Help!!!! Messy question

All about flies Fly Tying
1

I knocked my hook bin over and created a mess. Hooks all over the floor. There were dry fly hook. Wets. Nymphs. No. 16s. No. 14s. All sorts of every size. I spent the whole day trying to sort them out.

They’re back in the bins but I’m afraid some are a little mixed up.

Any easy way to do this?

2

I can’t give you any hints about sorting very similar hooks, but perhaps a tip to minimize the liklehood of it happening again. I keep my hooks in the typical multi-compartment plastic boxes. To prevent or at least minimize the problem you experienced, I purchased a roll or sticky back ruberized magnetic strip. I cut off about one inch and stick it in bottom of each compartment. That way if I do drop the box with the lid open, the magnet keeps the large majority of the hook in place rather than scattered over the carpet. I also have one of those strong magnets on a long (3 ft) handle used by auto mechanics if they drop a bolt or tool. When I do drop a hook onto thje floor, I never have to leave my tying chair to find/retreive it. I simply pass the magnet over the area a couple of times and it gets picked up every time. I hope this helps.

Good luck with sorting the hooks.

Jim Smith

3

Im sorry for your troubles, probably the only way to do this easy is donate them to the boy scouts and buy new. :rolleyes:

I have magnets glued in my fly box to keep them in place, It wont help now but perhaps in the future it will save you troubles.

Eric

4

Thanks for the good suggestions!

5

Magnets, yes. I’ve done this for about 7 or 8 years now. I also use a magnet to pick hooks up from off the floor.

6

I’m probably going to be in the minority but I just leave them in the original containers. I buy Mustads by the 100 pk. My storage system is set up so I keep all streamer hooks and sizes in one box, wets in another box, drys another, etc. If I end up spilling any, they are all the same size, maybe hard to find but not hard to sort.

7

I also use magnets, both for pickup of spilled hooks, and to stay organized. My hook boxes have a magnet in the bottom of each compartment, and whenever I’m tying, I get out a few hooks at a time, (usually 12), and get more when I’ve used them. I use several of the same size smaller 6 compartment clear plastic boxes for hook storage. I use several small rether than one or two large boxes to minimize the trauma when (not if) I have a wreck and spill. Magnets are a wonderful thing…ModocDan

8

I can only image what that mess looks like. Many years ago, I had a very well stocked worm box with hundreds of weights and hundreds of hooks (not to mention hundreds of worms) flip over in my bass boat. Actually, it was worse than a flip. I hit a boat wake at high speed. The worm box flew about three feet in the air, turned over completely at that height and dumped the entire contents all over the floor of the boat. Three or four more hard bumps scattered the contents that hit the floor into every conceivable corner of the boat. It took days to put that box back together.

I generally do what Rookie has suggested. I keep the hooks in their original boxes. It’s not the best space solution or search time solution but it prevents major disasters. Magnets may help but you still have many nights of sorting ahead. 8T :slight_smile:

9

Well you have convinced me to stop looking for a good hook box and keep them in the packages I buy them in. I am so sorry you had to have this trouble for me to sort out that I need keep them as is.

Thanks for sharing,

Skip

10

Steve,

You should know that your not alone. A post similar to this shows up about every 6 months.

Good luck with the sorting. Don’t worry about finding them all. When you think you have them all, walk through the area barefooted, you’ll find more.

REE

11

Sorting hooks is it? Not a problem, strech a string or thin wire between two points. Take one bin at a time and hang the hooks and sight down them. What dont match you sort out. Hang them on a folded index card works too, the odd ones will show up much easier than you may think.

12

Been there done that.

Try sorting in stages. First sort hooks by type (shape). Than in the second stage sort them by size.

13

My search for a hook box just ended. Good thread.

14

I did the same thing about 5 yrs ago, never did sort them again, just stuffed them back in the compartments at random. Now I keep all hooks in original boxes and looking forward to the day when my hook bin is empty so I can throw it out.

15

I have to respectfully disagree with the above suggestion by qrrfish. It may work for some but it is a recipe for further grief for the careless among us, particularly those individuals with more than the allotted number of two thumbs, i.e. me. First of all, getting several billion hooks lined up on the string or worse yet a wire is no small, easy task. The second problem occurs if you accidentally tweak the wire as you are taking hooks off. Three words----bow and arrow. Hooks go flying all over the place again. This is particularly true if you catch the barb or the hook eye on the wire as you are trying to lift a hook clear of the wire. You would be surprised how small a force is required to completely empty your whole wire in a split second. Please don’t ask me who I know this—but you can take that to the bank. 8T :wink:

16

OBVIOUSLY, Steve, you’ve yet to reach “The True Heights” of maddening mistakes with fly tying materials…
I have an aluminum box, 12" x 10" x 3/4" (with hinged lid), and inside this box there are 50 small trays, with flip lids.
In each tray, there WERE AT ONE TIME, all of my bead heads, cone heads, barbell eyes, and tapered bodies.

Well, in short… I found out, about 3 months ago or so, that…

  1. Aluminum boxes WILL bounce, when dropped 3’ from a tying table to a hardwood floor.
  2. Regardless of hinge type, ANY LID will spring open to its fullest dimension, upon impact.
  3. “Flip Lid” is also defined as “Any lid, that when you least need it to, will FLIP open, spilling its contents”.
  4. Brass is not, magnetic.
  5. Lead is not magnetic.
  6. Barbell eyes can reach a very high “rolling speed”, when properly motivated.
  7. Cone heads are very impressionable and WILL try their hardest to copy the antics of escaping barbell eyes.
  8. Round, glass, brass, lead and non-lead beads can out roll even the most determined cone head and barbell eyes.
  9. Regardless of time of day, or night, no matter if inside, or, outside… a domesticated house cat WILL SHOW UP, within seconds of hearing the sounds caused by 5,000 objects hitting the floor and WILL ALWAYS “offer its assistance”, in helping you coral and clean up the mess.
  10. Domesticated house cats can reach a very high running speed, when having their lives threatened by really ticked off fly tiers.
  11. Wives will not assist you, in your materials rescue efforts, but like the cat, will appear out of nowhere and in MANY WAY, remind you that "Your language, at the moment is NOT AT ALL appreciated, by HER, and/or, the mother of your grandchild in the next room.
  12. At a minimum of 5 months, later, your granddaughter WILL remember EVERY word she heard you utter that fateful day and repeat most of them, verbatim, and flawlessly when your mother in-law has come for dinner.
  13. Tungsten beads and cones by some mystery, can out roll brass.

I’ve never spilled my hooks. I wish I would have, instead.