A Story About Leader That's...

I make all of my leader for subsurface fly fishing. Saving hundreds of dollars over a period of time, and discovering creations that cast better than manufactured leaders. As much as my living room could be the next model for a large fishing and hunting sporting goods store, I lack "the bench" that leader makers cherish. "The bench" is where they pre-cut their leader sections, and as they work on and complete them, lay them out.

When I make leaders at home, it's a relaxing couch activity that may also include some extra steps for precision and durability. Unlike the hurried leader construction on the water, that may take only 10-15 minutes. The couch leaders can be works of art that take up to an hour, each. One of the durability steps added to the couch leader is touching all but the tippet knot with a micro-drop of super glue. Thus demanding that I lay these leaders out to be sure the glue sets, instead of immediately coiling and packaging them. No work bench, I'll lay one or two on the fly tying center chair and another few on the foot rest in front of the couch. And so I did, yesterday.

Tasks (inclement weather recreation) completed, my brain flipped like a coin to, "I need to vacuum this floor. There's some errant feathers behind the fly tying desk, and the normal crud that accumulates with life, near the foot rest." I become as intent and goal oriented about cleaning, as I do fishing and it's related tasks. Forgetting altogether, the fly fishing leaders I just laid out.

I swiftly moved the Zorro Super Sucker Vortex Tornado Hurricane vacuum cleaner the fly tying center. "Good-glad I did this-I hear some cut pieces of fly tying material and tag ends of waste fishing line being chewed up. On to the main floor, where a lot of waste fishing line often resides. "Wow"...as the vacuum cleaner sang with an obviously longer piece of fishing line that it couldn't even completely swallow. Leaving a wailing end of the line to beat against the housing at who knows, a few thousand RPM per minute? "I'll have to pick that longer piece of waste line out of the Super Sucker before next use."

Zorro back to the storage space, my mind quickly flipped back to fishing matters. Packaging those leaders I worked on for the better part of three hours. Guiding myself and eyes to the foot rest where a "Brian's leader" rested, I saw nothing. And my thoughts quickly associated the line flapping at the vacuum to having vacuumed up the leader. Laying out a nine foot leader does include about three feet of both ends lying on the carpet. Disappointed at my "duh" moment, I quickly turned my lemon to lemonade. "Well, home made leaders are dirt cheap. And with each one made, ya get get better and faster-faster being desirable on the water. I'll make another-go package the one on the fly tying chair. ...Oh! That what I thought was a short little piece of waste line hitting the Vortex Tornado mouth...was that leader!

Reader, cheer up! Whatever dumb thing you do today or this week, someone out there is doing something dumber!