First Cast: A Tacky Fly Box

Good Morning Folks,

    A while back I started to hear murmurings about a new fly box that was getting ready to come to market.  It was supposed to be a revolutionary new design and far better at holding flies than anything that's come out before.  When I finally learned the name of the box, I wasn't sure if they were trying to be cute and put some kind of gaudy decoration on a typical fly box, or if there was actually something sticky inside that held the flies in place.  Now, if you're like me, you don't own just one fly box.  I'm sure my collection pales in comparison to many, but I've got some with lamb shearling, some with little doors, some metal hooks all the way up to different foam configurations and foam with slits in it.  It really didn't seem like there was much room in the market for yet another fly box design.  Then, I went to IFTD.  

  IFTD was an amazing place.  Lots of huge, colorful booths with everything a fly fisherman (or fisherwoman) could ever want.  Me personally, though, I like to check out the smaller booths.  It seems like that is where more innovation lies.  On one of my trips up and down the aisles, I came across the Tacky Fly Box booth.  Finally, I get to see this box that I've been hearing about!  To my surprise, the box was of a very simple design.  No crazy accouterments or unnecessary gadgets, and a nice, slim profile that will slip easily into a pocket.  

TheTacky table at IFTD.

  I got to meet Tim Jenkins and Ki Aston, the founders and creators of the Tacky Fly Box, two incredibly nice fellows, both scientists (which appealed to my engineering background) and both Orvis endorsed fishing guides.  Not only are these guys experienced enough to know what a revolutionary fly box should be, but they used the scientific method to reach a final design!  How cool is that?!?!
  We talked about fly fishing for trout in Utah, and I tried to convince them that bluegill in Georgia were fun, too!  I tried to learn as much as I could about their fly box and how they went about designing and testing them.  To my surprise, they very graciously gave me a Tacky Fly Box to try out for myself. 

Are you willing to hold an open fly box upside down?

  I couldn't wait to get back to camp that night.  As soon as I got the fire started, I sat down and loaded up a bunch of flies into my new Tacky Fly box.  I put everything I had in it.  Then, started flinging it around like a madman.  First with the lid closed (just to be on the safe side), then with the lid open!  Not one fly moved.  I mean, didn't budge!  I was impressed!  I've lost flies out of my boxes before because they weren't held in securely.  I really wanted to test the holding power of the silicon mat that makes the Tacky Fly Box what it is.  Friday night, after IFTD, I sought out Orlando Outfitters to find the biggest fresh water popper I could get my hands on!  Orlando Outfitters is a great shop with some very nice, knowledgeable guys working the counter.  They've even started their own fly fishing expo to coincide with IFTD, I'll be checking that out in 2015!!!  I picked up a handful of flies, and some more tying supplies (I'm really going to tie some flies one of these days, I really am!) while I was there.  One fly in particular was just to test my new fly box: a size 4 Mossy Green BooglePopper.  My ultralight rods will never cast this monster of a popper, but I had to see if the Tacky Fly Box would hold it!  

  Hold it, it did!  I put the big bug in the box and turned it upside down.  Nothing.  I gave it a shake.  Didn't move.  So, I gave it a fling.  The only movement I could get from the popper was a bit of a rise.  The silicon slits never let it go, though!  

  I've been using this box for a few months now.  It's really become my go to fly box, the first to get loaded up before I head out.  It's thin profile makes it perfect to slide into a back pocket if you don't want to carry a pack or bag with you.  My lumbar pack that I use fishing typically only holds 4 of my boxes comfortably, but I'm pretty sure I could double or triple that number with these Tacky boxes.  Speaking with Ki, I've learned that they have some other sizes and styles in the works, so there will be no trouble with the lid closing on my big poppers when the new boxes are released.  

Another from the Tacky table.  That's a lot of flies!

  The silicon insert is very durable, and, as I've said, holds the flies incredibly well.  Have you ever left a foam insert fly box in a hot car or in the sun for too long?  The foam will degrade and curl and the glue will even let go sometimes.  That was a design consideration for the Tacky Fly Box.  I leave mine in the car, in the sun, quite often and I have yet to see any signs of degradation to the silicon.  I think this box is going to last a long, long time!  Check out the video from Tacky of a Jeep driving over a Tacky Fly Box.  I hope I never experience that with mine, but I feel a little better about accidentally sitting on it!  I've broken a few boxes by forgetting they were in my back pocket!  

