I have a dream

(first off - sorry for the cross post, but I'm trying to get a range
of suggestions from different fly fishermen)

I have a dream, wonder if anyone can help with suggestions for how
best to realize it:

I'd like to build an extensive fly-storage space in a dedicated
fishing shed. Imagine it as something like the fly pattern bin section
of a fly fishing shop. Only, in my version, I'd have the flies
arranged according to the approximate hatching times of the local
Catskill rivers. This would in part be an organization tool - my fly
boxes are a complete mess - and at the same time help me better learn
the many many bugs and imitations of the region.

I can quickly see this devolving into an organizational nightmare,
granted. (And, another argument against over-organization: there have
been many times where I expected to see one bug, showed up at the
river and found something completely different from what I expected,
grabbed a couple flies from my box that looked approximately right in
terms of size and color, and caught just as many fish as if I'd had
picture perfect imitations.) But just for the sake of the dream --

Anyone have any ideas of how best to cheaply construct such the fly
storage part? My first thought is to build some angled shelves like
you see in the fly shops, and maybe fill them with Plano 3700-style
tackle storage boxes with the tops removed. But that's only because I
happen to know what those boxes look like, and I'm not sure where to
get anything like the extensive storage boxes that the fly shops have
(I did find one place online, but they were waay expensive). Wondering
if there's some other plastic storage bin unit out there, perhaps for
another application. I don't do much tying, but also seems like tyers
might have use for something like this.

Second question, and this is more difficult -- maybe good for some
consideration on a rainy (or blazingly hot) day -- how would you go
about arranging such a thing? I'm vaguely thinking I'd do it like you
see the fly hatching charts -- expect X bugs and use X corresponding
imitations from this week to that week. With, I suppose, the longer
hatching bugs, like the BWOs, running longer lengthwise in the boxes?
Gets a little confusing here. Might be best to just arrange them by
approximate hatch-starting time, and leave it at that.

And, I suppose just like fly shops, streamers would have their own
section.

Anyway, this is somewhat just a thought experiment at this point. If
anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them - especially about those
fly storage bins!

wrote in message
...

I'd like to build an extensive fly-storage space in a dedicated
fishing shed. Imagine it as something like the fly pattern bin section
of a fly fishing shop. Only, in my version, I'd have the flies
arranged according to the approximate hatching times of the local
Catskill rivers.
.. . .
Anyone have any ideas of how best to cheaply construct such the fly
storage part?

Do not considere cost until after you have made your
design decisions, how to arrange (subdivide) the collection
and how to store it (for protection against insect larvae as
well as for efficient access.

Second question, and this is more difficult . . . how would you go
about arranging such a thing? I'm vaguely thinking I'd do it like you
see the fly hatching charts -- expect X bugs and use X corresponding
imitations from this week to that week.

Method A: arranged by natural type (caddis, ephemera, terrestrial,
minnow etc.)
Method B: arranged by the calendar (hatch times)
Method C: arranged by fishing method (matching a hatch,
prospecting pocket water with dries, wet/nymph, streamer)

I store by method A because some artificials serve for two or
more naturals, e.g. big Hendrickson duns approximate Isonychia.
But my nymphs are arranged first by size, secondly by colour
(in plastic multi-compartment small parts chests of drawers, the
compartments lined with paper) and so are streamers and bucktails
(in the open, spiked into strips of foam rubber.)

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada

Thanks for the thoughts, Don. I'm leaning towards B, but I certainly
agree that similar looking flies have a reason to live together, too.