New Bag!

I don't know if you know this, but I get asked to do a lot of fly tying demonstrations. And when nobody asks me, I have no qualms about begging people to let me do fly tying demonstrations. And not only that, but I also teach a lot of fly tying classes all over the Seven Counties of the Greater Minneapolis and St. Paul Metropolitan Area. And sometimes I even tie flies at my real job when I am supposed to be doing real work, not that I will ever admit to that if my bosses ask me...

Ratty old Wilson gym bag.

In other words, I need to haul my fly tying stuff around from place to place, and then back to the original place, sometimes with another place thrown in for good measure, quite often. And for the past 20 years or so, I have been hauling it all in the same ratty Wilson brand gym bag. When I started doing the hauling, it was the only empty bag I could find. It was empty because, surprise, I rarely went to the gym. I still rarely go to the gym, so the Wilson bag has remained as my main fly tying bag this whole time. But now that ratty Wilson gym bag has become even rattier: the straps are fraying; the nylon fabric has holes in it; and worst of all the zippers are both broken, so there is no way to close it up and keep prying eyes out of my goodies.

Broken zipper

Another problem is that it's not big enough to carry all the tool sets that I let my students use in my classes, so I oftentimes have to use one of the bags that our family members have collected from free handouts throughout the years. The most recent one that I have been using is from the Regions Hospital Burn Center, which I am very grateful to say none of us have ever been to. It is a nice bag, though...

All this is to say that I decided it was time for me to get a new bag. So I did. I wanted a larger bag than I had, so that I could haul all of my stuff, including the 8 or so tool sets for my students, all of my tools, my vise, my lamp, and whatever materials I may need to tie whatever I flies I need to tie. I looked at local garage sales, I looked on craigslist, I looked on ebay, and I finally found one that seemed to fit the bill on facebook Marketplace. It's a big green duffel bag that is actually a little bigger than I was thinking, but now that I have it, it seems like it will be perfect.

New big, green duffel bag.

It's got plenty of room for all of my tools, there is a big area for as many materials as I can fit, and I can even fit all of the student tool sets in the two spacious zippered pockets on the ends. There are even other pockets that could hold my lunch, my phone, or even a small mammal, not that I have a reason to carry one of those around. Usually.

Look, it holds all of my stuff! With room to spare!

I know this isn't really all that exciting for most of you, but I am super pumped about my new fly tying bag. If you see me carrying it anywhere, you might want to follow me. A fun fly tying demonstration or fly tying class might be about to happen.