  I have tons of praise for these boxes and I hope you don't find me credulous because of it.  There is only one downside that I have found.  I try to be very open and honest with my reviews, and my reviews are purely my opinion.  I think most folks won't find this as a downside and it is a very small thing.  I realize that we are in a global economy and country of origin shouldn't carry a whole lot of weight when making a purchase decision.  The Tacky Fly Box is a very high quality product of which I am happy to own and very proud to have met the creators.  However, the box is manufactured in China and that just tends to be a sore spot with me.  I'm sure it was purely a "final-cost" decision, as US manufacturing can be expensive.  I love the box, I use it constantly and I will definitely be purchasing another when the other sizes come out.  I just wish they were manufactured in the USA.

  That's my review, let me know if you have any questions for me or the Tacky Fly Box guys and I'll do my best to get them answered.  Check out these boxes, if your local shop isn't carrying them yet ask them to!  You won't be disappointed!  I can't wait to get another!

  I hope you're all doing well, 

      Tight lines and Tacky boxes!

         -Nick

Post by Tacky Fly Fishing.

You can't have too many mossy log pictures, right?

Winter Is Finally Over!!!

Hey there Folks,

  Thanks for checking in with me.  Now that winter is truly over and another semester of school is coming to a close, I can focus on the really important things in life...FLY FISHING!!!!  I'm afraid I haven't done much of anything fishing related in quite some time.  Last weekend it was finally warm enough to put the kayak on the water in Lake Lanier, so look for some pictures below.  I tried to stay abreast of what's going on in the industry, but since I live in the south, there is no steelhead run, no monster pike or musky and I don't own a decent pair of winter weight waders any more.  But, it's warming up, we're back into the 80s some and I'll be able to wet wade the mountain streams very soon.  So definitely keep checking back, because I plan on getting the blog up and running again in a big way this summer.  I'm still working on a post that covers the water access laws for the state of Georgia, so look for that soon.  Plus, I've noticed that with all the wonderful fly tying instructions that are on the web, in books and in magazines very few of them actually tell you how to fish the fly once it's tied, so, I've begun trying to track down that kind of information.  I'm still fishing my 6' 2-weight TFO rod, and still absolutely love it, but I've decided I'd like to get something bigger.  Not necessarily heavier, I love fishing an ultralight rod, but for casting out of the kayak on the lake I want to find an 8' or 9' rod.  I've got a very tight budget on that, so I'll try to keep updating my research progress here.  I've also been doing some research on Crappie and Bluegill.  Since I do most of my fishing in the lake and don't get up to the mountain streams as often as I'd like, I figure I need to get a better understanding of the fish that I'm catching more often.  Many flies that work on trout also work on panfish, but I'm pretty sure I could find some better flies that will target the lake slabs, and not just poppers, either!  

  I hope you all had a tolerable winter and are looking as forward to getting on the water as I am.  Thanks again for checking in and please keep coming back!

  Tight Lines,

   -Nick

If you follow me on Instagram you might've seen that I won a 3 month subscription to PostFly Box Co.  This was my first shipment.  Very nice looking flies!

  

Our first nice evening on the deck.  Enjoyed a pipe, had a Shiner Farmhouse Ale and added my PostFly Box Co. flies to my boxes.

First day on Lake Lanier this season.

This is the first and largest fish I took last weekend.  I'm pretty sure this is a male Bluegill, he took a black ant fly as soon as it smacked the water.  Hard hit and a great fight. Can anyone confirm or correct on species for me?

Skunked.....again!

