Nymph Box

Foxgap239

Foxgap239

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Jun 29, 2011
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My good friend troutpoop has convinced me of the virtues of carrying less fly boxes than the 65 I now carry (exaggeration but not by much). I bought a couple of those ultra thin boxes and I'm deciding on the flies to put in then. I currently have BH PT's sizes 12 to 20 and will now work on Prince Nymphs in the same sizes. I have Inchworms (you guys call them green weenies but mine use different material and no loop), scuds, cress bugs, honey bugs and sunken beetles.

What other go to flies would you guys include?
 
Fox, how about Copper John 12-18 & Zebra midge 18-22.
Coughlin
 
Careful, Fox. The numbers recommended for species-specific patterns could have someone carrying a lot of nymphs in addition to what you have already mentioned.

Much has to do with what streams you fish and when you fish them. Also, there's a question of being prepared for a spur-of-the-moment invitation to a stream you've only heard about but haven't yet fished.

Let's see, there's all of these mayflies, caddisflies, stoneflies, midges...

So many flies to consider ;-)
 
I would add some caddis nymphs, I like Czech nymphs and the "rocked out" caddis (basically a bh czech nymph) for free-living caddis and a beadhead Crunchy Caddis for cased larvae. I'd also add a few stonefly patterns.
 
Coughlin, good point. This box will be my Non- midge box. We haven't gotten to the midge box yet! The ones you mentioned are must haves there though.

Lefty, I'm looking for ideas "all purpose" nymphs. Sorry I forgot to mention that.

Snipe, good point on caddis and stones!
 
Copper John and Hares Ear.

Although really, how much difference is there between the PT, Prince and CJ? not a lot. I carry PT and CJ.

And once you open the pandora's box of copper johns where do you stop when considering wire color and bead color and legs or no legs.
 
for a couple of years I tried to tie a few of every size, every specie, bead heads, non-bead heads, natural looking, flashbacks, etc, etc, for every situation I might encounter. I, like you, ended up carry a ton of fly boxes everywhere.

Long short...I have a lot of nymphs that I have never fished and probably never will. Its mostly hare's ears and PTs for me anymore. Although, I just tied a batch of dubbed Baetis nymphs to specifically match the naturals, but I'll use them this March.
 
The biggest issue most people have when it comes to stocking their fly boxes is they include lots of seasonal and/or stream specific flies that aren’t used 70% of the time and they also carry 8 of each size. I know I was guilty of it. I now carry 6 small boxes each stocked with 2 sizes of standard flies that work year round and in any stream. These boxes are streamers, nymphs/wets, dries, midge, scuds and junk flies and there’s extra room in each. I then carry all replenishment flies plus season/stream specific flies in large plastic compartment trays that I keep in my trunk and I add any necessary flies streamside (I will add a small 7th box in the summer for terrestrials). No sense carrying a box full of March Brown, Iso and Green Drake patterns out of season or on streams that don’t have these insects. The biggest thing I would say is cut back on the number of sizes you carry on the stream and simply keep all replacement and non-essential flies in a separate box in your trunk.
 
march brown nymph 12-16 tmc200r or similar,and muskrat nymph12-16,some basic bwo nymphs18-22(may want to put in midge box)yellow stone 12-16, black stone 12-16 for spring to fall,(olive ,rust, and natural) hares ears 12-18, copper john 12-18 sulpher nymph (yellow hares ear basically with wooduck tail)caddis ,scud ,crestbug (yea im redoing my box and this is what im going with along with what you have above
 
GreenWeenie wrote:
The biggest issue most people have when it comes to stocking their fly boxes is they include lots of seasonal and/or stream specific flies that aren’t used 70% of the time and they also carry 8 of each size. I know I was guilty of it. I now carry 6 small boxes each stocked with 2 sizes of standard flies that work year round and in any stream. These boxes are streamers, nymphs/wets, dries, midge, scuds and junk flies and there’s extra room in each. I then carry all replenishment flies plus season/stream specific flies in large plastic compartment trays that I keep in my trunk and I add any necessary flies streamside (I will add a small 7th box in the summer for terrestrials). No sense carrying a box full of March Brown, Iso and Green Drake patterns out of season or on streams that don’t have these insects. The biggest thing I would say is cut back on the number of sizes you carry on the stream and simply keep all replacement and non-essential flies in a separate box in your trunk.

