Fly Boxes & Organization

There are three things that are inevitable for the fly fisherman. Death. Taxes. And accumulating too many flies. It's just a simple fact of life that any angler will, in time, accumulate all sorts of flies.

And thus arises the problem of what to do with them all. Flies are light and don't take up much space. But thats a problem unto itself, since stuffing flies into a box with other dissimilar flies creates a organizational problems nightmares are made of.

For this reason, anglers, whether new or experienced, always need to keep one step of the organizational nightmare of their flies. This is accomplished through the judicious use of fly boxes, fly wallets and "on the road" fly storage systems. Each have their place - and which one is right for a particular angler depends on the anglers own personality, number of flies owned and other personal considerations.

In short, there is no "one way to store flies." Just be sure to find a way to store flies that works well for you.

On the rest of this page, will go over some ideas on how to store and organize your flies. Feel free to modify them to suit your needs - or even not use them at all!

Featured Fly Box

Cabelas Aluminum Fly Box (Bantam 6 comp box) : Whether you need a box to store dry flies or nymphs, these boxes meet your needs. Available in five styles. ...$14.99

More Information at Cabela's

Considerations to Fly Organization

When organizing your flies, the angler needs to think about both how to organize the flies for off-stream and on-stream use. Unless you have less than 100 flies, there is absolutely no reason to bring along every fly you own to the river with you.

Instead, the general plan of attack is to have a main fly storage system/boxes/whatever that holds your flies when home and is portable enough to take with you in the car or in an airplane.

Then, when you reach the water, you take whatever flies you need out of this fly storage system you have and put them in the fly boxes you'll carry in your fishing vest when you are actually fishing. This way, you avoid overloading your fishing vest with innumerable fly boxes, keep your vest slim and not bulky, and in general have a far easier time of organization.

At Home & In the Car Fly Organization

So, this leads to the question, what to use for at-home/in-the-car fly organization. Well, there are several ways to go about it. You can buy a multitude of different fly boxes - storing your flies in them and then hoping you don't forget to bring one with you. Or, get some large, relatively inexpensive fly boxes that can be neatly stored in a bag or piece of luggage that has been specifically designed to do just that.

The second way, of course, is to just have 4-5 medium-large fly boxes you normally take out on the water with you. One box holds dries, another holds wets, a third holds streamers, etc...Just be doubly sure to grab them all when you head to the water - more than a few anglers have hit the Bighorn River only to find their nymphs back in New York on the shelf where they were left.

On the Stream Fly Organization

For on the water-storage of flies, there are several routes to choose from. The one I prefer is one medium box and two smaller ones. The medium box consists of compartments on the bottom and foam on the top. The two smaller boxes are a mix of one foam box and one compartment box. The medium box goes in the right pocket and the two smaller boxes go in the left pocket. This system has the benefit of being inexpensive, keeps organization a breeze and allows you to take enough flies so as to not have to worry about trudging back to the car to get more. It also has the advantage of allowing you to "load up" on your favorite fly for the day.

Other systems exist, of course, for on-the-water fly organization. Some anglers prefer to get one large box that holds all the flies they need for on-the-water use. This keeps all the flies you need in one place and also frees up one of the the larger side pockets on your vest for other uses.

Yet other anglers do what I call the "fly box by name" system. The angler gets a bunch of small compartment or foam boxes - very small, actually. Each box will hold only one type of fly, in differing sizes. While this seems like it may be limiting, in fact, its got advantages. If you know that the trout are hitting on the Parachute Adams, there isn't much of a reason to go out with a bunch of hoppers or streamers. Instead, you're better off going armed with differing sizes of Parachute Adams and flies that look very similar to it. And those tiny little "fly by name" boxes are a fine way to keep particular flies organized by size - while making sure you have enough flies of the right type in the right size for the type of fishing you expect.

Anglers that use this sytem invariably label each fly box with a waterproof marker - so as to specify what each fly box holds and to avoid accidental insertion of the wrong fly.

Of course, the downsize to this is that you can potentially end up with lots of small fly boxes in your vest - leading to some organizational problems. But there are ways to partially counter this, especially once you've used this system for a while. This system isn't for me - but it might be for you.

Featured Fly Storage System

Scientific Anglers Max 432 Fly Box : Holds 432 small flies (sizes 14-26). Dimensions: 4-3/4"x 3-1/2" x 1-3/8". ...$25.95

More Information at Cabela's

Find Fly Boxes

Top of Page