COLLECTING THINGS.....

[gdsaltzman]

I would like to start collecting 21 year old blondes, but my wife won't let me... so lately I have been collecting bird skins to ensure I am in soft hackle until I grow old and can't tie.

[skunkaroo]

Always on the lookout for the old Flytyer and have a fair few of them also.

I may be able to help you with this. I was given a collection of older fly fishing mags and there were more than a few with predate the new Flytyer. Why don't you PM a list of what you have (or what you're missing), and I'll see if I can help.

As for me my weakness seems to be hooks. Not necessarily old ones, but just a huge range of usable fly hooks. I love the various specializations and subtle differences in each.

Aaron

[Silver Doctor]

I collect silk line dryers, and a few other things including Sportsman Cigarette backs.You can see the rest of the packages here.http://lornce.wordpress.com/2009/07/09/ ... tes-flies/.

[FliTrap]

Collections?.....
Wow! I started thinking about this and came to realize that this whole thing, of a "hobby" has become a long string of collections for me. The fly tying part, started about 11 years ago for me. Like most, or at least many... It started out as a "box kit"; a gift from my wife who realized that I was needing something else to do (read that: behave and do something productive!). I will say, it has grown into quite the monster, that now measures in "square feet" instead of inches as was the case of that original 9x11 inch box!
Reading and research has, for many years, been an addition substitute for me! So that accounts for the 100 plus old and new reference books that I collected! I've always have been a "gear junkie" of sorts, accounting for all them tools that "make it so much easier"! But then I tended to focus on gathering many "dead animals", as my wife calls them! Parts are parts.... and in my mind, whole parts seamed more logical then many small segments of the critter! I mean, after all, if a 3" x 3" section of beaver hide is good, why, owning a whole hide would make me "richer"! This "collection" includes all the "sub-collections.... you know.... birds, mammals, reptiles, and such! I think at one point, I was worried that I would somehow qualify for a "zoo keeper" licenses. Funny thing: many of the fur and hair items were purchased with some logic that I would be tying a lot of hair wing flies! And I had not yet run across the reference for "scarcely dressed flies"! There was one good thing that came out of that collection.... IMHO.... My wife quit opening my mail!
Now, I realized early on, too, that I would need a supporting peer group that could balance the odds a bit should I need to justify any of this to my wife! So, I got on the Internet and found all kinds of indulging folk who, being collectors themselves, at a safe distance, could verify the "need" that I had for these critters! I mean.... if she could read it on the internet, it must be "true"! So, there is another whole collection of people, sites and references, enough for one of them external hard-drives... you have to back up your catalog, you know!
Its still growing.... I realized how much so, when I recently had to box it all up to accommodate basement repairs. So while I'm at it, I'll be moving across the basement, to a "bigger collecting area", now covering some 12 x 14 feet! Sad thing is that now I'm having to think about a whole new collection, of heavier built furnishings... that "book collection", .... broke through a glass shelf in that floor-to-ceiling display cabinet.... she wasn't happy with that...
There is a "survival tactic" I can share too:
1) Encourage your spouse to maintain her own hobby, collection, or such and never, ever question the cost of her doing so.
2) fill her fly boxes first, even before your own! This is also a great way to use up some of that pink yarn and dubbing in your collection.
3) Keep her outfitted with the best gear you can so she "looks great out there on the river" on those few occasions that she take you up on the side-handed offer to take her fishing.
Have Fun!
FliTrap

[DOUGSDEN]

Thanks Flitrap! That's some interesting stuff you wrote especially about our women-kind!
From the den,
Dougsden