Storing all those fly rods

Wayne Kohan

Wayne Kohan

Life of the Party
So I’m rearranging my fly tying and storage room, where I keep the majority of my fly rods. I have somewhere around 20 fly rods of all varieties, many of which I wrapped myself from blanks, and so they do not have the factory rod tubes. So I have rods in marked tubes, unmarked tubes, and just sitting out. I have them just leaning against the wall. I don’t know what is in many of the tubes until I look in them, as I will use some of the tubes on different rods at times. While it is pleasant finding a rod I forgot I had, it is a bit frustrating and inefficient. Does anyone have a good system for rod storage. I’m sure many of you have more rods than I do. Thanks.
 
ptychocheilus said:
Blueprint storage racks. You might score one used, or they're cheap online. Given that you don't have tubes for all, I'd be tempted to stick the loose rods in clear poly poster tubes for a little added protection and to keep all of the sections together.
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lol...posted mine just as yours appeared ...great minds...
 
Also you can do a big inventory exercise once and document each and every rod in an excel spreadsheet. Then you can look in the file and see exactly what you have. I ended up doing that because I got to the point that I couldn’t keep a mental inventory anymore, especially for reels, extra spools and lines.

You could even label the bin # on the blueprint rack e.g. A1 thru D6 etc… and use that as a “find number” in the spreadsheet!
 
I use two of the tall laundry baskets in my closet. If they didn’t come with a tube, I just use a cardboard mailing tube with a label attached.
 
I've been using a basket arranged like blue print storage and it's worked well. I should probably move 1/2 of these along. But if I fish..........that's probably the rod I would have wanted. Got favorite rods for favorite places at this point.
 

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expandable blueprint tubes work well for rod storage, can be had for under 10 bucks...
 
My most-used single hand fly rods rest in a vintage wooden horizontal rifle rack in my fish room, just in their socks. Some don't have tubes. For those that do, their tubes lean against the wall, between a shelf and a desk, which is also where my few double hand rods lean.
My few old cane rods rest in another horizontal rack that someone made for neck ties; found in a thrift shop.
 
Six or seven years ago I looked in my closet at all the rods (no excel spreadsheet @Merle - but that idea has merit) and had forgotten about a few of them. Hauled them out to inventory them and decided it was time to downsize. I sold several and donated a half dozen to PHW. Since that time, I've purchased a 12 weight (used once but will get used next year). I don't see me adding many to the quiver and what I have are in zippered rod carrying cases or in an old wood 24-pack beer case.

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I have one bamboo rod on the wall: rod art?
 
Grayone said:
Two cheap x style wine racks stacked from Amazon. Don't know why this is rotatedView attachment 168328
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I had to crop the top edge of mine to make it come in correctly. Recently another thread also mentioned image rotation issues.
 
I have a couple of bamboo rods I bought at an estate sale and they have no rod tubes. I assume they shouldn’t lean up against a wall for a long time or might get a permanent bend, especially in the tip? Or is that not something to worry about? I like the idea of the blueprint holders, but having hard time justifying close to $50 for one made out of corrugated cardboard.
 
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