Fly Box Organization

[fly_baby]

I have lots of flies - the usual suspects in different stages, sizes and colors. What is a good way to organize the boxes - by life cycle, size, dries, nymphs, streamers, etc? I realize this probably is a personal preference thing but I'd like to hear about how others deal with this issue.

Ava

[rayfound]

Completely dependent on how/where you're fishing.

Say on local streams, you know before you go there are probably 20 patterns, MAX, that you would even consider tying on. So put them all in one box.

Say you're going to unfamiliar waters - you might want to organize boxed into boxes of imitations of specific insect families, to match particular hatches. Likewise Dry/Nymph/Wet/Streamer is a reasonable organization technique.

As it is: I've tried a million times to organize and it always works out like this: Recently tied bugs in one box, older crap in the other, in no particular organization.

[Justin]

As it is: I've tried a million times to organize and it always works out like this: Recently tied bugs in one box, older crap in the other, in no particular organization.

I have to agree

Justin

[castaway]

Basicly size and color.. pretty much keep it simple.. all my small nymps on one side of box.. all my larger stuff on the other... another box with drys done the same way. I can find specific patterns with in this system if I need to. i dont need a midge box, caddis box, etc..

Although doing boxes by season might come in handy.. but there is some over lap.

Oh and I do keep a couple streamers close at hand as well.

[beachbum]

You mean we are supposed to organize them? It all depends what water I am fishing, and I load a box or two type specific. In the interim, I keep them semi organized. After a few days of fishing, and that organization is out the window.

[midger]

Whatever works best for you is the way I'd go. I have 2 local stream boxes with an assortment. I also have specific fisheries boxes for the Owens and rivers I fish in Idaho. Then I've got boxes organized with:

Nothing but midges
Nothing but dry flies
Nothing but streamers
Nothing but BWO/Baetis in different stages
Nothing but caddis in different stages/colors
Nothing but nymphs sized 8-16

yada, yada.............

When traveling, I generally have many, many boxes to choose from, and they aren't all organized. Some flies, like zebra midge, are in feeder boxes by size/color. These are large boxes with 21 compartments where I'll have 2-3 dozen flies per compartment that I can feed into streamside boxes as needed. I go through lots of tungsten beadhead zebras. Streamers are also in feeder boxes.

Have fun figuring out what works best for you

[fly_baby]

I guess it's something like controlled chaos. I usually choose patterns the night before I'm on the water. Then I'll review what worked and didn't and change patterns accordingly. But...when I'm not fishing I'm trying to maintain a somewhat organized system. Right now I'm trying to keep nymphs together, drys together, terrestrials together, etc. Thanks for everyone's input!

Ava

[duckdog]

you will figure out your own system over time, we're all different w/ our own system's and priority's. kinda like snowflake's, little fish slimed snowflake's. i kinda go by the type of bug more or less. but also where in the water column i want to fish, like for my bwo's i have a small box of nymph's w/ tungston and double tungston bead's. then i have a second small box w/ small reg. beads, glass bead's and no bead's, a third box hold's floating nymph's , emerger's and dry's.
for caddis i have a box for dry's and one for larva and pupa ,again,deep,not so deep,film.
hopper's , stimmi's, pmx's are in the same box
larger nymph's are in another box [ size 16 and larger]
pmd's and calibatis are set up the same as the bwo's. deep ,not so deep, film, and dry's.
flyfishing is so much fun, good ruck.----mike

[fflutterffly]

I have a blue bag. 14" x 12" which houses all my 'use' flies. This bag is separated in to boxes containing: Streamers, nymphs, dries, hoppers, midges. When it comes time to go to the river I'll usually pick out the traditional flies form each group Dries ( Adams, Griffs, BWO, PMD and midges (Zebra, Reds, Olives, Crazy legs on one side... Nymph ( Red Squirrel Tail, BHPT, WD40, Robo's) and streamers (Black, Olive, tan) on the other. In spring I'll be mixing in the terestrials. However, somewhere in my pack or vest is a small container holding specialty flies. My sizes will correspond to the season, usually very small insects for winter... getting a little larger as the seasons change.

nymphs for example may...MAY, be placed by size and kind...14, 16, 18 RST, 14, 16, 18 BHPT. And so it goes for the others as well.

