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Fly Storage?
Howdy,
Here's yet another silly question: where do you store your flies? I've just recently returned to tying as a way to pass this snowy winter (in fact, it's snowing pretty heavily right now in RI). Right now, I have flies stuck in corks, on my tying desk, in pill bottles, and generally consuming space. Do you have a favorite way to store your flies in a reasonably neat manner? Obviously I know some folks just keep buying fly boxes, but what about when you've tied up a bunch and just want to set them aside?
If you have a gimmick you've invented, feel free to post pictures, too!
As always, thanks for the info.
Hugh
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I bought a few Plano 24-compartment small parts organizers from HD to offload flies from the tying desk. I try to sort by bug type - mayfly, caddis, stonefly, generic attractors/foam stuff; I keep a smaller, separate container for tailwater flies, which are mostly beadheads of one form or another.
Regards,
Scott
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From the vise, they go onto a piece of ribbed foam at my tying desk. Then 2 or 3 of each go into my fly boxes that I carry in my Trout vest or my Bass/Salt vest. The remainder go into 6 Flambeau Zerust 3700 size boxes that correspond to the 6 boxes in my vests.
In the Trout vest I have
1) Dryfly box that holds 300 or so up to #8s. Take the center leaf out of http://fly.greysfishing.com/en-us/pr...-slot-fly-box/
2) Nymph box that holds 700 or so up to #10's. Same as above with the leaf left in.
3) Trout Streamer box that holds probably 50-75. http://fly.greysfishing.com/en-us/pr...-foam-fly-box/
4) Other box that holds Trout flies that dont go into the previous 3 boxes.
In the Bass/Salt vest I have
5) Floating flys box. See Trout Streamer Box
6) Sinking flys box. See Trout Streamer Box
Lastly, I have put a Zerust divider into each of the Bass/Salt Boxes and a 1/4 of a divider in each of the trout boxes. I don't put Saltwater used flys back in the boxes without thoroughly washing them in fresh water and drying them. The rest get dried before putting them away. I haven't had rust problems in the 2 years I've been doing this.
Tight lines,
Wade
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For the stuff not in a fly box and in a patch on back of a hat I have various pieces of foams blocks I stick them on. Here is a shot of one side of the largest. Don't look at the flies too close some are really bad things I was experimenting with. The block was a kick board to help a kid learn to swim from the dollar store, I was going to make poppers out of it but found the foam not to be the best for that purpose.
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Flies that I might readily use go into my fly boxes that I carry with me on the water.
Flies that need to be stored get filed away.
I use the C&F style boxes with the flip page. Each box will hold a bunch of flies.
There are a lot of boxes that are very similar in design. Some more affordable than others. ;)
Each fly box is labeled for what's in it. i.e. "DRY FLIES", "NYMPHS", "SCUDS", etc.
For flies that I file away, I use the large, flat Plano style boxes with bunches of dividers.
I've even made more dividers when I've ran out. I use the 370 or 3700 size boxes. (Same thing, just depends on who sells them.)
I have a tackle bag from one of the big box tackle retailers that will hold a ton of stuff.
It will hold five of those 370 style boxes neatly in a lower compartment. I label the front of each box to keep things easy.
The upper compartment will hold quite a bit of stuff too.
I put leaders, tippet, indicators, mucilin, flashlight, spare fly boxes, etc in there.
It has two side pockets. Each one will hold a slightly smaller 360 or 3600 size box. But I keep leader building material in one pocket.
It also had a flap on the side with little bungee straps sewn in to keep tools. I keep extra nippers, forceps, and nail knot tool there.
The greatest thing is that it's easy to load that bag up and have everything I need in one big, organized bag.
I got it as a xmas gift and I have to say it's been one of the most useful gifts ever.
Brian
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I agree with Brian.
I really like these soft sided bags. They hold 3 or 4 plastic organizers, which in turn can hold hundreds of flies in a fairly organized manner. I usually get these at Walmart, on clearance, for well under $10. It's usually cheaper to buy these than the individual plastic organizers.
Attachment 12648
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As mentioned by others, I use Plano storage boxes #3600. One useful advantage is you can move the dividers to change the size of compartments. In the past I also ordered extra dividers so more small flies of one kind (nymphs for instance) could be in the same box. If you buy a couple boxes you can also move some dividers from one box to another, leaving larger spaces in your 'streamer' storage. Flies in these 12 boxes are my inventory, which I top up over the winter. Fly BOXES are reloaded from there for the stream.
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Like many others, I use a couple of large compartment boxes for storage. These are what I refer to as my "stock boxes" and they sit on top of my fly tying desk. I periodically replenish the split foam fly boxes that I carry on stream from the stock boxes.
For example, I'll tie several dozen scuds over the winter which go in my stock box. A dozen or so end up in my on-stream nymph box and as those get demolished by fsh (or more likely rocks and limbs), I replenish from the stock box again.
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Hugh, I'll send you a self addressed postage paid foam envelope and you can store them at my house. Since we have 65 to 85 degree weather and no snow I can check them to make sure they work until you are ready for them. If you don't want to do that you can buy sheets of 1/8" foam at craft supply stores for a few cents each to stick them on until you are ready to transfer them into boxes. Jim
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Jim,
You would do that for me? What a selfless person! :D We just added another three inches of snow today, so you'd have plenty of time to "test" them out for me.
Thanks everyone!