Annual fly box purge

[Buzzy]

Last week I had seven (only seven) fly boxes in my float tube. I had left one of two "midge" boxes home. Today I decided to look in the box I'd left at home and perhaps "orgnize" it. Organize? For fun, I roughly counted by fives and came up with well over 350 midges. Seriously? 95%* of them had never been used and a lot of those will never be used. I put on my Optivisor so I could get up close and personal and began pulling chironomids out and dropping them in file 13. I don't have a specific criteria for what remains and what gets purged but: too fat a body = gone, wth was I thinking = gone, used and damaged = gone, too many of one pattern = maybe gone, glassworms** = 20 of them(?), ten are gone, really ugly = gone, butt ugly = gone, size 2 midge(?) = gone, I must have tied this when I was still drinking = gone.

By now I'm down to about 290 bugs in the box, still far too many midges I will likely never tie on. And I now have room in this box for at least another 50 chironomids! Anyone else go through this?

* Probably more like 97% never used.

** Glassworms - "when troot are on the glass, go home". (I've never caught a trout on a glassworm.)

 

[RCF]

When I retired, I decided to focus on trout fishing.

The good steelhead flies I donated to better causes.

The good, small flies I also donated.

The bad and ugly were round filed.

500+ Hooks I would never use were given away on the Pay It Forward - Free on this site.

It felt really good afterwards too.

 

[SKYKO]

Man I feel yah, I've been going thru all my boxes the last couple days, sorting, round filing etc but the really demented thing is I've been taking breaks from that tedious process by tying new flies I've got a serious tying problem. The few buddies I fish with aren't tyers and I pawn off as much as I can but they are stuffed.

I need to figure out a donation program.

The other day I was freaking out because I was convinced I had lost my huge box of Chubby Chernobyl's, et al, with summer around the corner and dry/dropper season so blasted out a couple dozen then the next day I found it so now I've got like 8 dozen in every possible size and color combo, configuration. Crazy Times at my place.

 

[mcswny]

I need to figure out a donation program.

I tend to give my backups to friends that don't tie, and aren't fishing THAT much to where they have preferences on fly selection or quality/proportions. The flies will catch the shit out of fish still, just maybe not the prettiest. They're always super thankful and whenever I fish with them, they're catching fish on my backups which is cool and proves my point. Regardless, it frees up space to tie the same flies, just--better, ha!

 

[flybill]

Man I feel yah, I've been going thru all my boxes the last couple days, sorting, round filing etc but the really demented thing is I've been taking breaks from that tedious process by tying new flies I've got a serious tying problem. The few buddies I fish with aren't tyers and I pawn off as much as I can but they are stuffed.

I need to figure out a donation program.

The other day I was freaking out because I was convinced I had lost my huge box of Chubby Chernobyl's, et al, with summer around the corner and dry/dropper season so blasted out a couple dozen then the next day I found it so now I've got like 8 dozen in every possible size and color combo, configuration. Crazy Times at my place.

Consider organizations like Project Healing Waters, Casting for Recovery or the Mayfly Program. Al worthy imho, but I don't know what they accept for sure. You could also put flies together and offer to new people, have them cover shipping at a minimum.. I have so many flies and fly boxes, I really need to organize as well and see what I actually have that I'll use regularly!

 

[greenriver]

I would like to donate my surplus flies to young people starting out. Ideas?

 

[flybill]

I would like to donate my surplus flies to young people starting out. Ideas?

Contact the Mayfly Project, they take foster kids out to learn how to fly fish! The kids go home with everything they need, but I'm sure more flies would be appreciated. The Seattle link is below, but they are a national group I believe. If not there, I'm sure they'll point you in the right direction! I met them at the Bellevue Fly Fishing show in February and will spend some time volunteering my time with them!

Seattle Washington Project | The Mayfly Project

themayflyproject.com

 

[Mike Cline]

I love to tie flies and like most of the posts here, I tie way more than I’ll ever use on the water. About 5-6 years back I began a concerted effort to tie and donate flies in fly boxes to my local TU chapter and any FFI shows I attend. Any group that does routine raffles to generate funds during shows, banquets or group meetings are candidates for your donations. For the past 5-6 years I suspect I’ve donated over 5000 flies and hundreds of fly boxes containing both trout and saltwater patterns. Every TU meeting has at least one of my fly boxes in the meeting raffle with a dozen or more flies. Giving so many flies away to friends and the occasional deserving folk on site like this, as well as outright donations to deserving groups has its benefits. I can experiment with tying techniques, new patterns and materials and polish my skills through repetition. If you love to tie flies—tie to donate as well as to fish. You won’t be disappointed.

36+ Dozen Montana Trout Flies on Barbless Hooks generated $800 for our local MGTU chapter at our recent fundraising banquet. Very gratifying.

 

[flybill]

Some of my trout boxes. There are more boxes that I'll get too, but these fit in my sling pack or wading jacket easily. I have a couple of boxes full of dry flies. I also use many of these with my tenkara rod.

 

[flybill]

This is probably my favorite box of trout flies, for the PNW, as I can be a bit of a dry fly snob on my bamboo rods, 6' 4pc 2wt and tenkara rod. A dry and a dropper is the way i personally prefer to fly fish for trout, then streamers and nymphing.. I'm curious about Euro Nymphing and will give it a try this year! Cheers!