My Fishing Lanyard

THIS IS THE ORVIS LANYARD FULLY EQUIPPED WITH EXTRA TIPPETS, A FLYBOX, AND A DRY FLY FLOATANT BOTTLE AND A PAIR OF HEMOSTATS.

THIS IS THE MORNING STAR LANYARD FITTED WITH EXTRA LEADERS, DRY FLY FLOATANT BOTTLE, SOME HEMOSTATS, A FLY PATCH AND A PAIR OF THE INDISPENSABLE NIPPERS.

HERE'S ANOTHER MORNING STAR LANYARD PICTURE, THE BOTTOM ONE SHOWING A FLY PATCH AND A RETRACTABLE REEL TO ATTTACH ITEMS.

A couple of years ago I discovered this great device and ended up buying the Morning Star Lanyard because I liked the way it felt. I outfitted it with a combination of Orvis and other accessories from other folks.

I don't have a picture of mine, but it's like the one in the middle, except I have:

---a small green Orvis flybox as shown in the top photo.

---my hemostats are the traditional chrome as shown in the top photo.

---I have a small rubber pad that is for straighting leaders.

---I carry a black spool like the one in the middle picture that holds several complete and ready to fish leaders. I use knotless leaders so changing leaders instead of adding (and tying a perfect knot with tiny line in a running stream/creek/river for a new tippet is not worth the trouble. It takes up valuable fishing time and I can repair the other tippet at my leisure.

---a bottle of upside down floatant on a reel. I can pull it and apply it to the fly very easily.

---a pair of nippers with the small protected needle on the end for clearing the eyes of hooks. Nippers are great because unlike fingernail clippers with a nail file, you can carry them on an airplane for a travel fishing trip. They are just simple clippers.

With these items, I can handle most of the fishing issues you might encounter standing in the middle of a moving body of water. I often use it when fishing in a boat, whether canoe, kayak or larger boat. It has most of what I need to change lures or leaders and the hemo's come in handy when trying to get that hook out of that wiggling fish mouth.

They are even handy for the bank or wading fisherman. But I think they really shine when it comes to boat fishing, particularly the smaller craft like canoes and kayaks where mobility is limited.

It's also a lot cooler than a vest. I normally wear a long sleeve UV fishing shirt in the daytime hours, and to add a vest, even a mesh vest over a longsleeve vented fishing shirt is a bit much, and frustrates the whole purpose of the back shirt vent.

I often use this item when I'm not fly fishing. I filled one of the mini green Orvis fly boxes with ultra light spinner baits, jigs and beetle spins for when I'm ultralight fishing, and found that even with two Orvis mini boxes on the lanyard it's still real easy on the neck.

The coated steel cable that Morning Star uses is "starchy", meaning it keeps its shape and doesn't sag under the weight of attachments, even when loaded as I occasionally do when I put both Orvis fly boxes on the lanyard. You can find the Morning Star website here http://www.mslanyards.com/.

Orvis makes a dandy outfit too, and if you're keen on buying a ready made, "RTG" outfit, that's the one I'd go with. "RTG" means READY TO GO. You can find the Orvis lanyard here http://www.orvis.com/store/productchoice.aspx?pf_id=03RC.