Straw Wars

Small chunks of “Bubble Tea” straws are great for wrangling unruly materials while tying as well as in a fly box.

Straw Wars Everyone hates plastic straws these days. I must admit I have fully gotten behind this. I like to do what I can to cut down on plastics. I inevitably end up using some Ziplocs and grocery bags. I try to be more responsible with the grocery bags, but my memory fails me. I've heard that some stores will no longer provide plastic bags, which I think is honourable. After hearing people talk about plastic straws, I do recall seeing lots along beaches in the tropics and during Bow River cleanups, another big culprit is cigar tips. You see tons along the Bow River, as well as water bottle caps and cigarette butts.

These reverse Tied “Sparkle Daggers” benefit from using the straw pieces.

Anyway, I've gotten off track. I feel terrible, but I have a fantastic use of "bubble tea" straws. I use them to wrangle unruly materials on my flies. It works well with marabous and flashabou reverse tied flies and keeps them a little more manageable without totally squashing them as you would if you used a regular pencil-type drinking straw. I cut each straw into 12-14 pieces and they a re-usable. This is a great little hack to keep your boxes a little tidier.

Keeps your boxes a little tidier.