GW, you hit exactly where I am and where I want to be. I want 1 midge nymph box and one other nymph box as "always have" boxes. I'll carry 2 or 3 of each with spares in a refill box. I'll carry specific hatch related flies when appropriate. I do think I may want to cancel the Princes in lieu of HE though. Good call out by someone there.
 
I tend to organize my boxes by the type of stream I use them on. I have a small stream/Brookie box, a Limestoner box, a hatch chaser box, and then one, larger “little bit of everything” box. Depending on the type of stream I’m on I usually only have to carry one box, two at most. There are some common flies in all the boxes (Buggers, Adams, Caddis, etc), but then each box branches out and specializes for what I otherwise use most often on those streams. As such I don’t really have a “nymph” box, but if I did, I’d probably try to fill it like this…this tries to avoid duplication (as much as possible anyway), but still cover all the basics fairly well.

Both Standard and BH:
Generic Brown Nymph of Choice, 12-18 – PT or HE probably
Generic Olive Nymph of Choice, 12-18 – PT or HE probably
Attractor Nymph of Choice, 12-18 – Prince or CJ probably
Caddis Pattern of Choice, 14-18 – Brown/Olive/White
Emerger Pattern of Choice, 14-18
Dark Stonefly, 10-16
Golden Stonefly, 8-12

Standard (non BH) only:
Baetis Nymph, 16-20
Sulphur Nymph, 16-18

Wets:
Soft Hackles, 14-16 - Brown/Olive/Orange
Royal Coachman, 12 or 14
Picket Pinn, 12 or 14 – Yes, I’m a dork.

Junk:
Green Weenie, 12 or 14
BH SJW, 12 or 14 – Pink/Red/Brown

If you wanted to throw in the typical Limestoner subsurface bugs, along with midges, you could but I tend to group those separately.

Cool thread...lots of different ideas and ways to organize your flies. I like these kind of discussions.
 
I'm doing a mayfly box, a stone fly box, and a caddis larva box..mayfly box will hold 550 flies, hares ear pt's, grays, olives, tan, brown, black, and a few white shedding flys.
 
Here is my nymph box
Hares ear
Prince nymph
Pheasant tail
Walts Worm
Scuds
Cress bugs
Weenies/Honey Bugs
Sucker Spawn
San Juan Worms
Eggs



I tie these flies in a few different colors with and without beads, and some with soft hackle.

Yes I rotate in a few seasonal nymphs (sulfurs, trico, paralep nymphs etc)

And I do as you mentioned I carry
1 large fly dry box
1 caddis / generic fly box
1 small dry / midge box
1 streamer box
1 nymph/ junk box
1 midge box
1 hopper, cricket, summer box

and I rotate seasonal hatches in and out as I expect to find them

But for crying out loud they are stupid fish. Don't treat them as anything else.
 
Pheasant tails 12-18 BH, non BH, flashback, non FB
Prince nymph 14-18
Hares ear 12-18 BH/non BH
A few Stones 12-16
Copper john 16-18 (copper, olive, red)
Two Bit Hooker 14-20 (red, black, white, tan, olive)
Eagans Rainbow Warrior 14-20
Czech nymphs 12-16 (rarely use them)
 
I carry the following nymph boxes: Most of these are C&F style

Large weighted- stones, rubber legs, condom flies
Mid sized - hares ear, PT, Copper John, Walt's Worms
Scud and Sow Bug Box
Egg Box- small round 4 compartment container
Polish Woven and Czech Nymphs
Midge -- JuJu Bees, String Thing, Mercuries
Small round container of Barr's Emergers
Caddis box
Soft Hackle box

Sometimes they all go along for the ride other times a few stay in the car. I have tried to consolidate but flies are like your children; you should never have to pick one over the other.
 
Ok, Mush, gotta have the dimensions (sic) of the two bit hooker :)
Coughlin
 
I lack organization other than
1) Extra large streamer box
2) Junk fly box (eggs, SJs, Eggi Juans, Weenies)
3) All inclusive dry box (from sz 8 Hoppers to sz 22 griffiths gnats)
4) Nymph/Wet/Softhackle Midge box. (HEs,PTs, Prince, CJs, Stones, Caddis etc etc etc
would like to eventually get some better organization, running out of time before spring!!!
 
wish i knew how you manage to keep all these boxes with you on the stream. I carry 1 small streamer box, I medium w/flip nymph box and 1 large dry boz and my chest pack is stuffed. yes, i do carry the accessories in this pack too
 
Except for some specialty boxes this is average for my vest; 28 boxes (bwo box is missing)
 

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What for vest do you have that you can carry 28 boxes in?
 
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