Travel Fly kit Materials

Fly Patterns
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1

I am putting together a flytying kit to take along when I travel and was wondering what others put in theres. You can’t take everything with you, or can you?

I am sure this will vary based upon location and species, so - at least to start - lets focus on trout.

Here is what I have come up with so far.

Hooks
Dry fly 18 - 12 (Plus a few 10’s and 8’s in case you hit a Drake Hatch!)
Wet/nymph 16 - 10
streamer 12 - 6
Scud 16

A sampler pack of 6/0 Uni thread
Black, Camel, Dark Brown, Orange, Grey, Lt. Cahil, Olive, Red, Tan, White, yellow, Rusty brown

8/0 Uni thread
Black, Grey, White, Dark Olive

fine Gold/silver tinsel
Copper wire
Lead wire

Blended Rabbit dubbing (in boxes)
tan, lt olive, grey, brown, black, burgundy, olive, dk olive, green, dk brown, Yellow, Pale Yellow

Floss,
Yellow, Olive, Red, Orange

Pheasant Tail
Mottled Turkey
Peacock

White and grey Poly Yarn
grey Antron (zlon)

Dry Hackle in sizes 18 - 10
Grizley
Dk Brown
Med Dun

1 light Dun Hen neck for hackle tip wings.

Olive Chenile
Black Chenile
White Chenile

Maraboo,
Olive,
Black
White,
Brown,
Damsel Olive

Bugger Hackle
Olive, Black, White

An assortment of Panton pens in Olives and greys and tans.

What am I missing?
What do you have in your travel bag?

Ed :cool:

2

WOW!! You must have a really big travel “kit”!!

Rather than all that, just place the materials for each type of fly that you tie for that particular area, into individual zip lock bags. You’ll be able to pull that baggie out and tie the fly you need, with out a bunch of extraneous stuff to haul.

3

I agree with Betty, our club has tie-ins at our local senior center and I take what I need for the fly I plan to tie that day.
You sound like you are packing the way a women packs for an over night trip.

4

Whatchewtalkinboutkrauseb?!?! :shock:

5

Hi Ed,

Wow! I’m with Betty, that is a good sized travel kit. That said, Gretchen and I have several travel kits depending on the situation. The kits we use to do demo’s/shows has 4 rolling, carry-on bags and the small kit we put in our stream-side vest is a zip-lock sandwich bag with a very sparse assortment of stuff. Our kit in the drift boat is the smallest while still quite functional with a hand-held vise and most everything else put in 2" x 2" zip lock bags. One thing you might consider that saves us a lot of space is we “stuff” our dubbing in 2" sections of clear, plastic soda straws available at most fast-food restraurants. The 2" sections (with an assortment of dubbing colors) easily fit in a 3" x 5" zip lock bag. The items in the drift-boat kit all fit into a man’s travel shaving kit.

So Ed, you can make your kit whatever you want it to be AND it looks by your post you are well on your way to a great travel kit. I for one would be very interested in seeing a pic of it and what all you put into it. I’m not sure what Jim & Deanna want regarding articles for the site but I see an interesting piece about putting it together and what you put in it so the rest of us can use your ideas to build on. Take care & …

Tight Lines - Al Beatty
www.btsflyfishing.com

6

Why, if you are going to spend that much time making little packs for flies. Just tie them at home? Isnt the vice and tools the largest part of a tying pack?

Just some thoughts.

7

Since you are taking permanent marking pens with you, buy a few more colors. This way you can take one 6/0 white thread and one 8/0 white thread. you can leave the other 14 spools of thread at home. Use the pens to color white thread as needed. Try to keep things down to what you anticipate tying. When you have too many things with you, it becomes a burden digging for things and the less likely that you will use it.

8

I’ll normally tie up 6 or 8 of a particular fly. If they turn out to be exceptional flies, either for the fish or the trees, I may need to tie up a few more to get through the trip. So at home, I can tie up more, different flies, try them all out, and still be prepared to tie more streamside (or motel side) if the need be. And the ones that don’t “work” you’ve not invested a lot of time or materials. As far as a vise … you can stick the point end of the hook into a low tree branch, use a vice grip pliers, or hold the hook in your fingers.

9

Ed:

What works best for me on the road is what works at home; simple & convenient storage solutions. I tried the separate kit thing but it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me unless I tied FREQUENTLY on the road which I don’t.

This is the way I store my stuff at home:

I keep a good selection of my thread colors on bobbins and they along with ALL of my tools are kept in a large Plano box in the center drawer of my desk. Extra thread, wire, floss and other spooled stuff is kept in smaller labeled Plano type boxes.

My working quantities of dubbing, and any other material except for hackle & feathers are kept in large Zip Lock bags separated by color; olive/green, black, brown, grey, tan, white/yellow/orange.

Feathers are kept in large Rubbermaid bins in the original Zip Lock bags.

I have a “travel” vise & “travel” lamp.

