Organizing Flies

[Todd K]

Wasn't sure where to put this. Im trying to figure out the best solution for organizing my flies. Do I do it by hatch, type, colors, size. It can drive you crazy.

I also want a better solution for picking the flies I need for a time of day or weather condition or season. Is there a good fly box that has a module set up where you can remove sections and replace them as needed?

[Capt Bob]

In my 37 something years of fly fishing I have never found a best for all seasons answer to organizing flies. For the last 10 years or so, I organize them by type: Nymphs, beadhead nymphs, emergers, standard dries, terrestrials and streamers. I have all my caddis in one box which includes: pupa, larva, emerger and surface patterns.
As one hatch ends, for example Hendrickson, I pull those flies out and replace them with the next hatch pattern instead of carryin them around all season.
Of course everything changes when I travel to a new or exotic fishing location. I then bring everything as I did last summer to Labrador. in the 8 days of fishing, I never tied on a dry fly or anything smaller than a size 4 wooly bugger. My saltwater box that I took on a whim got quite a workout on the big Brook Trout and Pike.
I guess that's part of the fun, keepin track of it all in a reasonably organized fashion.
As far as the best fly box, I really like the new Scientific Angler System series.

[Todd K]

I was just looking at the System X Fly Boxes. That might be the solution.

[Housy Dave]

Flyaddict,

Check out the C&F fly boxes (I think they might be the same ones as Capt Bob is talking about?). They are one of the best. They hold flies on top/bottom and have a center divider. They say the box holds over 500 flies, but that's only if you pack them in there as tight as they'll go.

I think they came out with a new design where you can pull out the center divider and replace it with different one. So you can have a bunch of flies that you always carry, but have a subset that you can "change out" based on the hatches.

I've been using one for about a year, and like it so far. Although my flies don't require much organization. I just bring all nymphs!

[imported_admin]

Excuse my ignorance. C&F boxes? Are these Scientific Angler boxes? The System X fly boxes are made by Scientific Angler.

[Housy Dave]

The C&F boxes are also made by scientific anglers.
http://www.3m.com/us/home_leisure/scianglers/fly_boxes_waterproof.jhtml

[Housy Dave]

I would also recommend asking 3weight for a little advice. I've never seen him set foot in the river with less than 1000 flies. :roll:

I know he has some kind of system.

[The Patriot]

I have a system, but it's not necessarily a good one..... :roll:

My problem is I use the wrong kind of boxes, and they are large and cumbersome, and take up alot of room. If I broke down and spent a few bucks on some good fly boxes, I could probably carry just as many flies, in fewer boxes, and lighten my load. But I would still organize them basically the same.

I have one streamer/bugger box, cheap, plastic, double sided foam box. That wouldn't change.

I have one box of Mayfly nymph imitations, GRHE, PT, in all their variations and permutations... :roll: :oops: ..... along with some Copper Johns, Lepage BH Mayfly nymphs in olive and brown, and some hatch specific nymphs, like olive nymphs, Isonychia nymphs, Hex nymphs, Cahill nymphs... not many, but a few of each. I have mainly GRHE and PT and that's mainly what I use. This is the same kind of box I keep my streamers in, I've had them for about 9 years, since I started flyfishing.

Then I have a cheap Sci Anglers box with flat foam on one side and ripple foam on the other, in which I keep Stonefly nymphs, caddis larva and bead head pupa (I keep my unweighted pupa with my dries), Prince Nymphs, Zug Bugs, eggs, midge larva, a couple of San Juan worms, scuds, brassies, etc.

Now for the fun part..... my beloved dry flies.....

I use clear plastic boxes with compartments, not the expensive boxes with places for hooks.

I have two boxes which stack and fit in one pocket, with 6 compartments in each. In the first, I have a compartment devoted to miscellaneous Soft Hackles, a compartment for miscellaneous Wet Flies, a compartment for dark generic flies, like Blue Duns, Dun Variants, Black Gnats, Mosquitos.... another compartment for Adams flies, including Adams parachutes to size 20.... another compartment for Royal Coachmen and Royal Wulffs.... and the last compartment is White Wulffs, Yellow Humpies, and Yellow Adams, light colored flies. I consider this my generic/attractor mayfly box.

