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.