Knowing your flies!

[BTflyman]

I have been flyfishing a little over a year now and found a problem at the beginning of the year this year. I started going through all my flies and found out I forgot what they were called when I bought them. I have all my BYO's in a seperate box and all dries in a seperate box. What I have found is basically I have flies I can't remember what they are! Any idea how to label?

 

[Fishidiot]

BT,
If your fly boxes are compartments you can either write on the lid with a marker pen or tape a small piece of paper on the inside side of the compartment with the name. You'll see this sort of labeling at fly shops in the storage bins where flies are displayed for sale. I think the actual names of the flies is more important (and more difficult to remember due to the many types) with regards to dry flies and these are usually the ones stored loosely in compartments rather than embedded in foam.

 

[MKern]

If you are looking for fly names just search a website like cabelas or orvis and try and match what you have to the named flies.

 

[tomgamber]

Just bumped into this as well....

http://www.flystore.net/Fly%20Patterns.htm

 

[JackM]

You should not be permitted to fly fish until you have memorized all the fly names. At least get these down, if nothing else: Royal Coachman, Adams, Hare's Ear, Pheasant Tail, Wooly Bugger and Green Weenie.

 

[afishinado]

JackM wrote:
You should not be permitted to fly fish until you have memorized all the fly names. At least get these down, if nothing else: Royal Coachman, Adams, Hare's Ear, Pheasant Tail, Wooly Bugger and Green Weenie.

Yeah, they should have a proficiency test, or maybe even a formal test like the Bar Exam.....that sure weeds 'em out.

 

[ryguyfi]

My problem was when I started is I knew what my flies were, but had no clue how to match them to the naturals. troutnut.com is a good resource to figure this out.

Get on the mailing list for Cabela's, Orvis, LLBean, etc for their Fly Fishing catalogs. You can see the flies they sell and match them up to the ones you have already purchased. Also once you start tying, those are good references to copy those flies yourself.

 

[afishinado]

When I first started FFing and tying, I focused on matching the fly PATTERNS, later on I focused on matching the actual insects. I wouldn't sweat know the name of each fly in your box. Concentrate on trying to know what a BWO, or Hendrickson, or Grannom looks like, and you'll be miles ahead. When you see a BWO, you just grab the size 18, olive bodied fly with gray wings in your box.

 

[BTflyman]

Thanks for the info.....I do know most of the dries at this point and thanks for the info on not putting them in a foam box (noticed they would "flatten" out a bit. I hope I can still fish if I don't know every name out there!