Address Labels.

[Bluegill Budd]

I know that this has been covered before but decided to bring it up again for those who are starting out in flyfishing. The next time you get a solicitation in the mail which includes a set of glossy pre-printed address labels, before tossing them out, grab your vest (or chest-pack) and pull out all your fly boxes. Open each one and stick one of those labels inside. At some point you are going to drop a box and if there is a label inside you have at least some chance of getting it back.

Think about it - if you found a fly-box with a label inside wouldn't you get a hold of the fellow fly-fisher and return it?

[kglissmeyer]

Great idea. I would hope that among flyfishers there is a very high integrity level. My buddy found an extremely large and well-stocked fly box on the Big Lost River in Idaho several years ago. He returned it to our local and favorite fly shop quite a ways away in Idaho Falls, ID. The next day, the angler who lost the box was grousing about it to the fly shop owner who thereupon produced the missing fly box. A lucky combination of a good deed and timing, a name, address, phone # would have been much easier.

I write on the outside of all my boxes with black permanent marker with all of my pertinent info.

Kelly.

[Cold]

My buddy found an extremely large and well-stocked fly box on the Big Lost River in Idaho several years ago.

Masterpiece of irony, there.

I found a small, but fairly well-stocked fly box a year or two ago on a local stream. Put in word at 2 local fly shops and a few relevant message boards online, but the people that contacted me about recently lost boxes were all hunting a different box.

Still have the box, and all the flies I found it with, sitting in a drawer at my tying bench. It'd be nice to meet someone on that stretch and find out it was their box.

[Normand]

about 5 years ago i lost a c&f flybox chock full of mayfly nymphs, name, address & phone number printed on the outside of the box and to this date they havent found their way home. i know the box was in my vest as i had just tied on a pheasant tail nymph and started fishing my way down stream. an hour or two later, it was time to change flies and went looking for that box. empty pocket where it should have been full. retraced my footsteps back up stream to no avail. stopped and asked a couple of guys fishing and they hadnt seen a thing. i think its foolish to think all fly fisherman have a high level of integrity.

its probably the same as leaving your rod & reel leaning up against a tree while youre getting ready to leave and then you just take off and your outfit is still leaning up against the tree. half way home and then it hits you. you turn around and return to that tree and its gone for good, never to be seen again. after a week of calling the local fly shops to see if someone turned in your outfit, you decide tio give up the search. it hasnt happened to me, but i do know of folks it has happened to.

just my experience, yours will be different.

[Bass_Bug]

Along with attaching a label, maybe one should attach a zinger to the fly box as well?

If the boxes don't have an eyelet, epoxy a 1/4" 'D' ring something like this http://www.seattlefabrics.com/Mounted%20D-Ring.jpg to the box.
Get a pair of tan dress shoe, shoelaces (to blend in with most vests) tie the lace to the box and the other end to a large safety pin that can be pinned inside the pocket the box goes in?

No more lost fly boxes!

[forthebirds12]

Thank you Budd. Like the point that at least you have a chance to get your stuff back. Labels going in today. Of course not everyone is going to return or attempt to get your stuff back to you. Left my cell phone on a park bench last year, got it returned and gave the guy $20 for his effort and gas. Then again if you don't expect to get your stuff back, why put your info on it. Just makes you upset. No info you can only be upset at yourself. Zinger sounds like the solution to not being upset at anyone.

Thanks Budd and Bass Bug for the ideas,

Jerry

[chewydog]

Before you use those free labels you got in the mail, you might consider using waterproof labels instead.

[flybugpa]

i am STILL looking for my TXL