Morning,

This is an email I've been planning on writing for ages - it's the most requested subject, so I thought it was about time I did it justice ...

As we're now into the river season - it's time to get your gear organised, and your fly boxes are no exception.

So in this email, I will cover the subject of "Fly Box Organisation". I will tie it all into the new hand-made fly boxes we've just had delivered (from Jeff, in Wales) - they're stunning things, and deserve to be filled with our mayflies!

TLDR - Too long; didn't read

As this email is a pretty lengthy one, which I know lots of you will not have time to read, here's a handy synopsis/executive summary of the key points to keep in mind when organising your fly selections and some nuggets of info on how I do it:

• Store your nymphs in their own dedicated box - preferably one which is lined with a silicone bed, arrange the nymphs in weight order and then by colour.
• Organise your dry flies by season - I have 3 different fly boxes for dry flies, one for each season (Spring, Summer & Autumn). I also have a smaller box specifically to house my Mayflies in all their lifecycle stages.
• Use the correct fly box - It sounds obvious, but use a fly box that actually suits the flies you will be storing in it, for example, don't put flies with large parachute posts in a box that will squash them.
• Using this approach allows me to easily decide on which flies I need - I always take my nymph box, and then grab whichever seasonal dry fly box I need.

First of all, I want to cover some really basic tips:

• Only organise what you cannot remember - 
• Keep the same flies together - i.e. if you have a few of the same patterns, keep them all together in the same place, it saves lots of time!
• Use the correct fly box - It sounds obvious, but use a fly box that actually fits your flies, for example, don't put flies with large parachute posts in a box that will squash them.

When it comes to river flies, there are quite a few different ways anglers organise their fly boxes - by insect, by pattern type, by season, by fly type or by size and weight!

Let's start by dividing our flies into 2 separate types - Nymphs and Dry flies, and take each in turn: 

Nymphs

Quite a few years ago, I was lucky enough to attend the World Fly Fishing Championships in Italy - as a spectator. I learnt loads just by watching the various teams at work, but the most thought-provoking aspect was how they organised their nymph boxes.

To a man, all of the competitors I spoke with had them laid out in exactly the same way - ordered by weight and then colour.

Organising your nymph boxes this way makes lots of sense. When using nymphs, you want the fly to be presented on (or very near) the riverbed. The main factor in getting the nymph to the desired location is the flow strength of the river. 

Having nymphs of the same (or similar) weight all together makes it very easy to then select a pattern to match the colour of the natural insect.

You only need to think of two things:

1. What weight do I need to get the fly down - you can easily experiment with weight by testing at close range.
2. What colour best represents the natural nymph - if you don't know, try doing a quick kick-sample, or failing that match the nymph to the colour of the riverbed.

When planning my fly boxes for the season, I have two separate nymph boxes - I use these super-slim silicone lined ones, as the silicone holds each nymph securely, does not deform and they fit nicely in my chest pack/pocket.

Nymphs are the easy ones - now let's consider:

Dry Flies

As mentioned above, there are lots of different ways to organise your dry flies. The one I personally use is to organise my flies by the season I'm fishing:

I have 4 small dry fly boxes, as follows:

• Spring - March Browns, Iron Blue's Hawthorn's etc
• Mayflies - Full lifecycle, Emerger, Spinner, Spent
• Summer - Olives, Small Gnats etc
• Autumn - Daddies, Large Olives etc

I use Jeff's boxes and store each pattern separately. For example, in my 'Spring' box, I carry each pattern in both the dry fly and emerger form.

As an example, my 'Spring' box includes:

• March Brown - Size 14 Jingler, Size 16 CdC March Brown Emerger 
• Iron Blue - Size 14 Parachute Iron Blue, Size 16 Iron Blue Emerger
• Hawthorn - Size 14 Hawthorn, Size 14 Hawthorn Suspender

The best boxes I have found are the above lightweight aluminium ones with six compartments, each one with a spring-loaded lid - important, as you don't want to open your box and have all the flies blow away!

We've been in touch with the manufacturer of these and received stock of them last week, if you would like one (or more), they can be found here, for only £17.99 each:

In conclusion, the way I have organised my fly boxes for the river allows me to carry at most 3 separate small boxes (which easily fit in a pack):

• A box of nymphs,
• A box of dry flies which are specific to the season; and
• A box of Mayflies - at the appropriate time of year.

I hope that the above has given you a little food for thought on how you will get organised for the upcoming season. As I previously mentioned, we've now received stock of all the above fly boxes, they just need a new home!

*** Go on, give your flies a nice new home and be organised the next time you are on the water ***

All of the above is how I organise my fly boxes, but as previously mentioned, there are various options when it comes to organising your dry flies. I will cover some of these other options below:

Organised By Insect

If you know the insects which you will encounter on your water, you can organise your fly boxes by Insect. This will mean that you will have the exact fly available whenever you need it as you can precisely imitate each stage confidently, but it does necessitate that you take quite a few boxes on the water with you - as you usually need to imitate at least two or three different insects throughout the day.

The only time I take an 'insect-specific' box with me is when I know the Mayflies are hatching - on my local river, as soon as the fish switch on to the Mayfly, they seldom take anything else!

Organised By Pattern Type

If you’re someone who likes to carry 100’s of different patterns, you can also organise them by 4 categories based on the fly type. This works well for those of you who only have 1 or 2 of each fly but 100’s of different patterns.

• Imitative Patterns - Flies which imitate specific insects, i.e. Iron Blues etc
• Attractor Patterns - Flies which are tied to attract the fish's interest, i.e. Lures etc
• Searching Patterns - Flies which are tied to give a general impression of a few different insects, i.e. Parachute Adams etc
• Impressionistic Patterns - Flies which specifically look like a few different insects, i.e. Griffith's Gnat, Greenfly etc

The only disadvantage of using this method of organising your dry fly boxes is that you will need to carry all your boxes with you at all times.

Organised By Fly Type

If you live for the dry fly , or a nymph fisherman or a streamer addict, then having a box with nothing but those type of flies in is a good way to go. This lets you decide before you get on the water what technique to focus on.

All fly anglers are masochists to some degree so limiting yourself to less opportunity seems to be aligned with our sport!

If you're this way inclined, then a good starting point is to organise into these types:

• Dry Flies
• Nymphs
• Emergers
• Wet Flies
• Streamers/Lures

I hope that the above has given you a little food for thought on how you will get organised for the upcoming season. As I previously mentioned, we've now received stock of all the above fly boxes, they just need a new home!

Tight lines & tidy boxes!