Two new brilliant, Inexpensive, and incredibly useful fly-fishing products I wish I’d thought up, because everyone will want to own them.
By Kirk Deeter
With the launch of Flylab (www.flylab.fish), we’ve been zeroing in on a lot of new, eye-catching, fly-fishing products. Here are two quick-hits that immediately stand out:
The Fly Banjo
(flybanjo.com, 2 for $10)
Connecting a fly to a rubber band, pulling the band taut, and giving it a few plucks to dry off the fly, is an age-old hack that works. (Just like pulling a weedy tippet or leader taught and plucking it to clear off the gunk.) But it doesn’t take long for that rubber band to rot and break.
In steps the newly-introduced, made-of-silicon “Fly Banjo.” Anchor one end to something like a pack or vest; hang your fly on a loop on the opposite end; pull it taut, pluck it a few times, and your fly is drier than when you mush it in a chamois cloth or even stick it in desiccant powder. It especially works well with hard with hard-to-dry CDC flies you shouldn’t dope up in the first place.
I’m just starting to use these, so I cannot vouch for durability yet, but two guides I know have been using them for over a year, which is more than plenty to justify the product.
Cling Fishing Products Mag Grab
(clingfishing.com; $19.99)
Using magnets as a fly patch—or to hold tools, keep flaps or pockets closed, and so on—is another old hack that’s been around for as long or longer than people have used nail clippers for nippers or a home brew of hand lotion and lighter fluid as fly floatant.
But the folks at Cling Fishing are onto something, because they’re able to laser-engrave them in a matter of minutes. They come with pretty designs like mayflies and fish heads, but looking down the road, what shop, what nonprofit, affinity group of other type of fish-related business won’t want their logo planted on these things?
The rare earth magnets are exceptionally powerful, so they stay affixed to whatever you stick them on (the base goes on one side, the magnet/holder on the other of relatively thin material, like any pack, strap, vest, even Filson tin cloth). At $20, they’re impulse buys, gifts like stocking stuffers, promotional premiums, or whatever you want them to be.