On the other side, a compartment is devoted to unweighted caddis pupa in various colors, a compartment is devoted to black and grey caddis imitations, another for tan, and another for green. The last 2 compartments are for stonefly imitations, one for dark flies, black, brown, royal stimulators...... and the other is for light colors, yellow or green stonefly imitations, yellow sallies, stimulators.... This is my caddis and stonefly box. I stack that with my generic/mayfly box and put that in one of my upper zipper pockets.

I don't often use the mayfly box, so sometimes I'll leave that in the truck, depending on what I'm expecting hatch wise and what else I'm carrying with me, but this year I'm tyring to do more with wets and soft hackles and to consolidate the rest of what I carry better..... :roll: :oops: But I wouldn't leave my caddis box behind. :wink:


I have one large, clear, plastic 15 compartment box devoted to rusty flies.... red quill parachutes, red/brown comparaduns and CDC comparaduns, spent rusty spinners, egg laying comparaduns and egg laying spent spinners..... in sizes 10 to 20. The common denominator is that they are all dark, reddish brown, "rusty" flies. I organize them by size and profile. That goes in the other upper zipper pocket of my vest.

Also in that pocket is a very small plastic 6 compartment box for tiny olives, adams parachutes, and midges.

In one of my front upper velcro pockets I have a medium double (stacked) 12 compartment box devoted to BWO from size 14 to 20. 14 and 16 on one side, 18 and 20 on the other. I organize them by emergers, cripples/sparkle duns, comparaduns, parachutes, spinners, and other (thorax, hackle wings, cut wings, loop wings, one or two of each as applicable)......

These boxes are basically always in my vest..... especially the Caddis, BWO and Rusty boxes.... like I said, the generic/attractor box really doesn't get that much use, so I'll leave it behind sometimes (although I should learn to be less pattern dependant and fish those flies more often), but I have to come up with a better plan for my wets and soft hackles.

The last box I'm currently carrying goes in my large upper velcro pocket. It's my hatch match box. It's a large clear plastic 15 compartment box, like the one I have my rusty flies in, and I could stack them and put them into one zipper pocket, freeing up another pocket for another box, but I already look like the Michelin Tire Man...... :roll: :oops:

The contents of that box change with the hatch. Right now I have small early dark stoneflies, Blue Quills, Quill Gordons, and the rest, 10 compartments, devoted to Hendricksons, organized by dark emergers, light emergers, cripples/sparkle duns, comparaduns, cdc comparaduns, thorax, and parachutes.

Over the winter I set up a hatch assortment for each hatch. When the Hendricksons are over I'll put them away into large plastic storage boxes, the kind bass fisherman use for their baits, with adjustable compartments, and replace that box with the current hatch. PED, March Browns, Sulphurs, Isonychia, Cahills, I have a small 6 compartment box for tiny Needhamis and Tricos, I can put that in a shirt pocket or an inside vest pocket, Yellow/Golden Drakes (E. Varia/Potamanthus), Terrestrials......

You should see me when I go to the Catskills during Bug Week...... :roll: :oops: :lol:

I can pull it off cuz I'm 6'3" and go about 230#. If Dave or Joe tried to wear my vest, it'd probably tip 'em over..... :wink: :lol: ... and heaven forbid if they ever fell in.... they'd sink like a stone..... :D

I fished with a guide in NY last June and he told me "you can never have too many flies......" Of course he probably wanted a good tip..... and I bought alot of my flies at the shop where he works..... :wink:

In all seriousness, like I said, my system for organizing my flies works, and works well. What I need to do is find better boxes to reduce the bulk involved, not the number of flies. I could probably put all my dry flies into four smaller boxes that each held more flies than the boxes I currently use.....

Maybe time to go shopping..... :D

[flytire]

Caddis box

http://www.myfishingpictures.com/img/071911.jpg

Midge box

http://www.myfishingpictures.com/img/071910.jpg

Stonefly box

http://www.myfishingpictures.com/img/071908.jpg

[Kierran]

Flytire: thanks for sharing those pics. Very impressive caddis collection.

[AvoDrake]

I wish my boxes looked as organized and neat as flytire's!! Mine start that way and after a few days they look like Jessica Simpson organized them

I recently was forced to consolidate my flies into 2 big boxes and one small one because my new vest had fewer pockets.

The box below is my "Dry Box". On right side 1/3 goes to BWOs, 1/3 to sulphurs/PEDs, 1/3 to Hendrickson's, Isonychias, blue quills and other "dark" flies. On the left 1/3 to caddis adults, emergers and wets, 1/3 to spinners and 1/3 to terrestials. (Had to sacrifice numbers of each fly to make this work.) You can see a spinner has already migrated to the wrong place!!!

