Fly Line Management       Imagine if you will, waiting the better part of the morning for your chance to deliver a Fly to a Tarpon. The fishing's been slow, you're getting bored when out of nowhere the perfect school of fish appears and is heading your way. You get the boat in position, make two false casts and shoot the line. When all of a sudden something unholy happens, your fly stops in mid air and lands woefully short of its target. You look down to discover your Fly line is wrapped around the cooler handle and your only opportunity of the day has been blown. Or worse yet, the Fly does get there; you hook that Tarpon and find a knot in your line that looks like an Ospreys nest. You frantically try to get it undone; in the meantime the fish is picking up speed and getting ready to leave the county. At this point all you can do is grab the line and bust the tippet or risk having even guide ripped off your rod.       If you've Fly-Fished for any length of time it didn't take much of an imagination to picture these scenarios. Now, it may not have been the handle of the cooler, or the knot may have been a little smaller, but something similar to this has happened to you. In the world of Fly-Fishing the one thing that may be most important may also be the thing that is most overlooked and that is Fly line management. The art of good Fly line management is simple to define, do whatever it takes to keep your line free of tangles and preventing it from getting snagged on anything. Like I said, defining it's the easy part, actually getting done is where the fun begins.       Let's start by trying to get rid of most of the snags in your boat. Flush Mounted Push Pole holders are the ticket, they pop-up when you need them and when you don't they lie flat and out of the way. Same goes for a Pop-up Bow Cleat, it's probably more important then the Push Pole holders because almost everyone Fly-Fishes from the Bow and without one these life would be miserable. Make sure the cooler is out of the way, as mentioned earlier handles, latches, and hinges from these things have a way of grabbing your Fly line at the most inopportune moments. You can never have enough spare rods and reels in the boat, but they're notorious for getting in the way so store them on the opposite side of where you're casting. Take your shoes off, shoelaces have been known to get twisted in Fly line; it's also easier to tell if you're stepping on the line if you're bare footed. And, if you have a Bow Mounted Trolling Motor, drape a damp beach towel over it to eliminate any problems it might cause.       Keeping the Fly line free of tangles and knots is a little more difficult because you're dealing with Mother Nature. These problems are mainly caused by the wind blowing the Fly line all over the place and getting the running portion of the line inter-twined with the shooting portion of the line. One thing you can do to help minimize these problems is to use a Stripping Basket to collect your Fly line. They sell some commercially but for under 20 bucks you can make one that works just fine. Take a Rubbermaid hamper and pour 20 lbs. of ready mix concrete in the bottom of it. Once the concrete sets up place a piece of carpeting over it, stick some non-skid tape to the bottom of the hamper and you're ready to go. If you don't like Stripping Baskets try placing a piece of carpeting on the floor of the cockpit and strip your Fly line onto it. Either one of these are definitely better than a fiberglass floor when it come to keep your Fly line in place. And that's the secret, if you can keep your Fly line from being flung about the boat it should uncoil in the opposite order in which it was stacked thus allowing it to run though the guides tangle-free.       Good Fly line management is nothing more than being properly prepared, which of course is the most important part of any type of fishing. If all the prep work is done the way it should be, you can then fully concentrate on getting your fly to that fish, making it eat, and getting on the reel as quick as possible. Now once you're hooked-up and the fight is on a whole new set of problems arise, but these are the kind of problems we all love to have. Back