The Answer to Every Question in Fly Fishing
Ever since a I can remember I’ve been doing something that might be considered strange and have always wondered if I’m the only one, or if other anglers do it as well. Basically, I “cull” flies from my fly box. That is, when I take a fly out of my box to fish it, that’s it. It stays out of the box. Forever. I’ll continue to fish it until it’s lost but I will never put it back in the box once it’s hit the water. Is that strange?
I’m not sure why I do this. Perhaps it’s partly because I think looking through one’s fly box is akin to looking into their soul and I’m subconsciously afraid of what people might think if they peruse mine only to find a motley crüe of disheveled, beat up flies. I like handing my fly box over to curious onlookers knowing that every pattern in every compartment is just as it was when it came off the vise–with nice, crisp hackles perfectly splayed.
It might seem like a waste to do this but just because I don’t return them to the box after fishing doesn’t mean they’re completely excommunicated. I have a foam patch in my chest pack where I keep used flies under quarantine. When I hit the water, those are the first flies I fish until they succumb to a tree, rock, or fish.
Some say that the more beat up a fly gets, the more fish it catches. I think this is true but only to a certain extent. For example, if half the hackle gets chewed off one side of a sakasa kebari and you’re presenting it with a twitching motion to imitate a swimming insect, the lopsided hackle might cause the to not swim properly in the water. In other cases, material could be trailing behind the fly looking like it’s snagged vegetation. For flies that are so beat up that I don’t feel confidence in fishing them for trout anymore, I further quarantine them into a box reserved for less discriminating fish such as bluegill. And if they survive several battles with panfish, I’ll likely recycle the hooks at some point.
So that’s the lifecycle of a fly in my box. What about you? Do you do something similar or do you put fished flies right back in your box?
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Interesting. If I catch fish, say more than one or two, on a fly I remove that fly from my streamside box altogether and place it in a box that I have on my tying table. That box is reserved for flies that catch fish. If I don’t catch fish with a certain pattern it doesn’t make it into the box. After a fly goes into the “box of fame” I immediately tie up an exact replacement and place it in my streamside box.
At the end of any given period of time, say a season, I look at the flies in my “box of fame” and see what patterns really worked for me. I then clear out my streamside box of all the flies and replace them with these “hall of fame” flies.
I do leave one row in my streamside box for new patterns and the process starts all over again. That way I always have proven patterns with me but I can still add in a new pattern every so often and see if it will catch fish. I try to keep my streamside box clear of patterns that catch me (because they look cool) but not fish.
It’s a little compulsive I know but it works for me.
-Tom
once you fish NZ often, you get into the habit of never returning used flies to the box. This keeps the box pure, free from didymo infection that could otherwise spread to waters not yet infected. when going to a new water, always use fresh flies.
not such a need if only fishing local waters all the time, but definitely a must for the travelling angler please.
Wow, that actually sounds like a great system Tom!
That’s a good point Craig. We have it here too. Everyone talks about how to prevent the spread by freezing their wading boots but I’ve never heard anyone talk about flies.
My flies are usually fished (or lost) to the extent of being fishless. However, sometimes I put sakasa kebari back in the box because I use different sizes and like to gear toward the fish I’m seeing. I use kebari in sizes 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, and micro sizes 26 and 30. May seem like a ridiculous variety but I’ve proven to myself they all have a place in my box. I used them earlier this year on my trip to Great Smokey Mountain National Park, I could see the fish trying to bite my size 8 but they couldn’t, I switch to a size 11 and boom catching them left and right!
Im very much the same, my flies once tied on usually stay on untill lost. since Ive started Tenkara if I want a different fly (which doesnt happen much because I mostly fish one pattern) I will actually tie up a whole new line and keep it on a seperate spool. then I fish them till they are lost or are so mangled I think they are affecting my catch, then I whip out my pocketknife and cut the remaining material off and place the bare hook back in my box ready to be sharpened for the next tying session.
In the 40s and 50s my father fished Western wet flies. If the strikes were not forthcoming in the first hour, he would put the flies into his hat band and then take out his old worn fly wallet in which the flies were mashed between the felt pages. The flies were unrecognizable. It seemed that anyone of these flies would catch fish. Ay the end of the day, they went back into the wallet. Some flies on the hat band eventually caught fish and were rewarded by being smashed in the wallet. Of course, such a fly was becoming ragged.
Jim, were they mostly winged wet flies or soft hackles? I ask because it would seem that fly wallets are more conducive to storing winged wet flies since they’re “flat” whereas soft hackles or sakasa kebari would be more susceptible to being crushed.
Good point, Jason. I just looked in it. There are some winged flies but most are soft hackles. There are two royal ratty coachmen in it. So I guess he used a dry at times. I’m glad you asked. I haven’t looked at the wallet in years.
Great graphic! Good points on your approach to fly culling.
Great ideas Jason and others commenting! I only fish one pattern, so those flies end up on my chest pack, but go back in the box at the end of the day. I could call it a ‘system’, but it’s really ad hoc. Nice ‘box of fame’ idea Tom! Craig’s thoughts on containing infections is very thought-provoking – I will make changes! That is a growing problem everywhere, I suspect; if not now, in the future, so might as well get the right habits in place.
That is an interesting ritual, although when you think about it it’s not that strange, especially if you only use one pattern. It would keep your fly box from getting too cluttered and would assure that all the flies in your box are new and haven’t been hit by fish. I can dig it! 😀