House Cleaning My Fly Box
Cleaning my fly box out is something I like to do in the winter months when the fly fishing is slowing down.
The first group in my fly box is easy to deal with. These are the flies that are dirty, falling apart and are missing major parts. These should be discarded.
The second group in my fly box are those that need major repairs. These could be flies such as a Murray’s Hellgrammite where all of the ostrich herl is missing from the tail. The flies would need to be placed back in your fly tying vise, thread tied on at the bend of the hook and then new ostrich herl strands tied in. Then apply a whip knot and coat the knot with head cement.
A little easier to fix in this second group are the streamers where the barbell eyes are coming loose. Put these flies in your vise and place 6 wraps of 3/0 thread over the eyes and apply cement to the whip finish on the eyes.
The third group are the trout nymphs with dubbed bodies in which the dubbing is becoming sparse. Just tie in 6/0 thread at the bend of the hook on the bobbin. Apply dubbing wax to the thread, dub on matching body material and wind forward to cover the body. Then whip finish and add cement to the knot.
The fourth group includes dry flies on which the hackle becomes matted but can be brought back to life. I do this by very carefully steaming them over a tea kettle with very long forceps. Doing this will pop back the fly to an almost new condition.
Now I can focus on tying any flies that I need to replace the ones that I had to discard. Cold, snowy days are a great time to catch up on the fly tying.