How do you organise your fly collection?

Hi, my wife and I are just starting out in fly fishing and have our first set of gear. we have a small collection of flys, but realise that you probably end up with quite a lot after a while. Given that it's going to be a while before I can recognise them by just looking, I wondered how people organise their collection of flys and fly boxes.

So far I have some nymphs (princes, pheasants tails) lures (wooly buggers) and drys (black knats, elk hair caddis, adams, brown pheasant tails, and gold ribbed hairs ears) all in a selection of sizes.

I thought perhaps a box for each of those categories, but then you have the different types and sizes etc. It could get fairly messy quite quickly. Would you keep a box for each different style or type of fly? I figure other people must have the same problem, so I thought I'd ask here.

I have a couple of small fly boxes and some empty altoids tins to convert over and wondered what you do.

Thanks for the help,

Justin.

I suggest you organize by the type of fishing you do. If you are just starting out, I would put all your flies in one box designed to hold dries and wets. I like the C&F boxes for this. Eventually, you can sort out by the types of destinations you fish or types of fish you fish for. For example, I have a box for lake fishing, another for freestones, another for tailwaters, an "all-around" box etc. If you fish in saltwater or warmwater you can set up boxes for that, too.

I used to seperate by types of flies but the problem is you get too many boxes and often you have to reach into the back of your vest, your pack, or even go back to the car for the right fly. Ever since I started organizing by the type of fishing I do, I'm much more likely to have the type of fly I need at hand rather than looking all over for it.

Best,

-John

[Migs]

Hi mr_magicfingers:

I would look at some fly catalog and look at their categories. Then according to these categories I would put them in different boxes with foam. (I like slit foam, but it tends to be more expensive) Cabelas sells really cheap foam boxes. Therein they would be organized by hook size, and placing similar ones together. Then I would buy one nice box for each of you and your wife (like the c&f designs swing leaf), and put an assortment from the main collection on each leaf. Drys, Nymphs, Bead heads, Streamers, Attractors, etc. - one set on each leaf. These to take to the stream or lake. The extra space you could use for special flies you know are particular to your destination. One extra thing I do is take all the dry flys and treat them with Loon Hydrostop before parking them in the box so that they will be waterproof and less work at the fishing destination.

Migs

[ohiotuber]

Justin,
John is right on the money!!! I organized mine by type of fly & he's right, you end up with too many boxes. Here in northeast Ohio, we are having AWFUL weather this week (snow on ground now), so I will go to work re-organizing. I own one of those large softsided tackle bags with 5 plastic boxes that have adjustable trays. I will keep my "inventory" in those & set up a "trip box" containing the flies of all types that I think I need that day. I will keep my large bag in the Jeep for replenishment & change. BTW, that tackle bag also has outside pockets..good for leaders, tippet, floatant,etc.....stuff that's small enough to loose in a larger duffel. My large duffel holds tube fins, pump, waders, boots, chest pack, lanyard, rain gear, change of clothes.
Mike

[RL]

I find that organising by fly category leads to too many boxes as well, however i still use this method for easy access to flies: i can just find a nymph box and pick out a nymph.

As it stands, i cant afford as many boxes as i need, so i use plastic, sectioned ziploc containers to hold flies that have been newly added to the inventory. After a while, these are either upgraded to a box, downgraded to an unravel bin (nothing is wasted, but reused) or left in the ziploc. I use several real flyboxes, but i use old metal "oxford boxes" that used to hold grade school geometry sets. I organise flies into:
-Terrestriels and Stoneflies
-Bass bug and saltwater
-Small Nymphs
-Dries
and - Streamers

this seems to work, but i need some more fly boxes as the inventory is growing

i wonder if this helps


RL

[Royal Wulff]

magic, RW here

I don't. It's all over the house, probably in every room. I tie everwhere. I recently found a box of six dozen size 16 & 18 light cahill dry flies I tied over 20 years ago in the back of a desk I cleaned out. But that's good, cuz it's hard for me to tie that small anymore.....lol.

Later, RW

------------------
"We fish for pleasure; I for mine, you for yours." -James Leisenring on fishing the wet fly-

[herefishy]

Until you know whether you are going to be the type of angler that drops fly boxes in the river, like me, I would advise against taking a 35.00 fly box to the stream. I keep most of my flies in the large plastic storage boxes like from the crafts store, and then put them into smaller boxes to take to the stream - just got some of the little travel boxes from Wally World at 95 cents each that have 5 small compartments and 1 large one. Perfect size to lose - no big investment in the box, and not too terribly many flies in each box. Another thing to think about - do not put dry flies into the ripple foam boxes, as the hackle gets matted down. I don't have to have boxes for different kinds of fishing, as I only fish rivers for trout, so I basically have one big box for dries and one for nymphs, then numerous smaller ones as necessary.

[Jed]

I have three boxes. ONe with small compartments (Okuma) that I keep dry flies in. One for my nymphs and one for my streamers, hoppers and big flies. I carry all types of flies at all times so I don't have to worry if I have them or not.

For salt I keep a box with clouser types (weighted streamers), one with deceiver types (unweighted stramers) and one with crabs, shrimps and other smaller flies.

jed

[Enemy_of_Carp]

Being mostly a steelhead fisherman(And around these parts that requires you to carry/lose alot of flies) I do carry three LARGE boxes on stream with me. One for eggs, one for nymphs, one for streamers/speys. I also carry two large warmwater boxes for my local lake during the year.

Though this year Im going to try angling for stream trout and Ive really tried to work out whats the best way to do it and reading OT's idea really clicks well for me. A day tripper with extra storage kept in your vehicle for emergencies.

At one time though, just a thought, I had seperated my flies into seasons. Early fall run flies, winter holdover flies, spring run flies. However as of last year my fly theories on what fly to fish when during the steelhead runs was flipped completely on its side one day when I took a fly off my patch from last spring that shouldnt have worked in the fall. It worked well and to the tune of quite a few fish.

[fishlux]

Orgainize? Why would I do that? Then I'd never find them.

Lux