Tying Flies in Maui

I’m writing today’s post from Maui. We’ve been here for over a week now and experienced the second Kona low of intense rain. Lahaina, which is only a few miles away, received over 6 inches of rain in 24 hours! The islands were severely impacted, but we were safe from our second story condo enjoying the warm temperatures even in a rainstorm. But I’d planned on it, so I packed my flytying vise, tools, and materials for tying flies in Maui.

This isn’t really a vacation. We’ve decided to find warm weather in recent years during early months of the year and spend much of the time doing exactly what we’d find ourselves doing at home. And that includes tying flies for my customers.

You might chuckle how I’m able to tie flies like this and it’s certainly challenging. I’m used to my tying table, chair, and lights which make it much easier.

I take fly tying materials on most of our trips, except to Patagonia. There really isn’t any time at all when fishing hard in Argentina or Chile.

I’ve been known to tie flies while travelling in the passenger seat, in our van, or along the river.

So here I am, working on an order of 14 dozen Thunder Creek Sockeye Salmon Fry.

I decided to tie these flies in steps. Notice I’ve completed the bodies. There are a dozen each in five compartments and half a dozen in one. I plan to continue this for awhile. One of the reasons is my Renzetti Traveler vise stopped rotating. I must have inadvertently had a piece of mylar tinsel break off and seize the rotary head.

Here is an image of a completed fly. I’ll see how many I can complete in the remaining days on Maui.

As I mentioned above, Maui has seen a lot of rain. Here is a catamaran beached on the sand close to a canal entering the ocean.

Muddy waters

Canal running high.

Enjoy…go fish!