How to Choose Fly Fishing Fly Boxes

Fly boxes are basic tackle items you will need in order to go out fly-fishing on a regular basis. Basically, fly boxes are where you will store your flies to keep them handy and safe from damage.

Trout flies are made of delicate materials such as bird feathers and animal fur. Thus, it is easy to damage a trout fly by handling it in such a way that the materials used to make it get twisted or crushed and the shape of the fly becomes less realistic.

So fly boxes are important: they allow you to carry your flies in your vest or bag without any damage occurring while you walk long distances up or down the river.

Two Types of Fly Boxes

These days there are two basic kinds of fly box available. The first kind is really just a plastic box divided up into different compartments with a flip-open lid. This is the same kind of tackle box that salmon anglers use for carrying their metal lures.

Compartmental Fly Boxes

Some plastic fly boxes are more specifically designed to carry trout flies because the compartments within them are too small for metal lures. I find this ‘compartment’ style of fly box very suitable for carrying dry flies. This is because each individual fly sits in the box without being pushed against the side or bottom of the box too much.

It is when a dry fly is pressed against a hard surface that its hackles and wings can get crushed out of shape.

A Crushed Fly

As you can see in the drawing, the fly’s wings are bent back out of shape and its hackles have been squashed flat. The tail also droops instead of sticking straight out behind the fly.

Foam-Lined Fly Boxes

The second kind of fly box commonly available is again a basic plastic box, but this time with dense foam attached to its inner surfaces, and with no compartments. Each fly is hooked into the foam.

The advantage of this is that once hooked into the foam, the fly is securely attached to the box itself. If the box is dropped or opened in windy conditions, the flies won’t fall out or blow out.

With a compartment style box, there is always the danger of losing flies if you drop the box by mistake or open it when there’s a good breeze blowing. Even so, I still prefer to use a compartment box for dry flies.

When I am selecting a dry fly on a windy day, I always make sure I’m standing with my back to the wind. That way there’s much less chance that any of my flies will be blown out of the box.

Matching Fly Boxes to Flies

I do, however, use a foam style box for carrying nymphs and feathered lures. That is because those kinds of fly do not have protruding wings and hackles, and thus they don’t usually get crushed out of shape when they are made to sit up close to a hard surface.

If you put a dry fly into a foam-style box, its hackles will get pressed up against the firm surface of the foam underneath it and inevitably it will end up out of shape.

Also, nymphs seem to get stuck together if they are kept in a compartment style box. This can be highly frustrating when you need to get a new nymph from your box and tie it on quickly before the fish you are stalking swims away or stops feeding.

A Nymph Fly

But dry flies, because of their hackles, naturally keep each other at a distance and don’t become attached to each other, and thus they can far more easily be carried in a compartment style box.

Of course it’s possible to go out and purchase a very expensive fly box (of either style) that has a fancy brand name and is made of aluminium/aluminum or some other supposedly long-lasting material.

If you have the money, go for it! But in all honesty, a solid plastic box will last for years if you look after it carefully. And plastic boxes are usually very reasonable in price.

It is, however, worth trying to get hold of plastic boxes where a metal rather than a plastic hinge is used to attach the lid to the rest of the box. Metal hinges last much longer than plastic ones.

Related posts:

1. An Introduction to Dry Fly Fishing