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Storing Trailer Hook Steelhead Flies?

Spey 
4K views 21 replies 17 participants last post by  Derek Day 
#1 ·
I am now getting really into steelheading and have all these intruders and bunny leaches tied on waddington shanks with trailer hooks. I put them in a normal fly box but its a mess because that octopus hook doesn't keep the 4 inch body of the fly from moving around and all the flies get tangled up etc etc...do you guys just use a sectioned lure box for storing these types of flies?
 
#3 ·
Store em in a plano box but even that gets messy. You grab one fly and 4 others come with it. One solution is to convert to tubes. No tangles! I am a fly whore in a major way, I love tying, so I have a big plano box filled with my favorites that stays in the boat (or car if I'm walking in). I bought the plastic leader wallets gear guys use for corky rigs and discarded the mini binder they come in. I pre rig all the flies I intend to use (and a dozen more), loop the end, roll em up and put them in their own ziplock compartment. This gets velcro'd into the waist pack and I'm fishin. No tangles, looping on a new fly takes under a minute and your waist pack isn't cluttered up with boxes.
 
#8 ·
I do this with rubber bands.

Loren Exactly I used some 1/4" elastic my wife had in the sewing kit. I pushed it down between the foam insert and the plastic box and dabbed a little flexcoat on it. Dont use super glue it melts the gasket. I was able to get two rows in a 7" long box. YMMV
jesse
Very good, how about a photo Jesse.
 
#7 ·
Loren Exactly I used some 1/4" elastic my wife had in the sewing kit. I pushed it down between the foam insert and the plastic box and dabbed a little flexcoat on it. Dont use super glue it melts the gasket. I was able to get two rows in a 7" long box. YMMV
jesse
 
G
#11 ·
In the beginning you seem to have a million different boxes and ways to store flies...

special boxes for this, wheatleys for your old school flies, different tube fly boxes...

you dwindle down and find clear plastic boxes that are about the cheapest work fine...

by the end your throwing them in ziplock bags in your pocket..

goofy
 
#14 ·
Bare plastic boxes, originally for all sorts of products, can be converted to very useable general or specialized fly boxes with some glued-in foam. For tandem hook flies, use two strips of weatherstrip foam toward each end of the box, with a matching strip above each that will meet and hold the flies in place when the box is closed. An old plastic VCR box is too big for many vest pockets, but one holds a lot of Intruders and MOALs. Packing foam sheets in little boxes work fine to hold small flies.
 
#15 ·
A Wheatley can do double duty by securing a rubber band at the top (tie around clip at each side of box) to hold the head of the fly down and place the hook under one of the clips. Someone suggested this a few years ago on a forum, and I have found it to work quite well.
 
#16 ·
Ive always done the Straw thing up until this year I found straws from Arbys worked the best because you could see through them . Now I use One of those Red Rio Jim Vincent tip wallets. It comes with 12 Zip lock small bags in it. On one side I keep 6 different tips. On the other side I put 2 or 3 Pre rigged flies in each Bag

 
#19 ·
I recently started using leader boards. Just a high density blue foam card with slits in one end. Delta Tackle/Gibbs makes them for pre rigging yarnies and the like. I can pre rig a dozen tubes or stinger style flies on a card. Stick the hook in one end, wrap the leader around the card through the slit. Neat, compact. I can store a couple cards in a jacket pocket. No mess or tangles.
 
#21 ·
Cool idea Scott! I've been getting sick of unraveling my pre-rigged tubes from plastic bags. Where do you get those boards and are they reasonably priced?

Is River out-fishing you yet ; )
Haven't seen them in the states much. I get mine at Fred's and they're only a few bucks. Check out the Gibbs Tackle website. You might just have to venture north and fish with me one of these days. That super secret zipperlip just across the border is putting out a few fish.

River's definitely into the fishing. It's looking like I passed on the madness gene. Though he insists I catch only hatchery fish. One day he'll get it.
 
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