It’s been a long winter up here in Wisconsin and I’ve been tying flies off and on for a couple of months. What a winter it’s been. We are getting snow right now and Green Bay got a record 9 inches yesterday.
I tied up 7 boxes of flies. I donated two boxes of 9 dozen flies for our TU State Council Banquet and my local TU chapter banquet. Here are the 5 boxes of flies that are left.
I just finished tying up a box of Morrish Hopper patterns for hoppers, salmon flies, yellow sallies, golden stones, and crickets. The Morrish hopper seems to be a good match for them.
I know the abdomen is a brighter color on my flies but the Salmon flies on Madison have orange bellies.
I used 1/4" = 6 mm foam and pinking shears to make the notches. You can use different colors of adhesive backed 2 mm foam to code the boxes for fly types. For example I use red, green and white adhesive foam. This box is a white foam backed. I bought the empty boxes at Michaels. They retail for 2.99 but I got them for 40% off. The boxes cost less than $3.00 each so I give them away to my friends and use them for the flies I donate.
If you want to duplicate the boxes I make, you can get instructions here:
Silver, I’m still in awe of what you’ve done, especially with the generous donation. I only have one thing to say Keep up the great work. Now you’ve gone and done it though, with the new box project, my wife is gonna kill me
Thanks for the info Silver. I thought I saw something like that awhile back. Ironically, I just bought several of those boxes at Michaels last week when they were on sale.
Aquaseal is expensive so I read about a cheaper alternative on FAOL that is also a urethane product that can be used for tying flies. It should work for glueing the foam in the boxes.
So I bought some Fabric Fusion to try but haven’t used it yet. Just a suggestion in case you have some Fabric Fusion handy instead of Aquaseal.
In regards to donating flies, our state council asked each chapter to donate a box full of flies. The new CEO of TU, Chris Woods attended out State Banquet, so I decided to tie up some flies. I moved my tying desk into the TV room and after I tied that box, I just kept tying for myself. In about a week, it became something I wanted to do rather than had to do. The more the flies filled the boxes, the more I wanted to tie and then I tied up the box for our local banquet.
I used to look at fly tying as something I did just before a trip, as more of a chore. I’ve got to say that now it is really about enjoying tying. I highly recommend it.
The other thing is that once you’ve got the basic tying done for your own needs, you can experiment with new patterns and it gets fun to try new things.
Silver, funny you should mention your moving your tying station. I did the same thing this winter due to my surgery and now I just can’t get enough. Somewhere I heard something about great minds…
Silver,
Have you ever tried the adhesive backed foam for the boxes? The kind that has a paper backing on it that you peel off and then just stick on. Wonder if the glue holds up. Also, what is the need to not simply glue the whole foam strip in as opposed to just the center portion?
You probably missed in my instructions that adhesive backed foam is what I use for the foam liner. That white foam background on the left or bottom side of the box is the adhesive backed foam. This is the foam I use to color code the boxes. In other boxes it is red or green or yellow, etc. After cut the pattern for this foam backing, I then glue the foam strips to it.
Then I place a closed empty box on top of the glued strip and two full wine bottles on the box to hold the strips in place. You can place multiple glued foam backings with strips on top of each other because the strips will line up and the single box and wine bottles will compress all the strips to the backing for drying.
For this particular box, the bottom of a box will also fit on the open side of the lid of the box. So the same method can be used to hold these strips on the lid in place for drying.
If you meant adhesive backed foam for the actual slit foam, I have not been able to find 1/4" adhesive backed foam. I you can get some, I think it would be a good option. I don’t know how long it will last.
The foam strips have the Aquaseal just down the middle of backside of the strip. I use Aquaseal because it dries clear.
Nice flies! You have been very busy. I feel your pain as I have been tying a lot too the past winter. Keep the pics coming! Now we want to see the big 5-7 pounder with one of these in the corner of it’s mouth!
Morrish Hoppers have been THE hopper pattern for us on the Jellystone the past couple years. I hadn’t thought about usung them as a salmonfly immitation, but if we have fishable water for them come this spring I’ll be sure to give them a shot. Thanks for the idea.
I not only tied salmon flies but yellow sallies and golden stones. I tied also up crickets also using the Morrish Hopper method. If you look up cricket photos they are actually brown on the belly and black on top, so I used that color combination.
I hope the Morrish salmon fly works for you. I won’t be getting out to fish that hatch this year so please, please PM me if you get to try them. Good luck.
Very nice, comprehensive collection of patterns!! Thank you also for your generous donation to Trout Unlimited! I’m sure your efforts are greatly appreciated! I’m proud to be in the company of such nice folks.
Keep up the great work. Now you’ve gone and done it though, with the new box project, my wife is gonna kill me 