[fly_baby]

Thanks again for everyone's input. I have a lot of fly boxes that are filled. I know this is a ridiculous question but I'll ask anyway, how do you know when you have too many boxes? As it is now, I trying to find places for the ones I have. I try to use the larger CF Design boxes.

I realize you can never too rich, too thin or have too many flies.

Ava

[gabe]

organize? are you kidding me. ha!
not me, as long as theres flies in there that'll get me by, i'm good to go.
then again, i only carry two boxes, streamers in one and dries and nymphs in another.

ideally i'd like to get nicer boxes and sort by drys, wet, nymphs, steamers, and so on. but if i think about it, I don't exactly want to be a walking fly shop. So having fewer boxes is working quite fine for now

[Sasha]

I have dry boxes, nymph boxes, a couple of misc. boxes, and a streamer box. Now the order of the boxes will vary depending on how organized I feel like being the night before. But no matter how organized they are, they all seem to experience entropy as the day wears on

[duckdog]

how do you know when you have too many fly boxes ? how do you know that you have had too many sunny day's ? how do you know when you have caught to many 21 inch trout ? GOOD GOD GIRL , WHAT ARE YOU THINKING! you can never have too many of our little fuzzy friend's or boxes to put them in-- go and take your brain and wash that thought right out of it ! -- go do it right now , i'll wait--------------------------------------- good , now that that's done we can continue. in the past , when i was sane, i would ask myself that very question. i couldn't fit all of the boxes that i knew i should bring with me in my vest ,so,i started useing a day pack to carry the extra junk- i mean essential stuff . works like a charm. in all seriousness, the c&f boxes are great. i think that the small white one's with the center leaf hold as many fly's as the large boxes and are half the size.
honestly , you will go thru periods when you just want to take a minimal amount of stuff w/ you [especialy when hatches are not really happening] and times when you want to be ready for anything . there's really no right or wrong to it, being there is what it's all about.
beside's , most of the time a good drift or the right technique is what matter's most.
have fun---mike.

[fly_baby]

how do you know when you have too many fly boxes ? how do you know that you have had too many sunny day's ? how do you know when you have caught to many 21 inch trout ? GOOD GOD GIRL , WHAT ARE YOU THINKING! you can never have too many of our little fuzzy friend's or boxes to put them in-- go and take your brain and wash that thought right out of it ! -- go do it right now , i'll wait--------------------------------------- good , now that that's done we can continue..

Well, I may have exaggerated a bit. I have many flies mostly the standard ones. I don't have any specialty flies, just midges, nymphs, streamers, drys and stimies, in various sizes and colors. I don't carry all of them when I'm on the water - it would present too many choices. I usually ask the local fly shop what the hatches are, if any, and pull together a day box. I take back the "you can never be too rich, too thin or have too many flies," comment. I'll change it to, "you can never be too rich, too thin or have your computer backed-up enough."

[planettrout]

A few of my boxes:



I organize them by Mayfly, Caddis,Midges,Stone flies, Scud/Sow bugs, Terrestrials and attractors.

Most of my dries/emergers are in the plastic or the Wheatley window boxes. Nymphs in the Wheatley flip overs...

The small Myran 12 windows are for stages of BWO's, PMD's and Caddis - the species I most regularly encounter...

A leather, fold over with metal clips from Wheatley I picked up many years ago is used for my wet patterns.

The Meiho's are for going minimal.

I have other boxes, CF, Dewitt and Orvis that are dedicated to larger Mayfly and Caddis for rivers in Montana, Idaho and Colorado.

Streamers, Buggers,Froggies, Crayfish and Mice...slotted boxes.

Something about Wheatley boxes - they are a bit heavy and require a complete dry out if I go swimming (which I do - frequently )

http://www.richardwheatley.com/


Here's a good source for many boxes:

http://www.anglersportgroup.com/product ... sp?CatID=7

PT/TB