Travel Fly kit Materials

[PastorEd]

I am putting together a flytying kit to take along when I travel and was wondering what others put in theres. You can't take everything with you, or can you?

I am sure this will vary based upon location and species, so - at least to start - lets focus on trout.

Here is what I have come up with so far.

Hooks
Dry fly 18 - 12 (Plus a few 10's and 8's in case you hit a Drake Hatch!)
Wet/nymph 16 - 10
streamer 12 - 6
Scud 16

A sampler pack of 6/0 Uni thread
Black, Camel, Dark Brown, Orange, Grey, Lt. Cahil, Olive, Red, Tan, White, yellow, Rusty brown

8/0 Uni thread
Black, Grey, White, Dark Olive

fine Gold/silver tinsel
Copper wire
Lead wire

Blended Rabbit dubbing (in boxes)
tan, lt olive, grey, brown, black, burgundy, olive, dk olive, green, dk brown, Yellow, Pale Yellow

Floss,
Yellow, Olive, Red, Orange

Pheasant Tail
Mottled Turkey
Peacock

White and grey Poly Yarn
grey Antron (zlon)

Dry Hackle in sizes 18 - 10
Grizley
Dk Brown
Med Dun

1 light Dun Hen neck for hackle tip wings.

Olive Chenile
Black Chenile
White Chenile

Maraboo,
Olive,
Black
White,
Brown,
Damsel Olive

Bugger Hackle
Olive, Black, White

An assortment of Panton pens in Olives and greys and tans.

What am I missing?
What do you have in your travel bag?

Ed

[Betty Hiner]

WOW!! You must have a really big travel "kit"!!

Rather than all that, just place the materials for each type of fly that you tie for that particular area, into individual zip lock bags. You'll be able to pull that baggie out and tie the fly you need, with out a bunch of extraneous stuff to haul.

[krauseb]

I agree with Betty, our club has tie-ins at our local senior center and I take what I need for the fly I plan to tie that day.
You sound like you are packing the way a women packs for an over night trip.

[Betty Hiner]

Whatchewtalkinboutkrauseb?!?!

[Al Beatty]

Hi Ed,

Wow! I'm with Betty, that is a good sized travel kit. That said, Gretchen and I have several travel kits depending on the situation. The kits we use to do demo's/shows has 4 rolling, carry-on bags and the small kit we put in our stream-side vest is a zip-lock sandwich bag with a very sparse assortment of stuff. Our kit in the drift boat is the smallest while still quite functional with a hand-held vise and most everything else put in 2" x 2" zip lock bags. One thing you might consider that saves us a lot of space is we "stuff" our dubbing in 2" sections of clear, plastic soda straws available at most fast-food restraurants. The 2" sections (with an assortment of dubbing colors) easily fit in a 3" x 5" zip lock bag. The items in the drift-boat kit all fit into a man's travel shaving kit.

So Ed, you can make your kit whatever you want it to be AND it looks by your post you are well on your way to a great travel kit. I for one would be very interested in seeing a pic of it and what all you put into it. I'm not sure what Jim & Deanna want regarding articles for the site but I see an interesting piece about putting it together and what you put in it so the rest of us can use your ideas to build on. Take care & ...

Tight Lines - Al Beatty
www.btsflyfishing.com

[Fly Tyer]

Why, if you are going to spend that much time making little packs for flies. Just tie them at home? Isnt the vice and tools the largest part of a tying pack?

Just some thoughts.

[ridgeliner]

Since you are taking permanent marking pens with you, buy a few more colors. This way you can take one 6/0 white thread and one 8/0 white thread. you can leave the other 14 spools of thread at home. Use the pens to color white thread as needed. Try to keep things down to what you anticipate tying. When you have too many things with you, it becomes a burden digging for things and the less likely that you will use it.

[Betty Hiner]

I'll normally tie up 6 or 8 of a particular fly. If they turn out to be exceptional flies, either for the fish or the trees, I may need to tie up a few more to get through the trip. So at home, I can tie up more, different flies, try them all out, and still be prepared to tie more streamside (or motel side) if the need be. And the ones that don't "work" you've not invested a lot of time or materials. As far as a vise ... you can stick the point end of the hook into a low tree branch, use a vice grip pliers, or hold the hook in your fingers.

[Bamboozle]

Ed:

What works best for me on the road is what works at home; simple & convenient storage solutions. I tried the separate kit thing but it didn't make a whole lot of sense to me unless I tied FREQUENTLY on the road which I don't.

This is the way I store my stuff at home:

I keep a good selection of my thread colors on bobbins and they along with ALL of my tools are kept in a large Plano box in the center drawer of my desk. Extra thread, wire, floss and other spooled stuff is kept in smaller labeled Plano type boxes.

My working quantities of dubbing, and any other material except for hackle & feathers are kept in large Zip Lock bags separated by color; olive/green, black, brown, grey, tan, white/yellow/orange.

Feathers are kept in large Rubbermaid bins in the original Zip Lock bags.

I have a "travel" vise & "travel" lamp.

When I go on the road I grab a large duffel and throw in the Plano will all the tools, what ever Zip Lock bag has the color of dubbing I want to use, and any feathers I may need in their original packaging.

Yea it is a pain to pack & unpack all the stuff but knowing how much stuff I would need to make a separate kit and how much it would cost; it made more sense to me to store it so it can be easily packed and just buy an extra vise & lamp.

Just another idea if you didnt want to do the separate kit thing.

[ScottP]

I'd add:

ginger dry hackle
deer/elk hair (for wings)
partridge
hen back
biots (goose & turkey)
2mm foam
crystal flash (pearl, rootbeer, etc)
brass/tungsten beads
CDC
calf tail
woodchuck tail/moose body hair

Also, do you really need all of those spools of 6/0 thread? Light Cahill & yellow and camel & dark brown are pretty similar; only saying this if you're looking to save some space.

Don't know what type of water you fish so I included stuff for rough water as well as spring creek type fishing.

Regards,
Scott