Good morning folks,
  It's been a little while since my last post, but I have a good reason. Much like the rest of the country, Georgia has been getting an awful lot of rain lately. Since my last post, I've only been fishing twice.  I got skunked both times. I've been spending some time learning to tie flies and packing for my upcoming move to a new apartment.  We've been pretty busy at work recently and on top of that, there's only a few weeks left until school starts back.  Where did the summer go?
 I took the kayak out to Lake Lanier the Saturday before last.  The morning was very overcast, there was a pretty stiff wind on the lake and the water had a pretty good chop to it.  I had my 2 weight TFO rod and fought the wind with every cast.  The fish must have been down deeper than I could get with my floating line. After 3 hours on the water I only had two soft strikes. I didn't hook up once. I threw every fly I had that my two weight could handle. Then started throwing the flies that it couldn't!  Finally, I tied on this big, black streamer-/woolly bugger-type fly that I bought too long ago to remember and noticed bass nipping at its tail. I'm a fan and follower of the teachings of Tom Rosenbauer and the Orvis Fly Fishing Guide Podcast and one of his most often reiterated pieces of advice is that if the fish are showing interest, but make a last second refusal, change size first!  Well, that's all well and good, but I didn't have another size of that pattern. After about 20 minutes of watching the small fish try to school with my fly, I paddled back to the launch and called it a day. Skunked. But, with a plan.
  I spent the next few days listening to the rain fall and researching fly patterns and tying recipes (when I wasn't at work, anyway).  I decided to try my hand at tying up some woolly buggers, but most of the recipes I could find were for larger hooks, sized 6 through 10.  I wanted something smaller.  I determined that I could follow the instructions I had found, and just scale it down to a smaller hook.  Then, I stumbled upon instructions for tying wooly buggers on a size 14 hook and I decided that it could be done, pretty easily.  I bought the needed materials (I thought tying flies was supposed to be cheaper than buying them?) and spent an evening at the tying vise.  I'm a beginner at fly tying, so it took me a few hours to come up with a half dozen flies, but it's a very easy pattern to tie and probably a very good one for a beginner like me to get started with.   I've read that black, brown and white are the three preferred colors for wooly buggers, so that's what I tied.  I didn't use bead heads, but did put lead under the body to weight the fly down.
  So, armed with a half dozen, newly tied mini-buggers, I hit the lake again this past Sunday. The weather seemed a bit more cooperative, big clouds about, but mostly sunny and not nearly as breezy as the weekend before.  I spoke to a couple gentlemen bank fishing and learned that the fish weren't biting.  In the two hours they had been there, they only caught one fish a piece, both catfish on bait.  I pushed off from the boat launch and started to paddle back to one of my most productive spots so far.  I stopped and fished some along the way, but got no bites.  I was amazed at how few fish I could see in the water.  Normally, it seems, you can see bream and small bass swimming amongst the rocks in the shadows.  I paddled into a grassy area to fish around a fallen tree that has produced good bites in the past.  Not even a bite.  At one point, the best fish I had seen in a while showed themselves.  In about 2 feet of water there swam three carp that were each, easily, 18" long.  Swimming directly under and around my kayak, with I good net, I could have grabbed them!  They showed absolutely no interest in my size 14 wooly buggers.

Size 14 Mini Bugger

  I paddled on to fish around the rock dam where I've had some luck before.  I pulled up into a small inlet where I've caught a few bream in the past, and dropped my anchor right in the middle of the mouth.  From this spot I could fish almost the whole inlet.  There's a sloping dirt bank on the left and a steeper rip-rap stone bank to the right.  I was starting to see some more fish swimming around, so I thought, surely, I'd have some luck here.  The water was nice and clear and smooth and I could really see the action of my mini bugger as I stripped it in.  I was working it in every way I could think of, long fast strips, short slow strips, short fast strips, long slow strips, you name it, I tried it.  I would occasionally see small bass following the fly, but no bites.
  In the three hours I was on the lake fishing, I got two soft, but splashy, strikes.  I had things to do at home, so wasn't able to put in any more time.  By the time I made it back to the car, I had paddled almost 5 miles.  You tend to feel paddling that kind of distance more when the fish aren't biting.  I loaded up and went home.
  I got skunked, two weekends in a row.  See now why I haven't posted?  So, what have I learned?  If you're not going to catch fish, you should at lease learn something about fishing, right?  I need to do some more research, but I'm guessing that due to the cloud cover over the lake the fish must have been holding deeper than I could reach with my mini bugger and floating line.  At one point I had crimped on a small split shot to my line.  That seemed to garner the most attention.  I think I'm going to spend some time tying some more mini buggers, but this time I might try some tungsten bead heads.  I also might have to look into investing in a spare spool and some sink tip line.  One of the purposes of the original wooly bugger was to imitate leeches.  From what I've read, freshwater leeches tend to prefer living in and around rocks.  I need to tie my mini buggers so they will get down into the crevices of the rocks and can be worked in and around.  The buggers I tied had 5-7 wraps of .015 lead wire, but with the chenille and marabou it just wasn't enough to take the fly down more than a foot and a half or so.  Even to reach that shallow depth required me to wait probably a full minute.  Being that I'm still new to fly fishing, coming off of years of fishing Texas rigged worms on spinning gear, I'm not used to waiting so long for my lure to reach the bottom.  A bit more weight on the fly and a sink tip line might just do the trick.
  Hopefully soon I'll have some caught fish to share with you.  I'll post a photo tutorial on the mini buggers that I tied.  I'm still working to get them right and practice my tying skills, but you folks can critique me on how I'm doing so far.
  Thanks for reading.  Tight lines and Happy fishing,
      -Nick




Jim Misiura - Wooly Bugger Tutorial
Tim Cammisa - Wooly Bugger Tutorial
The Orvis Fly Fishing Guide Podcast

Today's Equipment

Flyrod: Temple Forks Outfitters 6'6" 2wt
Fly Reel: White River Fly Shop 3/4
Line: Rio 3wt WF
Flies:
    #14 Mini Wooly Buggers asst. colors

Knife:
Kershaw Ken Onion Scallion