For anglers like us, the most meaningful holiday gifts are fish-related. You’ll smile and give thanks for the pajama pants you just received. The collection of pajama pants is now at 5, hooray!
But deep down inside you were hoping for that stainless-steel Brook Trout Flask.
Remember last May, after the huge Hendrickson spinner fall? You tied up a dozen spinners in preparation for that night, and perfected the egg sac with Neon Chartreuse Uni-floss on each fly.
The weather was perfect, and the fishing was legendary, but you had no way to toast to your success. Don’t let that happen again. The beautiful brook trout print was designed by Bern Sundell, a Montana-based fly angler and artist.
An angler’s ultimate hope is to get a gift that’s something they want but wouldn’t buy themselves. These gifts are what they secretly covet and desire.
Enter the Simms Guide Pliers
These babies have it all: stainless-steel jaws for removing any hook from any fish's mouth and tungsten carbide cutting blades for quickly cutting leaders and tippet. That circular hole is there for a reason: put your index finger in there when you are using the pliers and it provides extra grasp to ensure you won’t drop them, but if you do drop them, fret not as the utility leash is included (and sold separately should you need another one). The finger hole also allows an angler to utilize the beveled notch to tighten up bimini twists and other knots.
A bottle opener rounds out the pliers for times when your brook trout flask isn’t within reach.
A second option in the tool category is the Abel nippers. The Abel Nippers features two jaws with knife grade steel cutting blades that cleanly snip 8X tippet, heavy leader material, and even braided backing. Overbuilt? Yes. Overkill? Definitely not.
Pair these nippers with a lanyard and you will be a holiday hero for the angler in your life.
For anglers, clothes can also fall into that category of things we want but wouldn’t buy ourselves. The value in the Patagonia Snap Dry Shirt and Early Rise Snap Shirt are two-fold: streamside-function and fashionable out on the streets.
Too often us anglers are solely focused on the streamside aspect (maybe rightfully so). The fabric of the snap shirt is stretchy and wind resistanct. The Early rise is made of soft 100% recycled polyester microfleece. Both shirts have front pockets for small fly boxes.
One of the great aspects of fly fishing is the complexity of the sport. Often the smallest adjustments can yield great results. Switch from a size 16 to a size 18 blue wing olive and suddenly the river is teeming with trout. Run out of the right size tippet material and the opposite happens – the river becomes void of fish. The fine details count in fly fishing, and every tool serves a specific purpose. Getting things exactly right is critical to success on the water. If this sounds like someone you know, play it safe and guarantee a win with a Motor City Anglers gift card.
What if you just read through our favorite gift ideas, but none of them are perfect? Well we’ve got one more idea and it’s not like the ones above.
How cool is that? You can donate in someone’s name to any of the environmental groups and Patagonia will match it. There are 5 categories to choose from: Biodiversity, Climate, Communities, Land and Water. Our top choice is the Huron Rivershed Watershed Council since it’s in our back yard, but in this case you literally can’t go wrong.
Happy Holiday,
Motor City Anglers
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