Budget fly boxes?

FAOL Community Fly Anglers Online
1

What with budget rod threads, budget reels, combos, etc, I have to ask…who uses budget fly boxes? Mostly I’m looking for good ideas, because an inexpensive fly box is harder to find than an uncrowded stream on opening day.

Now there are some really slick fly boxes out there, and I can see why they cost what they do from the construction of them. What baffles me is why even the cheapest, cheesiest flybox costs $10-$15? I have an assortment of boxes collected, none of them really expensive at all, and my only real criteria in choosing a box is that it hold the flys securely without buggering them up, and have a clear top so I can find stuff quickly.

Or is there a benefit to a $30-$50 fly box that I just haven’t been sharp enough to figure out yet?

2

Myran boxes are inexpensive and work well for fly storage.

Google them and shop where you prefer.

Bob :lol:

3

I bought two boxes recently like you are describing. One with flat foam on one side and a clear top, the other with ripple foam and a clear cover. $12.95 and $7.95 from Big 5 Sporting Goods. The ripple foam (7.95) holds about 100 #12 to #20 midges and dry flies. The flat foam holds about 30 #6 to #10 streamer style flies. Also flyshopcloseouts.com has some inexpensive boxes. Jim

4

The benefit is not in the fact that they cost $50. For me i really like the C&F boxes because of they way the slit foam holds dry flies and does not damage the hackle and for the number of flies they can hold. they are waterproof too which is a nice benefit.

I wish they were closer to $15-$20 though.

I have read that there is a knock off of the C&Fs that works as well at a fraction of the price but i havent been able to check them out yet.

5

I’ve used travel soap boxes from Walmart. I buy adhesive backed foam and stick doubled up strips into the box for mounting flies. The boxes are $1 (at most) and the foam is 50 cents a sheet. I can make 4 of them for under $5. Works great for the kids and for light traveling. They look like this:

The foam and box are both white, so it’s tough to see too well.

The good thing is that they are cheap, and you can set them up any way you want. You can probably get some ripple foam into them, too. That’s as economy as I get. I probably should mention that most of my boxes are system-x, though.

6

Vahalla,

Owning nice stuff is fun. I have a couple of ‘expensive’ (if it’s a container and it costs over $30, it’s ‘expensive’) fly boxes that I have received as gifts over the years. They seem to be fine, hold the flies well, pretty water tight, look nice.

But this falls into a ‘how good does it have to be?’ category for me. I have access to lots of bass style plastic boxes, Plano 3600 and 3700 styles, plus some smaller ones…they aren’t expensive, but won’t fit in a fly vest…I use them for bass, pike, and trout fishing from a boat.

I can buy smaller flip top plastic boxes at any tackle store that do fit in a fly vest. I just found an assortment of three at Sports Authority that I got for $2.99…with waterproof gaskets even. Plano sells one that is a single large container, so if you want that foam stuff to stick your hooks into, you can glue a couple of sheets into one of these…generally they are less than $2 most places.

I bought a bunch of really cheap ‘pill boxes’ at the dollar store…each one has three compartments and will hold a couple of dozen flies (7/$1). I do have to deal with the single letter from the ‘S-M-T-W-T-F-S’ on the front of each and the ‘morning, noon, evening’ on each lid…but for the price, I can do that.

If you tie and give away as many flies a I do, you look for ways to save on packaging. I buy those little 2 ounce condimdnt cups, 2500/$9.99, at CostCo…lids cost $4.99/1000. You can put quite a few small flies in these, plus they are perfect for mixing epoxy, on the bench storage of whatever (beads, dumbell eyes, bulk hooks…). I’ve fond myself carrying these more and more into the field…I’ll put a few of a fly I want to ‘try out’ into one and stick it in a vest pocket so it’s easy to find.

For larger flies, I use more and more of the fine tackle packaging made by the folks from Glad. Zip lock plastic baggies come in lots of sizes…you can separate out different large streamers or topwater flies easily, and cram quite a few of them into a vest pocket or tackle bag compartment. Water proof if you close them properly, cost penies each.

If you only fish where you ‘know’ the fishing well, a couple of small fly boxes with exactly the right stuff is probably all you really ‘need’…but if you fish unfamiliar waters, or fish for a lot of different species, or just fish a lot of different places over the year, it can get pretty pricey to keep fancy fly boxes for each type of fly/species/location (depending on how you choose to organize them). Putting the flies into the boxes and then pulling them out to ‘reset’ your arsnenal for each outing is way too much work for me.

I knew a fellow that liked to work with wood…he made some really nice fly boxes that fit his vest exactly (that’s becomiong more and more of a problem it seems-box makers and vset makers don’t seem to talk much…). If you have such skills and the time, it’s pretty classy looking and very effective. Cheap except for the time involved.

