Soooo...now what?

[CaseyP]

you pick a swap, you find the pattern, you find the ingredients, you tie the flies, you pack them up, you mail them (with a SASE!!), and you wait a little bit, and then--hooray!--you get this box of flies in the mail...

now what? do you open the box, admire the contents, and

1) throw the box in a drawer?
2) take out the flies and sort them in to your boxes by type or destination or whatever?
3) take out the flies, put them on some sort of display, print out the recipes and add them?
4) put them in a drawer and occasionally take them out and wonder how they'll fish?
5) something else?

i've got 9 boxes of flies in that drawer. some of them belong in a frame. some of them ought to be in my own box (but if i lose them i'll never know what they were!). some of them ought to be adopted and duplicated quick before i forget what i meant to do...

surely i'm not alone in all this?

[ol' blue]

Well, with my hosting habits, I have quite a few around. From my last guess-timate, I have over 500 flies sitting around with toetags still on them. I have sets of them ready for new fly fishermen or tyers that I might come across. Some get used, many get duplicated, and I'm trying to reduce the number of boxes I take with me in my vest. There are just too many flies that I've received that look too good not to have several in my box.

[Ron Eagle Elk]

I keep most as sample of the fly, along with the recipe if it's provided. About once a year I go through all the flies, decide which ones I really have good luck with, put them in a special box, then package the rest up as a gift to a new fly fisher. If I duplicated every pattern I like from a swap, I'd be lugging around 500 fly boxes.

[bdesavage]

Here's what I do with my Swap Flies.
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...e/100_1599.jpg
My Fancy Frames are Cigar Boxes with Foam in the Lid's and Bottom's.
I copy the one's I want to fish and keep the originals.

[Normand]

i throw em in a rubbermaid shoe box. some i'll keep, some i'll .....

[Vulture6]

Bill (bdesavage)- that's pretty cool. I like your solution... a lot.

Me, well I spend a couple of days admiring the skill of many of the folks here. Then I try to sort through and pull out those that will serve as models -- either patterns I haven't seen before that look applicable to my area or those that show techniques that I am not familiar with. These "model" flies will stay in a separate box and be pulled out as necessary.

Some flies are just so doggone perfect -- either very unique patterns or unbelievably beautifully tied or just too darn eloquent to ever be fished by a heathen like me, they too go into what I call an ambition box -- anytime I start feeling too cocky about my tying ability I pulled this box out for a good serving of humble pie.

Other flies go into my fishing stock - though I do keep a list of who tied what just in case I take a trophy on someone else's fly, so that I can send a PM and let them know.

[Rick Z]

I usually keep the swap flies so I have the original to copy.
On occasions I have been able to gives flies to other people that came from tiers that they knew. I like to be able to give an unused fly.

Rick

[modocdan]

I set some aside for a wall display. I have the Geography swap flies waiting for a fill in swap for that purpose. However most go in my boxes in the appropriate place to fish them later. Streamside, I am pretty generous when folks ask me what's shakin' or whatever, I often give flies away, so I asways have space to fill in my boxes. Some,
of course, I use to decorate the trees around my fishing spots, you know, to make the outdoors more attactive... ...............ModocDan The flies I get back in swaps are excellent, and were intended to be fished, so I mostly do that...............

[Gnu Bee Flyer]

I have a drawer full of swap boxes. I am trying to find a really big decent North american map for my wall. When I finally find one, I will stick the flies in the state or province from which it came. I also have started a file on the puter with all the recipes of each fly. Which I cross referenced by state or province. I have a 5 foot by 5 foot spot on my tying room wall ready for the map. Now just have to get off my butt and go looking for the map.

Ps I took the 12 pheasant tail nymph swap flies from last years swap, fishing. I fished them all at one time or another because they arrived just as I was leaving, I flung them in with my gear. I got to the lake and discovered that I had left my regular fly box at home. Those nymphs saved the day. I had one of the best days ever at that lake. I can't believe I never lost even one. That whole swaps flies are tried and true.

Mostly I don't know what to do with the warm water flies I get in swaps as We have no warm water here in the frozen north. Thats partly why the map Idea came about. If I ever get it done I will post pics.

[CaseyP]

when i started this thread, i was thinking of all those Carrie Stevens streamers and other esoterica i have sitting in that drawer, but real life has taken over:

today i took my box of last year's wet fly swap to the stream just in case, and whaddayano, they accounted for the fish i caught today.

so now, if the swap flies are the right size, their box goes in the shirt pocket. at the end of the day I can check to see whose flies got used and if anything good happened and let them know. cool beans!

now i gotta join some more practical swaps...


and thanks for the neat ideas!