fly box organization for trout flies

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boychick

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Feb 15, 2010
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My fly boxes are a mess and I have way too many boxes to carry right now. I'm looking to get more organized and minimize the number of boxes I need to carry for a day of fishing.

Initially, I carried a box of dry flies, a box of nymphs and a box of streamers. Now I have a box for each hatch with nymph, emerger, duns and spinners, plus general nymph box and streamers. I wind up with boxes of flies that might hatch, but never do and overload the pack; it's getting out of hand.

I have some ideas of my own, but I thought I'd throw it out there to see what you guys do to organize fly boxes and how many you carry.

Thanks for the suggestions!
 
I kind of went through the same thing a few years ago. Part of it is being honest with yourself and paring down the flies you don’t use. If you haven’t used a pattern in a few years, or don’t have confidence enough in it to use it, it probably doesn’t need a spot in your boxes. (I could probably stand to do this again now, honestly.)

From there, my goal was to only carry one fly box, or at most two, at any one time. I basically set things up based on what kind of stream I’d be on and the fishing I’d be doing, as opposed to organizing them by fly or bug type. Here’s what I ended up with, and am generally still happy with now a few years later:

1. Trout Box – Large box with a little bit of everything in it. Dries, Nymphs, Streamers, Terrestrials. A lot of general attractor patterns that I use a lot (Adams, EHC's, Wulff's), but also has a decent supply of the big common PA hatches you run into…Quills/Hendricksons, MB’s, Sulphers, SD’s, GD’s, etc.

2. Brookie/Small Stream Box – Small box with mainly general attractor dries for Brookie streams, and a few small streamers and general nymphs. This is also the box I take backpack camping, so I have a few big streamers and popper type flies in there for night fishing too.

3. WW/Bass Box – Large box with bigger streamers and poppers for WW fishing. A few big nymphs and big dries for the common WW hatches…Whiteflies, SD’s, Hex’s, etc.

^ I only need to carry one of these at a time based on where I’m fishing. I keep a 4th small box empty and if I think I may need to carry some extra flies for the day for some reason I load that one up with whatever I think I need…Mainly just during prime Spring hatches when a bunch of bugs are coming off at once and I may want to carry a bunch of spares for a bunch of different patterns in case the fish are keyed in on one bug. Honestly, I don’t find the need to do it much though.
 
Swattie's system is a pretty solid one. I think an important aspect is to maintain your boxes and weed out the unused or underperforming patterns on a regular basis.
 
I don't like to changeover my fly boxes and other things I carry with me on a fishing trip. I have two sling packs set up for different types of fishing. I can close my eyes and find everything in my pack because I don't change everything up for each trip.

I have a waterproof sling set up for warmwater and carry flies mostly for SMB in streams and big rivers. I carry a large swing-leaf box with bass streamers and nymphs and a dry box with poppers and other floating flies plus a third smaller box containing panfish poppers and flies. Up front on the strap I velcro on what I call a working compartment fly box that stays attached to the front of my sling pack. I load it with flies I believe I will use that day from my the fly boxes in the sling. Along with the flies the working box also has compartment filled with split shot all kept up front and easy to access.

For Muskie (Kayak or boat) I will add a box of muskie flies to the same WW sling. And for saltwater I will take out the bass boxes and carry a box of SW flies. I carry a big SW fly box in my truck and load my smaller box that I can carry with patterns I will need for the day.

For trout I have a large sling with three large boxes in the main compartment (two are swing-leaf doubling their carrying capacity). Up front hanging from the strap I carry a working compartment fly box that I load with flies, split shot, strike putty and indies. Plus I velcro on a small slim fly box to carry nymph or wet patterns for the day.

Box 1 is for mayfly dries and emergers. I have a few flies in patterns to match just about every MF hatch in it along with a few attractors.

Box 2 is has caddis and a few stonefly patterns patterns with a few of each to match any caddis or stonefly hatches plus all my terrestrial patterns.

Box 3 my carries mayfly nymphs, wets and streamers. A few of each to match whatever is found down-under the in the stream.

On an overnight or longer trip I will keep what i call a bulk fly box in my truck with patterns I use a lot to replenish my carry boxes. And I may even carry a mobile fly tying kit to tie flies back at camp on a longer trip.



 
The first question you should ask yourself is: "how many of the same fly have I lost in a single outing?"

If the answer is less than the amount of each pattern you are presently carrying, that is a good starting point to downsize. I know guys that have a dozen of everything in their boxes which to me is nuts. I carry 3 or 4.

If that idea terrifies you, consider having extras back at the car if only to load up on anything specific you expect to encounter or if you later discover three wasn’t enough. My car is my mobile fly shop. I have a bag in there with extras of just about everything including flies. Knowing I have plenty in case of an emergency has really helped me to reduce my load and to date, I have never had to walk back to the car except for a beer. ;-)

The next question to ask is: "how many times has only a SPECIFIC pattern worked or could something similar have worked just as well?”

That brings me to the other main thing I do: other than some attractors, I don’t tie ANY specific named pattern for any species of mayfly, spinner or nymph. For dries, I tie a generic thorax style fly in olive, brown, cream/yellow & grey in several sizes and it covers every mayfly hatch I encounter. Same with nymphs & spinners: same body, same wing or wing case just different colors. I also go the same route for caddis & stoneflies.

