For many fly fishermen — even those who fish through it — winter is a time when we reconsider our gear and, having fell victim to a series of good sales, we restock for the new season. There are new lines to be cast. New rods to be flexed. The risk of all of this, of course, is that should you not test this gear on the water, instead of upon the excitable waters of your mind, then you could easily find yourself on a riverbank, hours from a store, with very expensive pieces of monofilament and graphite who are about as well-matched as a 12 year old to his first cigar.