Lanyards

So I really enjoyed Mikes post about his new “lanyard of power”. I met Mike down at the Glasgow Angling Centre when he was trying to get the materials together to actually start his lanyard project and he was looking forward to it then. Now that he has completed it (or at least went into beta testing phase) I am sure he is pretty chuffed.
Lanyards I think have everything going for them and nothing going for them. Wear one without anything else and you will usually find yourself in a situation where you just don’t have enough “stuff” and when you wear a more conventional waistcoat or chest pack you constantly feel as if you are loaded to the brim with “stuff” you don’t need. When I say “stuff” I am talking about the dozens of miscellaneous products that you seem to carry and only ever use now and again, for example – a priest, floating yarn, spare leaders, spare nylon, desiccant, another fly box, a small flash light, extra batteries for camera- you know just “stuff” like that. It could all be so much simpler if you could just put it all on a lanyard. I always think I get too stressed out about all this other “stuff” and have decided that I should only carry on the occasions I actually think I will need it. Ah- have a think about the logic of that for a moment. OK an explanation – I know that most of the “stuff” will only be needed now and again, so what I should do is wear my lanyard with minimal equipment when I am say – fishing a tiny stream (which is Mikes idea as well)

…and wear my waistcoat when fishing a river that I do not know or when conditions are variable. I suppose you only really need a fully quota of “stuff” if you know for a fact that conditions might change or it is inconvenient to go back to the car and pick it up. Aha- I suppose this is getting to the heart of the matter. Is it because I am now a driver? Before when I walked to the river or got the bus it was never a simple matter of toddling back to the house to pick up something that I needed it was a case of be snookered or improvise. I suppose now it is a case of I can be as minimalist as I want as I know I can just walk to the car to pick up what I need.

I obtained my lanyard last year- I would like to say that I was as dedicated as Mike and made it out of a couple of shoe laces and a bit of spare mono but I went the easy route and bought mine off of eBay. At least I did not buy one of the ones from C&F that cost around £25 – instead I bought a hippy beady one for around a £10 that included postage from the US. I have had it for around a year and never used it- I think I am going to break it in on the first day of the season if the conditions are right. If it is a nice enough day I am going to hit one of the tributaries of the Kelvin – a tiny stream where I just might pick up a tiny trout on a dry fly. I am looking forward to it !