Falling stock, taking stock, and stocking up...

I've had an excess of free time today - normally the perfect excuse to throw the waders on and do some trout stalking.  On days like this, however, I decided to take some time to simply breathe.  Samantha (the cat) has been acting up lately and doesn't seem to be feeling all that well, and with Arnie still somewhat on the mend from an unpleasant procedure on his backside, I decided to stay close.

I watched - using the term loosely - some news coverage earlier and saw something I'd never seen before - a complete Wall Street panic, with the Dow dropping so rapidly that commentators speculated about a potential temporary stop in trading.  It was dramatic - irrelevant to me, but I imagine pretty harrowing for the tycoons in the financial world.  At one point the index was down by over 1000 points, and finished at -347 or so.  It's mostly Greek to me, and as it turns out was mostly Greek to everyone.  The Greeks are rioting in the streets at the idea of having to tighten their spending belts a bit in order to qualify for a loan from the EU and avoid bankruptcy, and the working folks didn't like the government's legislative response.  It was fascinating to watch the ticker drop by the second.

Mostly though, I took stock of my rapidly declining fly boxes and decided to do some tying.  I've made a commitment this season to fish only what I tie myself.  That's almost as scary as watching the Dow drop 1000 points.

I'm not terribly worried about catching trout - at this point I can tie a few patterns that are prevalent on the Poudre and the Thompson with enough proficiency to catch fish.  I'm more worried about being able to tie bugs for the other waters that I plan to visit this summer.

I worked on a bunch today.  I re-stocked some BWOs and tied some more cream-colored pale duns.  That will take care of the local waters, but my hope is to branch out and fish some streams in North Park (South Platte, Illinois, Michigan rivers), and return to the White River near Meeker.  I'll have to get into tying Tricos and some different nymphs.  Fortunately, YouTube has some great tutorials.

I'm happier with today's results - I think I'm getting the hang of some basic patterns, but the proof will be on the water.