There’s one in every home. Whether it’s in the kitchen, the garage, or the laundry room, we all have … a junk drawer. It’s a catch all for things we think we might need one day (but never do), yet miraculously becomes a lifeline in those odd situations we never thought we’d face: “Honey, can you see if we have a ______ in the junk drawer?”
Who knew I owned a thimble or a staple remover? I didn’t until I needed it. And where is the first place I looked? It’s all been quietly fostered by my humble junk drawer.
We have one in daily life, so why not our fly fishing life? Typically, when I sit down to tie flies I have a clear mission. I have a couple of patterns in mind and commit to tying at least a dozen of each. But sometimes, I just like to let my mind roam and experiment. When I do, many of these flies won’t make it into my main box because they didn’t turn out the way I wanted them to or they weren’t “perfect”. In those cases, guess where they go?
Don’t get me wrong, the flies are perfectly fishable. They’re just not up to my standards. I don’t want to waste the time and materials I put into them, so the junk drawer fly box is the perfect place for them to go. Better for them to be in purgatory than in hell, right?
When deciding on which kind of box to use, I specifically chose a box with no compartments, clips, slotted foam, magnets or any other type of “system”. After all, the junk drawer we desperately turn to and trust as much as MacGyver to get us out of a jam doesn’t have any organization. It’s against the junk drawer code. So I went with a simple Altoids tin. Everything just gets thrown in willy nilly.
There’s a little bit of everything in this box–streamers, sakasa kebari, nymphs, dry flies … you name it. With such a hodgepodge, I’d feel confident gunning for trout, bass, or panfish despite their flaws. So it’s worth carrying just in case I find myself in a situation where my main box fails me (or if I just want to experiment).
While the box could prove indispensable one day, I also consider it disposable and possibly charitable. So I wrote a little inscription on the back in case I lose it on the stream …
I thought it might a fun challenge to go out one day and only carry the junk drawer just to see what happens. Tenkara is all about testing our skills, right? And there is no greater test of skill than limitation.
So that’s my junk drawer. What’s in yours?
Always good for our soul to share.
Sometimes, what we consider to be ‘lesser than’ can be pretty good in regards to the discarded flies. Recently, i pulled a guitar out of my basement that was what i considered to be ‘lesser than’. I put new strings on it and was i in for a surprise! The tone and volumne was wonderful on this very inexpensive model. How often do we undersell ourselves as ‘lesser than’ when truly we are ‘just right’.
Van
I was excited to get your email message informing me that there was some new flavored brain candy. Tasty. Makes me smile. Thanks.
Love the pay it forward concept and practice. Marvelous. Side note: sometimes I think my whole study is a junk drawer….but at least I know where everything is. Sorta’. Kinda’.
As always, your articles are a great read. I think my junk flybox is my flytying table. Every now and then I find a fly that I tied wondering if it would entice a wild brown trout. Since reading your post, I’ll go up and grab a couple of the virgin flies and take them with me today!.
Nice to hear from you again Jason.
If you’re ever in South Florida take your junk fly box and tenkara rod out to fish for Mayan cichlids, an invasive species that unfortunately is eliminating native sunfish but undoubtedly is here to stay. One reason the state probably can’t eradicate the Mayans is that fishermen love them. About the size of a big bluegill they are brilliantly colored, very tasty and fight so hard that Florida anglers have nicknamed them “atomic sunfish.” After my first panfish outing with a tenkara rod in the Everglades I bought a second, stiffer rod so I can have a better chance of landing Mayans.
Hi Eiruc, I’ll have to look them up. I don’t think I’ve seen them before.
I was excited to get your email message informing me that there was some new flavored brain candy. Tasty. Makes me smile. Thanks.
Thanks! Yeah, I was reluctant do do the email notification thing again because it was difficult to avoid conflicts with other code on my site but so many people kept asking me about it I decided to give it another whirl. So far, it seems like people like it.
Great article. As a fly tyer I have more then enough flies to deal with. I think I’ll bring a box along to leave for someone to find. Hopefully you got something going here
Kevin E