New Fly Guy – Fly Boxes

When you are a new fly guy, the tendency is to overspend and get one of everything.  Since that included a whole bunch of flies, I immediately assumed a large box was better.  There are a thousand fly choices that cry out to be matched to a hatch… somewhere… and all need a home.

So, I bought the large box shown to hold my newly purchased treasures.  It did not take long to realize this was a mistake if you intend to carry this on the stream.  If you use a large box like this to store flies back at home, it works just fine.  However, I found that it was far too large to fit comfortably in my vest.  It would bulge in the pocket, make the vest tight and was awkward to remove.  I also figured out that I wanted to separate my flies into at least three batches:

1. Nymphs and wet flies
2. Streamers
3. Dry flies

The key logic as a new guy is that if I keep them in different places, I will not mix them up.  I know fly identification comes as second nature to experienced trout hunters, but this is quite intimidating to us newbies.

My solution was to buy three of the smaller box shown. I picked it up at Walmart for around 5 bucks and it is plenty big enough to hold what I need to take on a trip. 

I leave the larger box in the truck in case I have an urge to go back and get that one fly that I did not choose to haul with me.  So far, that urge has not hit.

The other thing about this is that when you lose a box of flies, you do not lose your entire stash.  If anyone finds a large skinny box of nymphs on the South Fork of the Piney, let me know – I’ll pay to have them returned.  Oh – and let’s not forget the other small box of terrestrials that I think I lost over on Big Hunting Creek.

I’ve come up with a solution for that problem that I will discuss in a future post.

This thing is huge!  It’s fat and long and sports both the foam as well as small compartments.

Here’s the comparison to the smaller box.  The smaller one is alot easier to stuff in a pocket.