Most anglers evolve over time. The evolution is what keeps us going. There is always a new fish to chase, a river to see, a way to fish, and it’s impossible to do it all. As you make the journey as a fly angler, so does your fly collection. Most start off with that one fly box, it has everything you need because it has EVERY fly you own. It’s all packaged up in one tight little bundle of organized joy. If you need a fly, you know right where to find it. It’s in that one fly box.
The problem arises when your fly collection grows beyond your control. You need two boxes, three, four, a big box, a slim box, sometimes no box at all. After a while you ask yourself, what the $@#! do I do with all of my flies? Of course, every modern angler goes right to Google for an answer. So then what do you find on the world wide web? Well, you find that everyone else has the same problem as you and nobody has a good solution to fly organization. Ok then, so what do you do about your problem? The honest answer is I have no clue what to do. Ask any good angler how they organize their flies and they will all have a different answer. Ask all those same folks that question while in the same room and all you get is an argument.
Cast your vote in the poll below and leave a comment about how you organize your trout flies. Remeber, we are only talking trout flies here. I know most everyone fishes for different species of fish, but in Montana we love trout!
[polldaddy poll=7821040]
Reblogged this on sueshan123blog.
I mostly stack my trout flies by type. Dries, wet, streamers and nymph in their own box. Althought, I have started to play with that order this winter. I have a compartments fly box for the regular dries and i placed all the parachute in a foam box since it wont hurt the hackle. I also have a different fly box for my bucktail streamers and an other one for the woolly bugger. I use a lot of muddler so I even have a small box filled with only different muddlers. It’s endless! Just play with it.
I think the problem we have as fly fisherman is that we want to bring all of are flies at all time. Keeping a stash at home does not hurt! Just refilled your fly box as you go during summer.
Hope I brought some valuable tricks!
Gab from A Trout Ate My Homework
Thanks for the input! I enjoy reading your blog as well. Your comment about trying to bring all your flies with you at all times is totally true. I have been leaning more towards having them all stored at home in larger boxes(organized however you want) and then filling smaller boxes for a trip or hatch. Only taking what I need for the time and then replenishing when I get home.
I started running into storage issues about 2 years into fly tying, while still in college. I filled up 5 boxes and decided it was absurd to keep spending that much money to store flies that i don’t even plan on taking to the river.
First, I tried the sauce cups pictured above (ran into problems because it I had to sort everything carefully and pulling the right fly out of a cup labeled mayfly variants was bitch. Not to mention my roommate utilizing the cups for jello shots).
Next, I moved onto using clear plastic boxes with compartments from the craft store, that I now use to store hooks, beads, eyes, etc. Still I wanted to be able to see each individual fly so didn’t have to sort through 30 flies to find the few I wanted for the trip to the river.
Finally, I found the method I now employ. I was digging through my parents storage unit and found a large pushpin board. I started organizing all my flies on the board, making the process of selecting flies for a trip infinitely faster. I no longer use the corkboard but now use thin sheeting of sticky backed foam. My current residence has a walk-in closet that I have lined with the stuff to house flies(the shelves are covered with the foam and so is the back wall), along with the rest of the stuff I have continuously drained my bank account to acquire. I like to imagine its a batcave for fishing or a gigantic fly box.
Would this work for everyone? Probably not. My girlfriend would shit a brick if she was living with me and saw it. But its pretty cheap and super efficient for now.
Also, heres the link to the type of foam I used if anyone is interesting.
http://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/9-x-12-black-sticky-back-eva-foam-sheet-2mm-323907/