Buddy

7

Valhalla 1…
About three years ago I was Bonefishing at Turneffe Flats, Belize.
We were in a 16’ Dolphin flat boat going from one flat to another a high speed.
I had neglected to put one of my C&F waterproof boxes away and it was on a seat next to me.
Well, we hit a good sized wave and the box flew out of the boat as we were doing probably 30 or 40 miles an hour.
By the time we slowed down and turned around, we must have been 100 yards from where I had lost the box.
We went back and after about ten or fifteen minutes of searching, we found the box floating along like a little sailboat. Any other box would have been on the bottom.
When I started counting the recovered flies, I figure that I had saved from $350 to $400 worth of flies.
That’s what makes the expensive boxes worth it.
DickM. :cool:

8

I’ve used Hook and Hackle brand fly boxes for years. Their boxes have foam ridges on one side and flat foam on the other. They ranged for $5-$6 for small boxes (shirt pocket size) to $10 for a larger box (hard to stuff in bluejean pocket). I’ve found them to be very satisfactory. I also use soap boxes like Ol’ Blue, they work well too. Sorry, no rose-wood, engraved fly boxes here. 8T :slight_smile:

9

One thing I saw was a guy who put foam inside old Altoid boxes. Sounds kind of silly but was a cool idea. Light alloy box , just the right size. Made me wish I would have thought of it.

10

I do like to save a few bucks whenever I can, but i find a good quality fly box is well worth it. As soon as you get 100 flies in a box (which is not difficult) the contents far out weight the box in terms of cost.

I use a wheatley salmon fly box, and it holds well over salmon flies, which if I were to buy 100 salmon flies in a shop it would cost me a heck of a lot of money. I do not like having to pay a lot of money for boxes but you often get what you pay for.

That said, I have no beefs with FlyMate boxes. I love how simple they are, for nymphs, streamers and dries. As for salmon flies, i would have to insist on clips.

The CF fly boxes are great also, even though they do cost twice as much as most, they are excellent for how they hold flies. Fly boxes are a very person thing. I would be happy with the all foam boxes.

Phil

11

I made 4 small boxes for a grand total of $4.13 a couple weeks ago. I bought a package of four small plastic boxes from Hobby Lobby for $2.99 and a piece of foam for $0.79. I already had some super glue. Add it all together, with tax, and it was $4.13.

The boxes are about 3" x 5" and have 5 compartments in various sizes. I then glued two strips of foam to the lid (to fit inside the largest compartments). I basically use them as specialty boxes. One is a bluegill box (small clousers and crawdads go in the compartments, nymphs, bugs and beetles go in the foam on the lid). Another is a carp box. It’s about as cheap of a fly box and you can get, and a similar size/style box at the local fly shop is $12.99.

12

I use similar boxes for hooks, a little acetone and a paper towel will take the letters off the box and make them much easier to see through. Unless of course they are the raised letter type

13

These;
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/catalog/item-link.jsp_A&_DAV=MainCatcat20431-cat20550&id=0011269315995a&navCount=1&podId=0011269&parentId=cat20550&masterpathid=&navAction=push&catalogCode=IK&rid=&parentType=index&indexId=cat601233&hasJS=true
sell at Cabela’s and almost every where else for about $10.
But, if you go to Walmart and look in the pharmacy, you can find the same box in a totally different color for around $1.
REE turned me onto these boxes (pill boxes) about 3-4 years ago. Thanks Ron.

14

pill boxes! never thought of that. And the other ideas about soap boxes and altoid tins are stellar too. I’ve got a nicer nubby box from Cabela’s that got nubby material on top and bottom that hugs the hook bend. But for displaying my swaps, I buy the cheap Plano clear top rippled foam boxes that go for about $6 each at Wal-Mart. But I’m going to try the other ones as well. WOuld be good to make up and give out at the local DOW’s fly tying clinic coming up.

15

Managed to buy two of those boxes Lotech mentioned a couple years ago at one of the nearby Walmarts but they never had any after that - kinda bumbed about that - I liked those boxes.

Dennis

16

Some interesting ideas…thanks! I’ve done the Altoids boxes, but when you have 4 or five of them, they all look alike. My best purchase was at Walmart a few years ago. They had Flambeau boxes on sale for $1.99 each. They are about 6" x 3" x 5/8" and made of clear plastic, but the problem was that the foam that was glued in the bottom was about a 1/4" thick. I scraped that out and put in new 1/16" thick foam. I wish I had a dozen more.

I’d try the seven day pill boxes, but with my luck, mix them up and end up taking a #16 Adams in the morning by mistake. Any more ideas?

17

just use an old video tape box and it floats !

18

I also use the Wally World pill boxes.

A few years back SportsmanZhaus sold a grey compartment box for like three bucks. I think they caught on that they could sell it for more becuse there was a demand for it as a fly box.

Recently for fun I bought myself one of those cool wooden boxes on clearance.
I’m trying to fill it with wets and drys from Hellickson’s Popular Fly Patterns-my first pattern book.
…it’s a pretty big box; this is gonna take some more time. :slight_smile:

And one of these days I’m gonna get off my duff and make a really nice fly wallet. Heck I’ve made such great leather stuff for so many other people yet never did anything for myself. Art of Angling Journal showcased one guy who does leather for fly fishing but he paints his leather-I really only use oil or stain.
So…lazy…must…buy…cheap…pill…box…

19

If your looking for budget C & F boxes check this out:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Irideus-Hatch-Threader-Fly-Box-Chironomid-Trout-lake_W0QQitemZ190299329216QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item190299329216&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

I think they are sold on ebay only, I purchased one and it seems pretty good, haven’t taken it fishing yet. I’m not sure how they compare to C & F boxes in quality but they price was right!

Wayneb

20

travel soap boxes before. Not very big but if you using dries than you dont really need a lot of room I guess. Also to, the top is kinda domed, so it wont crush hackles. Works for me.