I usually carry to many flies, I will be sorting out this year, but I still carry a lot of patterns in variations of Dry, Emerger, Wet & Streamers. There have been times streamside where I have needed to go through many patterns to finally hit on what a targeted trout where feeding on. I guess it depends on where you fish, Streams lakes etc. I tend to have more specialized boxes for the Bow say and then others for smaller streams. Mind you I a always experimenting with flies, which I find personally satisfying. I have also gone out with 3 or 4 flies, I guess it just depends on you mood and what you want to do. Its all good and fun.