Sorting Mag. Fly Patterns

[Duffin Boy]

This may be a good place to ask this.
I have a number of Flytyer and assorted magazines with some great patterns included.
I have a devil of a time remembering where I saw a pattern I want to tie at a later date.
Flytyer has pictures on the back of each copy but I have to sort through them all to find the one I am looking for. ( it is usually in the last book I grab he he)
Does anyone have a system of filing the books that will help sort what recipes are where?

DuFf


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Some days it's just not worth chewing through the restraints....

[grumps]

duffin boy

i have a worse memory than you, but what i do when i find a pattern i want to keep track of, i scan it right into my computer and you can name it any thing you want. if you don't have a scanner but you do have a digital camera, just photograph it and import the image to your computer. hope this helps.

good luck

mike

[gadabout]

Well, the "low-tech" way would be to get a box of 3 x 5 index cards. Every time you get a magazine with a fly pattern, create an index card for the pattern and write down the magazine, issue number, etc. Of course when you get more magazines with the same pattern as one you've already got just write it on the same card. Put the cards in the box in alphabetical order and it should be easy to find a pattern when you are looking for it.

The computerized way would be to enter the info in a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet.

[ducksterman]

I finally some time ago bit the bullet and now tear out the one's I want and put them in labeled manilla folders in hanging files...I'm long enough in the tooth that those accumulating magazines were unmanageable.

[Steve Jeffries]

Here's the system I use and it may work for you. For Fly Tyer & Flyfishing & Flytying Journal I bought some plastic magazine boxes at Target and put the mags in sorted by season (Spring, Summer, etc.). For other magazines, I force myself to decide which patterns I will probably use in the future and copy them on the computer. These copies are put into plastic sleeves in a 3 ring binder.

Steve

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It has been my experience that folks with no vices have very few virtues. - A. Lincoln

[cctyer]

You can also put a small post it note sticking up past the top of the magazine on the corisponding page with the name of the pattern on it. saves a lot of time thumbing through dozens of copies. Have Fun

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"A smart man learns from his mistakes,
A wise man learns from others"

[BobC]

Being that I'm a relative beginner with fly tying, I generally look for ties that have the step by step photos with them. I have had great success copying the recipe to my clipboard, and then pasteing them into Word. I can then save the file and name it what I want (as mentioned above). I have a directory of nothing but patterns, and can periodically burn a copy for the archives. Not the greatest system, but pretty functional and even archived. That was a little off the topic with the magazine articles, but what I have been doing is that when I find something I really want in a magazine I start scouring the internet until I find the pattern so I can make a copy. Between FAOL and a few other sites I have a great collection of attractors and anything else I need. It was worth the effort to build the collection.
Bob

[ducksterman]

So when you sort, file, organize....what headings or outline do you use?...in other words how do you categorize the flys...it can make a difference when trying to find a pattern later...

[Bob Widmaier]

Duff:

My low tech way of dealing with patterns in magazines is that I save about a years worth of mags in those special boxes made to hold them upright. For FlyTyer, thats only 4 mags. After a year I go through and remove the articles and patterns I find I want to save. I tear them out, punch holes in them and place in a ring binder. I categorize them aas follows; dry flies, wet flies, nymphs, attractors, terrestials, bass flies, steelhead flies and special flies. The special flies are things that do not exactly fit into any of the above categories. I am working on my second 3" ring binder.

I know this is low tech, but it works and I can remove the instructions and place them on my tying bench when I am tying that pattern. Maybe in this case, hard copy has some advantages.

Dr Bob

[BobC]

Hi Duckster! You raised a very good point, and as of yet I don't have a proven answer! LOL I only have a little over 100+ patterns, and I'm not as well versed in Word as Excel. That said, I really like using Word as it is rare that I can't load in a recipe with all the photos, and Word is very transportable. What I'm 'thinnin is that for the master plan I believe Word lends itself very well to a "Book" concept of organization. What I was thinking is that I would organize a Book of Patterns, with each chapter being a category of flies. I can categorize as I wish, and each pattern would be a page in the book. I think an index can be put in the book, so with proper organization you could go to the index and click on what you wanted. Do we have any power Word folks out there? Does this sound like a workable solution? Thanks for any input!
Bob