How Many Flies Does a Trout Angler Need?
Umm, interesting question. In my first fly-fishing days, I often fished with one fly. In fact, I only had one or two flies to my name. Truth. Many times, I simply stopped in a fly shop near the stream and buy my fly du jour. How did I chose? On one wall in the shop there was a board filled with streamers in little cellophane bags. I’d look up and grab one. Often it was the name of a fly caught my fancy. For example, I liked “green ghost”.
With time, I started carrying two or three flies in a small cough drop tin box stuffed in my shirt pocket. Then as my years in the stream accumulated, I got a vest. Hey it made me look like I knew what I was doing. But I couldn’t wade around with all those empty pockets, could I? So I got a few fly boxes, began tying flies and slowly filled the pockets up. Man I looked pro, or so I thought, until I joined a fly-fishing club and saw how many flies serious anglers were hauling on the stream. Made me felt inadequate.
Rex Richardson Chest Box
Eventually my fly vest began to bulge. Weighted around 8 pounds to be exact, and it was a shorty vest! Then things got mega serious. One day I walked into a fly shop on the upper Willowemoc, and there in a glass case was a device I had never seen. The Rex Richardson Chest Box. Man oh man I fell in love. It had a large deep tray for dries and two for nymphs and wets. Each tray easily held a hundred flies. But wait. I sent the chest box back to the maker – Rex Richardson – and had him add two more trays. Yikes. Between my vest and that chest box I was hauling over a thousand flies to the river. Crazy.
OMG! Vest and Chest Pack
Nowadays, near 60 years later, I’m coming full circle. My vest and chest box rest in the closet. And I often fish with only a lumbar pack and two fly boxes. Yeah, it’s been a long and winding road. But how many flies does a trout angler need?
