I have a fairly stressful job and although I enjoy what I do, there are times when I simply need to clear my mind and get away from it all. Unfortunately for most of us, it’s not possible to live the life of a quasi-guide like Dre does and time on the water is all too scarce. Fly-tying is a close second when it comes to putting me on an even keel again and an hour or two behind the vice with a cold beer is all the meditation I need.

All the serenity is however shattered in an instant, when I can’t find a specific thread I’ve just bought or realize that the dog has eaten my new white bucktail. This has a lot to do with the fact that I’m inherently disorganised and messy and leave my shit lying everywhere. Close to 90% of fights with my significantly better half are as a result of me blaming her for ‘losing’ my car keys or hiding my favourite T-shirt only for me to find it a few days later in my car.

When we embarked on a renovation (read self-mutilation) of our new home, I knew that the time had come to custom build a fishing room where everything has its place and that I would never again have to search high and low for materials or kit while my beer gets warm.

I can’t remember who said it or where I read it but one of our fraternity once said that drawers are where fly-tying materials go to die. Drawers are also places where you forget half eaten pieces of biltong and fish moths fatten up on your most expensive capes so in my design I wanted to keep everything as open as possible. To be honest, as weird as it sounds, I also really like staring at my bucktails and deerhair patches instead of having those beauties hidden.

When embarking on this journey a lot of people told me that it wouldn’t be possible to integrate the heathenware (spinning equipment) with the fly-fishing hardware. They said the Stradics and Stellas where too rough to have the Shilton’s and Loomis’ as neighbours. They came from different backgrounds and worlds, how could they possible live together? Much like Danny Zuko and Sandy Ollson, love finds a way and in my design they will be living side by side.

This is just a sneak peek at the design and the progress and I will get into the deets over the next few weeks.

For Part 2, click here.