how many flies?

[Turk]

How many is to many? Every year I try to reduce the number of flies I carry and next thing you know I have two more boxes in my vest. So now after all these years I've come up with a decent selection for all times and a few boxes I'll take certain times of the year. Now I have just three medium boxes I will carry. What do you think, is this still to many? How many do you carry?

[Gnu Bee Flyer]

Well, I tie about 35 or 40 different patterns , I have a multitude of small flyboxes with each type in them . However when I go fishing I usually only take my 8 or 9 go-to's . I so far have no confidence in the others . I am getting a little better I only used to trust store bought Black Doc Spratleys . I finally tried one of my own Spratleys and low and behold it worked . I then tried another pattern and it worked too . Each trip I seem to get confidence in one more go-to fly . Maybe by the time I am 95 I will use them all .

of late, I've been going out with one tiny box. nothing but parachute adams in it.

works just fine.

mgj

[Gigmaster]

Too many flies? I don't think there is a such thing!

Enough flies is however many you want to keep and use.

I love tying new patterns and testing them. I love tying. I have many fly displays all over the house. I have flies in several hat bands. I am making a display of the history of flies for the local Arts Guild. I got my wife a nighty with fly patterns printed on it...............

It's a good thing I'm not obsessive!!!!

Semper Fi!

[mantis]

I have been getting a little better at this this past year. Although everything stays in my vehicle once I make that first trip I try to skinny down for each trek to a stream. Since I fish the same 4 or 5 rivers and streams pretty much unless I go out of state I know what should be on the water. I can usually narrow it down to 4 or 5 flies, a few spinners some klinks and a few nymphs...just in case. I'll keep a few ants and beetles too once we get into summer.

[Turk]

Gigmaster, thats exactly my problem, I love to tie flies and experiment. I have storage bins at my house and I can honestly say I have thousands of flies because I tie way more than I'll ever need and I would love to take them all with me on the stream but it's just not practical. So I've made a list of essentials and remade it then remade it again so now I'm down to 3 boxes not including my streamer box wich I only carry when I'm doing nothing but stripping streamers.

[Turk]

Mikey yeah I tried to take it to the bare minimum but I carried a parachute adams in a few sizes and a beadhead pheasant tail in a few sizes. That lasted about 2 trips and I started to break out in a cold sweat.

Turk, that's a normal disease which I suffered during many years. Finally I bring 1 box!! Is a mid-size with:
4 Patterns of dries, 3 patterns of nymphs, 3 of wets and 3 of streamers. 2-3 sizes of each. And I can keep catching many trout as when I brought a ton of boxes.
Rocketfish

[bgreer]

I carry a large box for dries. I carry many different patterns and sizes. I carry maybe a dozen of my go-to's.

I carry a large compartment box for streamers. Probably 4-6 of 15 different patterns.

I carry 2 very slim boxes for small BH midges and the like. Each box has 18 small compartments.

And lastly, I carry a SA SystemX nymph box with hare's ears, pheasant tails, etc that are too big to go into the really slim boxes that I carry.

Is that carrying too much? I just have a fear of not having the right thing on the water at any given time. (It's a well founded fear, because it seems to happen a lot.)

[fishyfranky]

Use C&F boxes. I carry around 1000 flys in my vest and it feels fine. A good deal of the pleasure I get from fishing is testing my patterns. A good deal of the pleasure I get from tying is experimenting to find the "ultimate" patterns.