Does anyone really need a fly box that is waterproof? If it was that means water can’t get in, but it also can’t get out. Put a fly back that is even a little wet and it creates a high humidity environment to rust all your hooks.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t usually take a dip with my flyboxes. If it is raining, my wet jacket goes on over my vest or pack. So I don’t see a need for a waterproof box.
Does anyone else hold my view? or am I the only one? Just seems that most of the newer boxes coming out state they are waterproof more than once, so companies must see that as some sort of selling point. I just don’t get it.
Flyrodde,
I agree with you. I have a couple and the rubber gasket also comes out every time I open one. I would think that a fly box being NON-waterproof would be a selling point.
Joe
I know one good reason: The fly box floats!! I was by myself fishing the Rio Cochrane in Chile this last November, and dropped a huge C&F streamer box with about 60 nice flies out of my hands and into the current. This was potentially devastating with no way to re-supply them if they were lost, and I was on week one of four. I kept my eye on the box as it floated downstream, and started down river watching it. If floated into an eddy and hung up on a log jam on the opposite shore. It took me a 1/2 mile hike to find a place to cross (nearly lost it as I waded to my chest) and then backtrack back up the other side. But my box was holding in the eddy and I recovered it. For sure a shout of joy.
I have also dropped the C&F boxes out of my cataraft or driftboat, and they are easy to recover do to how well they float.
After each days fishing, I open the box up and let everything dry out. In addition to wet flies if it pouring rain when you are fishing, a fair amount of moisture will get in the box, and you don’t want to store the box closed until everything is fully dry.
I’m sure it will happen, but I have never dropped a box in the water. But most of my boxes will float, they just don’t keep water out if submerged. And if I am that worried about it someday, I will have lanyards tied from the inside on the pockets to the boxes that go in them. I still don’t see why they have to be “waterproof”.
I made the investment after a float trip where it rained heavily. At the end of the day I remembered to bring inside and dry out the two boxes that were in my vest. Unfortunatly the other 4 boxes I had not been using stayed in the side pocket of the pontoon boat, thinking that they had stayed dry since I had not open them up during the trip.
By the time I got home a day later and unpacked, all of the hooks in the unopened boxes had rusted. I lost over 300 of my best homemade flies.
Orvis makes a nice gasket sealed waterproof box with a special rust inhibitor, cheap inverstment compared to the replacement cost of the flies they hold.
They don’t have to be waterproof, but it’s nice if they are, so they person who finds your dropped fly box gets flies that are in good, dry condition. :twisted:
-Erik
Gramps- I don’t want stainless hooks for my flies. If I break a fish off- it DOES happen!- I want a hook that will not stay in the fish’s jaw forever.
Why waterproof? Well, I’ve taken a few dunkings over the years, and my fly boxes invariably ship a little water. No big deal with subsurface flies, but a real problem if I’m going to fish dries soon after. However, I only have one gasketed box, and I noticed the gasket has deteriorated over time. Not waterproof anymore!
When you buy electronics, and other stuff sometimes there is a small packet of silica gel in the box. Throw that in your box. I use it in many of my boxes, crankbaits or flies.
Stainless steel hooks are made in larger sizes and often used for saltwater applications. They will still rust, though it takes longer.
Local saltwater kayak anglers and surf anglers often find waterproof boxes essential to protect flies from the eventual dunking. Hooks dunked in saltwater rust much more quickly.
For freshwater applications I use both types. If I dunk a non-waterproof box in freshwater, I open it up and let it air dry as soon as I can, in the sun if possible. If a non-waterproof box gets dunked in the saltwater, I have to take the extra step of rinsing all the flies out, an even then there are usually a few losses.
A few years ago I was fishing on California’s Pit River when I slipped on some slimy rocks. When pushing myself back up, my hand came in contact with an obviously man made object completely covered with algae and other organic material. I scraped this stuff off and revealed an Orvis waterproof box filled with 5 dozen various nice adult and emergent mayfly patterns. A nice bonus!
I have waterproof boxes, and non-waterproof. The non-waterproof are the moulded foam ones, with magnetic closures. Easy to open and close, and they float so high that nothing inside gets wet even if I drop one. Very inexpensive also.
I’ve got a couple of those SA boxes…I actually really just like the fact that they are clear and I can see my flies without having to open the box…it’s just an added bonus that they’re waterproof…
Waterproof or not your hooks WILL rust if you put them away wet in ANY fly box.
If I fish on a rainy day I leave my boxes open overnight and I use a Fly Trap for the flies I change which also gets left open despite the ventilation holes.