When I go on the road I grab a large duffel and throw in the Plano will all the tools, what ever Zip Lock bag has the color of dubbing I want to use, and any feathers I may need in their original packaging.

Yea it is a pain to pack & unpack all the stuff but knowing how much stuff I would need to make a separate kit and how much it would cost; it made more sense to me to store it so it can be easily packed and just buy an extra vise & lamp.

Just another idea if you didnt want to do the separate kit thing.

10

I’d add:

ginger dry hackle
deer/elk hair (for wings)
partridge
hen back
biots (goose & turkey)
2mm foam
crystal flash (pearl, rootbeer, etc)
brass/tungsten beads
CDC
calf tail
woodchuck tail/moose body hair

Also, do you really need all of those spools of 6/0 thread? Light Cahill & yellow and camel & dark brown are pretty similar; only saying this if you’re looking to save some space.

Don’t know what type of water you fish so I included stuff for rough water as well as spring creek type fishing.

Regards,
Scott

11

I’m with FlyTyer,

When I’m home, I have fun tying flies…so I tie lots of them. While it’s not ideal, I must admit I spend more time at home (with time to tie flies) than I do on the road fishing…

When I’m fishing, I have fun fishing the flies…traveling has other perks, food, sights, and fellowship…and I’ll not spend those times at the vise.

It’s pretty easy to carry a few hundred flies. You can get a thousand size 14 Adams in a zip lock sandwich bag. Tie your flies in five to six dozen lots, and you’ll not run out of that socalled ‘exact right pattern’.

Tie lots of flies when you can’t fish…take them with you.

(If you believe that you’ll find that you don’t have the exact correct fly for the particular place you are going, I can’t help you-that myth takes time and experience to unlearn…)

Buddy

12

Great comments and ideas everyone.

I am a bit compulsive… so when I know I am going on a trip I tie every fly I think I might possibly use on the trip, enough for me and any companion that I might fish with (my dad and my son ;)). But it NEVER fails that I get there and there is something hatching, swiming that I want to match.

So for me, the point of the kit is a) mostly to give me a chance to tie something to fit the situation and LESS to tie up some more of what I left in the trees. b) so that if I am someplace remote I can tie in the motel or the pickup c) so that I don’t spend my entire bank roll at the streamside flyshop… at least not on flys or supplies… this time… maybe. (Last summer was ugly)

I am using a hardsided plastic breifcase for a “Kit.” with an inexpensive but serviceable vice, decent scissors, etc.
The thread and dubbing both came from H&H in “kits.” They don’t really take that much space.

My guess is that from that kit I would be able to take most anything I want in ziplocks, for the vest etc.

Thanks folks, I would be interested in more suggestions still.
Ed:cool:

13

Here’s my minimalist list for travel:

Pheasant tail
Peacock herl
Hare’s mask
Punch yarn sampler (makes a very small package)
grizzly hackle
black thread and maybe some light thread
elk hair
gold wire
light and dark maribou (maybe)

And of course hooks, scissors, vise, bobbin, whip finisher, and head cement.

This should cover most patterns (or a reasonable substitute for almost anything), and if there is something else that I absolutely had to have, I’ll hit the fly shop for them.

I have a wooden travel case set up for my original cheap vise that will hold everything listed, plus some more. I’ll try to get some pics later if anyone is interested.

14

I had a friend give me two large boxes full of old fly fishing magazines (mostly 80’s and 90’s)
in one magazine there is a great article on this topic, I will try to find it and give his list. His point was simpifying. As I recall he took only dry fly hooks beceause he could weight them and use them as wet fly hooks also. I think he also took light colored materials and used a black and brown pen if he needed darker colors. he had it down to a very small amount of materials to cover 90% of the his needs.

I may be wrong

Eric

15

Hi PastorEd,

Hmmm, as it looks to be a full on kit, I would include dark blue floss and black hackles (blue bottle flies, and I tie a dark blue with black hackle spider, a variation on Betty’s blue spider, which is very productive for me) and I’m not happy to be without.

Also, some partridge and/or woodcock soft hackle feathers would be good to have. Mallard wings are good to have too.

If you tie up bead heads, then a small collection of beads would be good.

I don’t see a vice, scissors, or bobbin holders listed! Don’t forget your tools! :slight_smile:

  • Jeff
16

Sorry, Folks, but when traveling I have a large carry on bag ( the kind with a telescoping handle and wheels) that houses most of my tying gear (including tools). Whatever I can’t carry, VEE has in her Fishpond Coyote bag.

I always carry a bunch of stuff to Fish-Ins because a lot of tying goes on at night.

REE

17

These are convenient for providing hackle.

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/pod/horizontal-pod.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/catalog/pod-link.jsp_A&_DAV=MainCatcat20431-cat20542_TGP&rid=&indexId=cat20542&navAction=push&masterpathid=&navCount=1&parentType=index&parentId=cat20542&id=0011691

One word or warning. If you intend to use hackle fibers for tailing material, then bring the largest size packs that they sell. The smaller ones are too small for tailing anything bigger than an 18.

Ed