Do you ever dry your flies?

[scotth]

Hello All...While fishing today I went a little deep and my fly box &
all the flies inside were pretty wet. When I got home I took out the flies and laid them in a paper towel to let them dry out. Have any of you done something like this? Take Care.




Regards,



Scott

 

[polskiflyfishing]

No, because I don't get them wet if I did I would if they are very wet

 

[The_Sib]

DO SOMETHING LIKE WHAT?
Take a dunk?
or dry out your fly box contents?
both?

Ummmm,
Neither

But in the words of singer songwriter Roger Miller
"first time for everything, mmmm - my ears still ring"

 

[Eagle Claw]

Absolutely dry them, if you put anything damp in your fly box the condensation will rust other flies. Here is a little trick to dry everything, open the boxes and put them into your oven overnight, assuming its gas and not electric, the pilot light is enough to apply dry heat and in the morning, everything is dry.
I do it all the time and it works very nicely. Or you can just open them in the sun all afternoon, I prefer to stick them in the oven right away when I get home. It drys the used flies and drys out boxes.

 

[EJS]

I have waterproof boxes, but if I didn't, yeah I would deffinately dry them.

 

[Mike Ridolfino]

I recently switched to a waterproof box from Scientific Anglers(so no worries about taking a dunk). I will still let all of my used flies air dry overnight on a piece of foam before putting them back into my fly box. With saltwater flies, this is especially important. I've rusted alot of hooks by leaving damp salt flies in the box without drying them, and those big Gamakatsu hooks are very expensive to replace.

 

[oasis man]

One year ago I replaced the foam fly patch that I had been using (I lost too many flies that came off one way or another) with a new product that is a ventilated fly box with a magnetic suface to hold the flies. Since then, I have not lost a fly, and the flies that I use dry out nicely before I replace them in their normal fly box. I purchased this item at the WB Angler shop on the WB.
OM

 

[Green Highlander]

Absolutely, especially atlantic salmon flies and streamers that I have in metal clip Wheatley boxes. Once you get rust on the hook, the fly is shot because it's probably rusted underneath the materials as well. Most salmon flies (if you use high grade material) cost about $5.oo in material to tie and if you have 150 in a box...you do the math, not to mention how long it would take at the vise to replace them. When you get a fish of a lifetime on, you don't want the hook to break because it has been weakened by rust. Same goes for dries,wets, etc. open your boxes in a dry place after you fish so that your flies air dry and don't rust...I even go as far as steaming my dries after fishing them to get them to go back to their original "look".

Green Highlander

 

[Karel]

After each fishing trip, I always take the fly boxes out of the vest/pack and lay them out open to air dry (as part of my routine of rinsing boots, waders etc.). Last year I forgot to do that (it was that one time I waded really deep and the pack got soaked), including the inside and content of 3 fly boxes... needless to say that about 90% of the flies were covered with rust the next fishing trip. Oh, by the way, the fly boxes were the yellow Orvis "No-Rust" ones. -K

 

[millrun]

When I get my flies wet, I open the box and place them under a desk lamp. They seem to dry in a couple of hours.

 

[scotth]

Thank you for all the replies... At first when I was drying them off I thought for a second that I was nuts. Then I thought of my uncle tying these flies and wanted to give a little extra care to them. Take Care




Scott