magazines and I decided that fly fishing could be fun. I purchased a 6wt rod, a reel and, of course, a fly vest that I proceeded to load with every accessory I could find in the catalogues I had obtained from various suppliers. The vest was laden with fly boxes, vials of Gink and Xink (that promptly leaked, leaving impressive stains on the new vest), several nifty retractors with nippers, haemostats, a hook hone, spools of tippet material, several extra leaders in a spiffy leader wallet, a priest with inbuilt gralloching spoon, a net clipped on a D hook at the back and a rain jacket stuffed in a compartment underneath it. If it could be used for fly fishing and fitted into a vest I bought it.

It was a couple of decades before I actually used this equipment and then I discovered that most of that gear I had acquired was rarely required but I carried it nonetheless, just in case. It took a few years but I finally came to the conclusion that wearing a vest that was heavy with “neat stuff” that seldom saw use was not only unnecessary but caused an aching back at the end of a long day.

I’ve decided to gradually wean myself away from too much equipment. A lanyard or shirt pockets might do for a short time on the water but a vest is still a handy way to carry necessary accessories for a longer day’s fishing. I just have to cut down on what I cram into and onto the said vest.

Consider flies – if there are flies and fly boxes on the table when my raffle ticket comes up I can’t resist choosing them. I now have far too many fly boxes with far too many flies. I can hear several members crying “Too many flies? You can’t have too many flies!” Okay, I can’t disagree too strongly because I know that I will still be drawn to those attractive items on the raffle table but I do know that I carry far too many flies. I think it was a former Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser, who said he had hundreds of fly patterns but actually only used about six of them; he was right, there are just a relatively few basic fly patterns and from now on I’ll only carry two fly boxes in the vest. That will save weight. My firm resolution – back to the basics.

Then there are waders. From now I’ll wet wade and only use waders when necessary, I don’t care if they look cool. A net? Do I really need a net on my back at Harty’s Creek? When was the last time I actually used a thermometer? Why do I carry all those extra spools of line? I carry extra leaders and I won’t be required to fabricate one whilst I’m on the water. I’m sure we can all think of unnecessary gear that we carry because of habit rather than necessity. Well, no more!

Like all resolutions this one will probably lapse but if I can cut down on a little weight it will have been worth it. Not the Hat! I’ll still keep the hat – it has saved me from too many clouser hooks.

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