Fly Storage?

[teachmarkey]

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

[ScottP]

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

[WadeK]

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

[Uncle Jesse]

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.

[bgreer]

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

[pszy22]

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.


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[Greg H]

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.

[johnstoeckel]

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.

[jimsnarocks]

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

[teachmarkey]

Jim,
You would do that for me? What a selfless person! We just added another three inches of snow today, so you'd have plenty of time to "test" them out for me.
Thanks everyone!