Dad's Vise

This started out in short-lined stanzas but I think it’s better as a Haibun with so much descriptive material. This is for “Moss Piglet,” theme issue: Tools. I have GREAT photos to go of his lures that are works of art. My other photos are colorful, I couldn’t add more than one image.

Dad’s Vise

The cigar-sized metal barrel narrowed to a silver cone at one end with serrated grooves. This miniature jaw could hold the smallest fish hook for tying handmade flies.

Lock-cammed to another rod and tilted toward Dad, it was C-clamped to an old door laid across two file cabinets in the basement rec room. After a long day at the office, he’d unwind at home after dinner, settling at his makeshift bench.

Shoeboxes, light as air, held feathers, while others, smelling of mothballs, were stuffed with deer tails dyed red, yellow, white, and black, stacked next to him. Wooden spools of silver and gold thread lined up like soldiers across the bench.

With precision, he’d snip strands from a bucktail, select a feather, and secure a fish hook in the vise’s teeth. He'd pinch a tuft of fur, and add a feather to the shaft of the hook, winding metallic thread around and around in stripes to mimic a fly hatch or minnow. Half-hitches fastened the thread, he trimmed the fur to shape the lure, and on some lures, added a coat of nail polish on one end to finish it. He created Digger-Jiggers, Spinners, Poppers, and every size Mayfly to match the hatch, including Nymphs.

He took art classes to learn sketching and designed catalogs of his lures, selling them to fishermen around the world.

His vise a virtue
each hand-tied lure
a catch of art.