Click for larger image

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j167/AvoDrake/th_FarmingtonFlyboxdries.jpg (http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j167/AvoDrake/FarmingtonFlyboxdries.jpg)


I use a second box big Scientific Anglers for all nymphs and big stone flys

For flies smaller than size 20 I use this small 4 by 3 inch box and organize it by bwos, sulphurs and midges and for the bwos and sulfurs separate out the spinners.

Click for larger image

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j167/AvoDrake/th_smallflybox.jpg (http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j167/AvoDrake/smallflybox.jpg)

[TonyM]

AvoDrake:

Good Start, but so much wasted space ?????

[AvoDrake]

Tony I am on my "minimalist" kick which will probably only last several weeks and my box will probably revert back to being crammed to the max!!! I know the first time I have a fly that is working and run out and have to risk losing my spot as I go back to the car to stock up will put an end to my crazy minimalist fantasies....

Nice for now as my not so "delicate" fingers can actually pull out one fly instead of 5..*grin"....

[Z Fisher]

I've got several boxes. They are organized by type of fly as opposed to hatch. Basically, I carry my entire fly collection anywhere I go. That said, it's a modest collection. My apologies in advance if this sounds like an Orvis commercial.

2 Large Orvis Lightweight Floating Boxes (http://www.orvis.com/store/product_choice.asp?pf_id=37GT&dir_id=758&group_id=792&cat_id=5135&subcat_id=6030) (cause they're lightweight and relatively low profile) -- One has about 3 dozen assorted streamers, with one side of the box being for all manner of buggers and the other being for muddlers/ghosts/zonkers/dace, etc, the second contains four or five dozen nymphs that includes everything from large stoneflies down to the tiniest midge. Mostly GRHE, Pheasant Tail, Prince, etc.

1 Large Orvis Lock and Load (http://www.orvis.com/store/product_choice.asp?pf_id=7371&dir_id=758&group_id=792&cat_id=5135&subcat_id=6030) -- My go-to Dry Fly box which has all the basics in Para, Dun, and Emerger (BWO, PMD, Hendrickson, Red Quill, Sulphur, etc)

1 Small Orvis Lock and Load -- a variety of Caddis dry flies and Caddis emergers.

1 Meiho Waterproof Fly Box (http://www.yagersflies.com/meihwatflybo.html) -- odds and ends, mostly small dries (like gnats) and emergers of all varieties.

1 basic six compartment clear plastic box (I got these free when I ordered some flies from Yagers (http://www.yagersflies.com)) that contains a couple of HUGE dries -- this is my go to box after dark. Throw something out there that both the trout and I can see. It's amazing how effective a size eight white fly dun can be in the dark.

1 basic six compartment clear plastic box that contains a variety of poppers for those late summer bass opportunities. Don't ask me why I carry this around in the winter, but I do.

1 Orvis Dropper Rig Box (http://www.orvis.com/store/product_choice.asp?pf_id=76KH&dir_id=758&group_id=792&cat_id=5135&subcat_id=6030) -- More of a novelty as I'm still working out if it's going to be part of my longterm arsenal. It helps for quick dropper changes though I've also found myself tying something on the stream. One drawback is that it's very large and very heavy and only holds 20 or so flies when they're all rigged up. Any more than that and the tippets get all tangled.

I'm guessing I have around 250-300 flies on me when I'm on the water (which seems kind of absurd when you consider in a couple of hours I may only fish a dozen or so of them), which so far hasn't failed me from a variety perspective and also doesn't seem too onerous from a weight perspective.

That being said, earlier this year I was bluelining up in New Hampshire and took only about a dozen flies with me in a chest pack and did just fine. Maybe less is really more.

[Todd K]

I'm assuming you carry an Orvis backpack... :wink:

I like the Orvis soft foam boxes also.

[Z Fisher]

Orvis Vest. (though I do have the Orvis Fanny Pack :) )

Can you tell I got into fly fishing by getting a gift certificate to the Orvis School in Manchester for my 40th birthday? Instead of the Fly Fishing School, they should call it the Orvis Fly Fishing ReEducation and Brainwashing Camp. All kidding aside, I think they did a fine job at giving me the basics in a very short period of time.