The new season is just a few months away now and you might be looking at some new gear for your day on the water. Pete Tyjas looks at a new fly box from Tacky Fly Fishing.
One of my post season hobbies is sorting out my fly box. It gives me the chance to take a look at some of the flies I thought looked surefire winners when I was sitting at the vice but they just didn’t cut it in the real fishing world out on the river.
I’ve been loading them up into a new fly box that is neatly designed and has a cool story attached to it too.
The Tacky Fly Box was designed by some friends, Ki Aston and Tim Jenkins, who decided they wanted something to store their flies in that wasn’t available in the market place.
The criteria was pretty straightforward. It needed to:
Be easy to open even on the coldest of days
Be slim but hold plenty of flies
The slits that hold the flies won’t stretch so it can hold a size 8 hook one day and then a 24 the next
The slits are made of something durable that the hooks, over time, wouldn’t destroy
The box is robust
The list is a pretty straightforward and logical one and once you have a clear plan the next thing is to put the wheels in motion.
This, as we all know, is the tricky part as it involves funding and is where the tale takes an interesting twist.
To raise the money they used crowd funding which, if you haven’t heard of it, is a way of raising capital via a large group of people.
The team have managed to find the money needed and the Tacky Fly Box was born.
So, have they come up with the ultimate fly box?
The box is 7” x 3 3/4” x 3/3” with a clear lid making it easy to identify the flies you need. the depth means it will also fit in a vest pocket easily probably side by side with another Tacky box.
One of the first things you notice when opening the box is how tightly it shuts but is still easy enough to open even with one hands. It feels like the magnets used to secure the box are strong but not too strong.
There is room for 168 flies divided into rows of 12 which is plenty.
Taking a look at the design of the slits they are teardrop in shape which makes inserting flies easier, especially if you are changing them mid-river on a cold day.
The material that holds the flies is made of silicone and is slightly sticky that hold the flies in place. I guess this is where the name Tacky came from. The silicone is hard wearing and looks like it won’t rip or stretch so you can actually store a large hook/fly in a slit and replace it with a smaller one and it will still hold firm.
I gave the box and good dunk to see if it would keep water out if you fell in but as you would expect with a magnet system it isn’t going to keep all of the water out but this isn’t any different to what I’d see with most fly boxes on the market.
Tacky fly boxes are available from a growing list of dealers across the US and I am told they looking at introducing them to Europe too. Fulling Mill will now be offering the box in the UK.
It looks to me as if the guys at Tacky looked carefully at their list of objectives, tackled them and have a product that is fit for purpose and does the job really well. Well done!
Please visit the Tacky Fly Box website for details of where to buy one