Weighing Flies?

[johnnyboy12]

Does anyone have any suggestions as to the best way to weigh their flies? I have heard of sorting your flybox by grains, but I wasn't sure how people go about doing that?

 

any thoughts?

 

thanks

[Harps]

My streamers with weight are tied with red thread... red head for deep, black for shallow.

 

Nymphs are sorted similar, its either weight or not, if I need more I use tin shot or sticky weight.

 

No lead on flies or line for me.

[admin]

Thread colour system is likely the best bet. I do something similar with mine. Orange = no weight, darker threads (Olive, purple and black) mean more weight.

[johnnyboy12]

thanks guys. I was looking more on the lines of what type of scale to buy. Anyone bother to sort their boxes by weight or am I just overthinking?

 

thanks

[headscan]

You'd probably need a digital scale accurate to something like 1/100th of a gram to weigh smaller flies. Sorting your boxes by weight isn't a bad idea so you can easily tell what's what. I tie my nymphs with brass or tungsten beads, so I keep the brass ones separate from the tungsten. I use one of these C & F boxes for most of my nymphs and keep the brass on the right and tungsten on the left.

[rusty]

Don't forget that sink rate has a lot more to do with density than weight. A #16 czech-style caddis pupa will sink like a stone, but it weighs a lot less than a moderately weighted #4 bugger (which would sink a lot slower).

[Harps]

I don't think there is any benefit in having flies sorted by weight in that much detail.

 

Like Rusty mentioned, there is more to sinking than weight... how fully the fly is dressed is probably the most important.

Plus water conditions are so different (fast/slow flows, depths, wind on line, cross currents etc) that differences in fly weight would be almost negligible.

[Guest tallieho]

headscan how are those boxes for holding onto,barbles hooks & where can you buy them thanks

[headscan]

The slotted foam boxes hold barbless hooks perfectly. I've seen C+F Design flyboxes at Troutfitters and Westwinds, but there are probably other shops that carry them as well.

[sirocco]

Springbrook makes a number of fly boxes that use slit foam, including one nearly identical to the C&F box in the link. They hold a ton of flies. Most of the shops in town carry Springbrook so it shouldn't be too hard to find one.