All of us have a pet gear peeve, hoping someday that space science, nanotechnology, or pixie dust will fix that silly component that’s plagued us for years.
For me it’s the venerable fly box, and despite metal springs, gimbaled doors, foam, clips, slots, fleece lined, or adjustable compartments, none of the boxes will hold what I need held. Extravagance isn’t limited to the rod making front, as I’d be the first to buy a brace of $700 fly boxes, knowing I was finally delivered from polystyrene hell.
Dyneema is one of many recent advances in ordinary fly fishing sundries. There’s still a problem or two with fast moving fish and traumatic amputation of fingers, but once the cost drops we’ll be discarding thick Dacron and piling on yards of braided razor blade.
I’ve never been accused of being a Luddite, but lately it seems like all revolutionary changes in fly tackle hurt like a sumbitch.
No? Attach your weight forward Sharkskin to a motorcycle – and after you finish blowing on your fingers to cool them, examine your fingerprints …
Scientists have discovered how to make a spider’s silk gland – and while you wonder how that pertains to our death wish, they’ve added metal to the silk to make extremely strong fibers for surgery.
We’ll be blessed with 7X backing rated at 450 lbs, and fly tying thread that a beginner can wield to turn a 3/0 stainless hook into a knot. Both will cost a fortune, but we’ll send the kids to a year of undergraduate studies at the University of Burger King, and divert the freed cash to ourselves.
Finger guards will be replaced by chain mail gloves, prosthetics will be the darling stocks of Wall Street, and we’ll witness the demise of both wet fly and the married Salmon wing. Bass bugs will be made from closed cell foam, and the Elk Hair Caddis joins a long list of flies that can only be tied with the “old” stuff…
Tiny diameter will allow the silk to sever rather than bind materials, and mallard wings and spun deer hair will be exclusive to the diminishing stocks of “old school” – hoarded by white haired, vengeful geezers like myself.
My recollection is we’ve had issues with technology in the past. Prick your fingers with a handful of urine burned fox and it’s gangrene with a tetanus chaser, and Picric acid has killed or maimed untold hundreds of unwary fly tiers who swooned over the stunning yellow it created.
Just mention “chemically sharpened” and “sock feet” to a fly tyer and watch their face drain of color. Forged was bad enough, now the debris field under the desk is fatal.
With only hair-trigger reflexes keeping limbs intact, is fly fishing “a young man’s game” – and it’s technology that puts us aging starlets out to pasture?
I hate the wheel. And antibiotics.
I’m curious what your fly box won’t hold, and what issues you see with fly boxes in general?
Sean,
Dangerous question as I could speak volumes on the subject…
There are two different issues I have with fly boxes, and I’d love to find a design that cures both.
1) Cannot hold Big, Small, and Medium flies:
Many fly boxes cannot accomodate a full range of fly sizes. Often compartmentalized, the size of the compartments (or method of attachment) prevents you from storing big flies, or they obscure the storage area next to them due to their size. Ex: Perrine coil spring style – a big stone nymph might stretch across three sets of coils, obscuring the flies beneath.
2) The design assists rust. Other designs seem to assist the rusting process, either via poor drainage or hidden water – that traps just enough moisture in the design to lull you into a sense of safety – and on the next trip you find your #16’s are rusted and weakened.
Of the two, the “size” problem is the worst, as compartment style and attachment style can both severely limit the range of flies you carry.
Most of us have a box for really big, another box for dry, and perhaps a third box for everything else.
I’m looking for the box that accomodates everything equally well – a perverse and unrewarding quest to date.
Have you seen the Cliff Super Day’s Worth? It’s all plastic and foam and laminated magnets so no rust. Has magnetic compartments enclosed with foam strips on one side for smaller stuff, foam strips on the other side for small-medium dries and nymphs, and a swinging foam pad in the middle with slitted foam for big stuff. It is quite deep to accommodate all this stuff.
@Matt no I haven’t – I just looked them up, and they look promising.
How about an indicator that will stay in place or even on your line?(without a knot that is).