I have been doing this for decades and I catch a ton of fish. The fly I use for Hendricksons only differs from my Olive in size & color. It cuts down on the number of flies I carry AND really dumbs down the tying materials as well. The only “bugs” I may have a few variants for are the ones I fish the most, which in my case is Sulphurs & Tricos. Bottom line, while I dig and once embraced the idea of specific patterns for specific hatches, I just don't find it necessary to catch fish.

As far as boxes go, when I don’t know what I may encounter or expect a lot of possibilities, I am wearing a Richardson Box which I modified to allow me to add or remove trays as needed. When I go upstate, it may be 4 or 5 trays, closer to home 3 in the spring, 2 the remainder of the year.

If I am fishing small wild trout waters, I use an over the shoulder British fishing bag with ONE 4" 12 compartment Wheatley box in it. If I am dabbling in the black art of Tenkara, it is a very small over the shoulder bag and one 3" 4 compartment Wheatley box.

For warmwater I use other independent set-ups that are similarly small with limited fly boxes.

 
I use George Daniel's "working box" theory.

I have a good idea of which flies I'll see that day and they're in a small 4"×4" box.
 
Bamboozle wrote:
The first question you should ask yourself is: "how many of the same fly have I lost in a single outing?"

If the answer is less than the amount of each pattern you are presently carrying, that is a good starting point to downsize. I know guys that have a dozen of everything in their boxes which to me is nuts. I carry 3 or 4.

If that idea terrifies you, consider having extras back at the car if only to load up on anything specific you expect to encounter or if you later discover three wasn’t enough. My car is my mobile fly shop. I have a bag in there with extras of just about everything including flies. Knowing I have plenty in case of an emergency has really helped me to reduce my load and to date, I have never had to walk back to the car except for a beer. ;-)

The next question to ask is: "how many times has only a SPECIFIC pattern worked or could something similar have worked just as well?”

That brings me to the other main thing I do: other than some attractors, I don’t tie ANY specific named pattern for any species of mayfly, spinner or nymph. For dries, I tie a generic thorax style fly in olive, brown, cream/yellow & grey in several sizes and it covers every mayfly hatch I encounter. Same with nymphs & spinners: same body, same wing or wing case just different colors. I also go the same route for caddis & stoneflies.

I have been doing this for decades and I catch a ton of fish. The fly I use for Hendricksons only differs from my Olive in size & color. It cuts down on the number of flies I carry AND really dumbs down the tying materials as well. The only “bugs” I may have a few variants for are the ones I fish the most, which in my case is Sulphurs & Tricos. Bottom line, while I dig and once embraced the idea of specific patterns for specific hatches, I just don't find it necessary to catch fish.

As far as boxes go, when I don’t know what I may encounter or expect a lot of possibilities, I am wearing a Richardson Box which I modified to allow me to add or remove trays as needed. When I go upstate, it may be 4 or 5 trays, closer to home 3 in the spring, 2 the remainder of the year.

If I am fishing small wild trout waters, I use an over the shoulder British fishing bag with ONE 4" 12 compartment Wheatley box in it. If I am dabbling in the black art of Tenkara, it is a very small over the shoulder bag and one 3" 4 compartment Wheatley box.

For warmwater I use other independent set-ups that are similarly small with limited fly boxes.

^ As far as the flies I carry in the fly boxes I described above, I do pretty much the same thing.

I don't carry a dozen or dozens of the same fly. I would rather have the same total number of flies in different sizes, colors and configurations.

I really don't tie exact fly patterns either. I change size and colors to meet the hatches I expect. For mayflies I like tying hatch matching flies in parachutes and/or compara or sparkle dun styles. I'll throw in a few Catskill ties for flies when movement on the water may be needed.

For caddis hatches I tie in the sizes and colors of the insects LaFountaine ESP on top along with CDC & Elk type flies and a few Elk hair Caddis for bouncing on the surface.

For stoneflies and bigger EHC or stimmie in the size and color is all you need.

Same for MF nymphs and caddis larva. The same patterns in sizes and colors of the insects found in the stream.

Add in some terrestrials and attractor patterns and you have a lot of flies that should work any where for a day of fishing.

 
Never been a gear junkie or collector of all things. When wading I can fit everything I need in a couple shirt pockets and a neck lanyard simply by taking only the 10% of things I actually use. A cargo pant pocket can be used if I just have to take something else.

I don't fret or worry about not having something I might need. It's more a mindset then an actual organizational plan. Try using a smaller pack to force yourself to downsize. When your comfortable with your downsizing use a smaller pack yet to downsize even more.
 
^Keep going, before long you will reach total enlightenment and be able to fish in your mind, with no gear at all.
 
I carry 4 fly boxes with me. None much bigger than your hand. 2 are 12 compartment plastic boxes from the craft store ($2.99 ea). One holds Caddis dries, the other mayfly dries. The 12 compartments force me to keep size and patterns to minimum. I like alot of double duty flies such as slate Drake comparadun. It matches the SD, Red Quill, and numerous spinners. Caddis and stones are similar enough that they all go together.

One box for nymphs wets and soft hackles. The other for streamers.

I do have a fifth box that stays in car with other "extra" gear ie spare reel, leaders, tippet mat'l, bug dope etc. This box is for midges and terrestrials, which will get swapped for the streamer box in June sometime.

If you limit yourself to one box each, you are really forced to keep fly assortment at bey. It also manages your fly tying time and materials by default


 
I carry all the flies I need in either my Richardson or Down's chest fly boxes. Simple.
 
Swattie87 wrote:
^Keep going, before long you will reach total enlightenment and be able to fish in your mind, with no gear at all.

If I was looking for enlightenment I would only present dry flies to tiny little rising native brook trout.
 
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