Organizing Flies

[Michael Phillippe]

Over the years, I’ve accumulated – by tying and buying – a few thousand flies. I lot of them are specific to a river and hatch, e.g. South Fork PMD, while others like Adams, Stimulators, etc. are pretty generic. Every so often I get the urge to “organize” my flies. Sometimes I think this is simply a reason to buy some new(er) fly boxes, but I won’t go there.

Some of the “systems” I’ve used are :

Organize boxes by species – Green Drakes, PMD’s, Hendricksons
Organize boxes by river – Delaware late spring, Pennsylvania spring creeks
Organize by type – streamers, nymphs, attractors, terrestrials, emergers

So with winter upon me and all the new, cool fly boxes on the market, I’m feeling the urge again. I was wondering how the rest of you – especially ones who travel to fish – do it!?

[Neal Osborn]

Michael – I call this tendency to organize flies, “January Madness”.  It is a deeply rooted quirk inherent to fly fishers, and is particularly acute in the winter months when the fishing is slow, LOL.

I have the same organization as you, that is a blend of river/lake/hatch specific fly boxes and also “fly type” specific boxes.  I am constantly organizing and moving flies around.  Sometimes I miss the early days when I only had a few flies and could fit them all in one box.  Once a guy starts tying and designing flies, all bets are off with organization.  Furthermore, Murphy’s Law comes in to play because I always fail to include the one crucial fly in a box and of course that is the one the “would have worked” if I had it on the river.

My basic organization now includes 1)stock boxes – flies that I tie in quantity and use in quantity – these are just parking garages for my go-to flies, and 2)working boxes – which include a)nymph box, b)dry fly box, c)streamer box, d)midge box, and e)river/lake/hatch specific boxes (e.g. a large box for Caddis and Mayfly, each of which contain pupa/larva, emergers, cripples, duns, parachutes, and spinners).

[Zach Matthews]

I organize by general type, with a few species-specific boxes.

[Bob Riggins]

I have a drawer in the vanity in the guestroom bathroom that I throw flies in.

[Michael Phillippe]

Just add another twist, I built a drift boat a few years ago and decided I needed ‘boat boxes.” So, now I have huge Flambeau boxes of flies for the boat that present serious dilemma when I go wade fishing:

– Pick through the boat boxes and build a smaller box for the days wade fishing
– Duplicate all my (hundreds of) flies – one set for floating and one for wading
– Stuff the Flameau boxes in the back of my vest, thereby making me look like the hunchback of Notre Dame. This of course, puts your landing net perpendicular to your body and perfectly positioned to whack you in the head with every sudden movement.

And when I get all my flies organized, I need to start on fly lines….

[David L. Darnell]

I use 2 Umpqua Pro Guide large boxes, one for nymphs and one for midges

I use 3 standard C&F, one for wet, one for dry and one for egg.

Worms go in a small Dewitt

1 Bugger Barn for Skipjack

3 Bugger Beast, one for big gaudy streamers, one for Stripper/Bass, one for poppers for Bass/Panfish

I’m always on the lookout for flyboxes that fit my wants and desires, think I’m there for the time being. ;D

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