Streamside Gear Survey

[daringduffer]

Some inspiration for William.It's made from beaver hide which has been swaying in a creek for almost two months to remove the fur. The colour comes from humus in the water. It is then tanned with alum and treated with animal fat mixed with resin and other stuff from the woods. Smells wonderful. I don't have it myself, but I have inspected and approved it...

dd

[gingerdun]

William,
You mentioned making your own fly wallet from leather and wool felt. Here is a tiny one that I use, with real leather.

I have picked up some artificial leather (I know this is a debatable product, but some of it is really nice, believe it or not), and bought wool felt over the internet, with the intention of fabricating new wallets. I still need to get the tools for making snaps that will keep the flap closed.

100% wool felt in white is not easy to find, but I ordered it from this place (through Amazon, sorry to say).—

http://www.thefeltstore.com/

Some people have told me that there is a danger if the felt becomes too wet, and not allowed to dry out properly, the flies can be ruined. Haven't experienced that problem myself. However, there is the dreaded moth, whose larva have taken bites out of the felt.

I like this storage method much more than the plastic boxes, which make more sense for dry flies anyway.

[William Anderson]

These are amazing. Thanks so much for these. Both are cool wallets. I'm not sure why I'm smitten with these, I'm not really the nostalgic type, but I like the feel and smell of the leather lack of plastic. I won't know until I give them a try.

So here are a couple of the quick prototypes put together to explore the idea. With some time filling them they would seem more legit, but here they are. I also need to get the fasteners to make an overlap snap. I thought it wouldn't be necessary, using the the pages in a stiff leather book wouldn't require any additional closure, but it might.











This second style opens wide horizontally, limiting the second two pages, but allowing the first two open flat.






As I work out a better version I'll post it up. I'm amazed that someone else is thinking along similar lines.

w

[CreationBear]

Sweet looking fly wallet--I'm not a "traditionalist" either, almost always looking like somebody dragged Yvon Chouinard through a briar patch, but this strikes me as very functional. A question: do the hackle collars on these wet files have any memory from being "smushed," or do they bounce back "in the round" once you add water?

[William Anderson]

CB, that was a concern of mine as well. Looking at some of the old guys wallets, seeing the hackles smashed a bit made me feel like they would have preferred a nice C & F box to keep things in order, but I have recently aquired a couple of 50yo+ wallets and with a quick pull on the hackles on some remaining flies, they were standing out as tied. I wouldn't dream there would be no effect on softies stacked in these with the felt, but then I wouldn't imagine it would make any difference either. No dries of course, but tons of nymphs with absoluteIy no effect. I put the black one with about 15 flies in it in my back pocket for a day to see what would happen in extreme circumstances and they looked really good when the wallet was opened. They would probably look great after getting wet. I can't imagine they would ever take that kind of abuse in my pack. I don't know where this is leading, but I can't argue the functionality of these would be any less than the plastic boxes and maybe have the added benefit of adding something interesting to the stream experience. Just for fun.

w

[CreationBear]

Glad you're already beta testing! Before this season begins in earnest, I've been toying around with the idea of limiting myself to only L/H flymphs this year--I'd carry maybe six each in sizes 12-16 on each outing, and no doubt not worry about being under-gunned. The only flybox I currently use is the Cliff's "Day's Worth" that's the size of a deck of playing cards, and I seldom end up opening it more than a couple of times a day, anyway--a fly wallet would be even more compact.

[CreationBear]

Addendum: For someone who's rather the "gram weenie," this is a bit out of character, but I could definitely see making up interchangeable felt "books" to fit something like this:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/62264486/ba ... ne-journal

[fflutterffly]

I have dropped my vest since all those pockets just had to be filled. About two years ago I began my journey to minimalist. I'm still thinking of trying a sling pack but at the moment I am carrying a fanny pack of my own design which is flat against the back rather than pulling down on the hip at one side because of the weight. My used flies are placed on a refrigerater magnet clip that I put on my shirt. This allows me to secure the fly on the magnet attached to the tippet, open the fly box, then cut the tippet, insuring I will not drop the used fly. It seems to be working out just fine.
As for my fly box. As I mentioned I want to move towards a minimalist approach. Difficult. I now carry Adams, Light Cahill, BWO, Zebra midge, WD40, RS2, Red Squirrel Nymph, Birds nest. Than there are the size 20 wet flies for my trico's and the larger size 18/ 16 for my emerging flies. Sounds like a lot, but I get it in one box... I use to carry three. Oh, I have one very small box that holds my streamers. In summer I add terrestrials like hoppers and ants.
And the stuff that hands off my shirt is: Hemostat, clippers and floatant.
I always carry a first aid kit, Ace bandage, a 6" folding knife, water, whistle and magnesium fire starter, and of course tippets, weights and one leader, TP and wet wipes. In addition to all this stuff I spray my hat and shirt with "bed bug" spray BECAUSE pyrethrin based sprays have a devastating effect on all bugs. Period. (ticks, flies, mosquitos, termites, ants, roaches....wasp, hornets, bees.... oh please stop me!!!!)

[michaelgmcgraw]

I have been a big fan of fly wallets. When I was a youngster I bought an Orvis canvas fly wallet with lambs wool liner. Got it with my lawn mowing money. Tying & fishing winged wet flies was my favorite method. Over the course of 10 or more years of use of the wallet I realized soggy flies in lambs wool rusted the heck out of flies (DUH!). Fly boxes work for me but Fly wallets still intrigue me

[William Anderson]

I have been a big fan of fly wallets. When I was a youngster I bought an Orvis canvas fly wallet with lambs wool liner. Got it with my lawn mowing money. Tying & fishing winged wet flies was my favorite method. Over the course of 10 or more years of use of the wallet I realized soggy flies in lambs wool rusted the heck out of flies (DUH!). Fly boxes work for me but Fly wallets still intrigue me

Now we're getting somewhere. I knew there was some content around that hadn't been mined yet. Michael, I really thought these were just a relic of the days past when most flies were either #8's or bigger and usually winged wets, streamers or salmon flies, sandwiched between the tattered wool, kind of like the patches on my vests. You still have to dry the flies before returning them to their homes. The old wallets I have hold lots of rusted out flies. Why they were put away wet is a mystery. But I really think there is something here, especially after looking at Gingerdun's design and finding the link for stiffer industrial felt. For my designs I used a thinned, waterproof glue and doubled up on the craft type felt, which I thought was sufficient, until I looked at that sight. And I'm not convinced that the lambs wool patches are obsolete either, although getting a set of zebra trico softies out of the fibers seems rediculous. The felt on the otherhand handles it all.

The beaver patch that DD shows is cool too. Especially the processing method. I would have never dreamed that would work, but the leather looks great. The closure design is simple and the overall functionality is nice.

So I'll keep putzing away with this over time and hopefully come up with something that I really like, take it out a few times and realize that I can't get over the unevenness of the flies in the felt, as compared to the plastic boxes with perfectly aligned slots. A battle between the joy of leather and felt vs. the visual pleasure of tiny soldiers all lined up. OCD is something to appreciate (see my tagline below. ) It's the least of my neurosis...but probably the only one that gets photographed here.

I'm doing my best to maintain some kind of visual sanity .