Lanyard massacre

After my trip to the Czech Republic, I came up with the idea to make our own lanyards at our fly fishing club. These ' minimalist-vests' have been around for about 5 years now and they are getting more and more popular as a vest replacement. Sometimes it's just too hot for a fully loaded vest or just plain awkward (like on the bonefish flats). All you need are a clipper, a thermostat and some spools of tippet-material. Maybe a bottle of fly floatant. Fly boxes can go in the shirt pockets. Ready to fish!

Sure, you can buy them at your fly shop (like the one in the middle from Mountain River Lanyards), but it's quite easy to make one yourself. And it's a lot of fun too! We sure had a ton of fun at the club while making our lanyards. Ever seen 25 grown ups fumbling with beads and screaming for another colored bead?

Okay, what do we need to make a lanyard? About 1 meter of 3 mm rope (I bought them at the local outdoors shop), about 30 cm of 2 mm rope, lots of colorful wooden beads (do check with the size of the hole needed to get the rope through!), a clip (snap it to your shirt to prevent the lanyard from dangling), some large swivels, a piece of PVC tube, a piece of foam rubber tube and a line stopper. Check out the picture to see what the items are.

Some details you need to take a closer look at are the tippet spool holder, the line stopper (to get rid of the lanyard if you get caught with your lanyard in a dangerous situation), the collar tube to cushion the load on your neck and the foam rubber tubes to let your flies dry. Put 2-3 beads between each swivel to avoid the tools from getting tangled.

All you need to make your own lanyard is to call up some buddies, beverages and general tools like a scissors. To make your own personal version choose different style of wooden beads in different patterns.