[dropcap]O[/dropcap]ver the last few decades I have refined my approach to fresh water tackle from a hand-me-down vest full of everything I owned to a super light weight system of species specific lanyards and compact, high-capacity fly boxes, like the River Camo box ($24.00 retail for box and $7.00 for leaf) from our friends at Montana Fly Company.
MFC’s Camo fly box with art by Bern Sundell.
If I am angling for large mouth, I have a simple lanyard with the right tippet, nippers, hemostats, and a patch of assorted bass bugs. But if I am looking for big, wild browns on Penns Creek, I want to carry a few more flies without losing the advantage of less clutter and weight. In years past, even the lightest boxes had limited capacity or were unwieldy, forcing you to wear a vest or carry a pack. More recently, however, boxes with “pages” and well engineered foam inserts have allowed us to carry hundreds of bugs, especially smaller trout dries and nymphs, in a single box.
I was thrilled a few weeks ago when I had a chance to test out my new River Camo box on some spring creeks in Pennsylvania. Since I was fishing streams with diverse macro invertebrate populations, I knew I would need to carry a wide array of imitations. With the two-sided insert, my River Camo box could handle nearly five hundred little bugs in the size 12-18 range.
Foam with micro-slits for increased durability.
Not only did it carry nearly all the flies I needed to catch several large browns from 16″ to 18″ (except the huge green drakes and coffin fly patterns I had to stash elsewhere), but it also looked cool and functioned impeccably. It slid in and out of my pockets easily, closed tightly, and had a beautiful rendering of a cutthroat trout along a stream bottom done by Montana native and fly fisherman, Bern Sundell.
If you like to fish fast and light and appreciate good looks and function, then I think you might like MFC’s River Camo box. Extra leaves/pages of slitted foam are available for added capcity, making the River Camo box a new favorite in my shrinking arsenal. I look forward to checking out more of MFC’s heavily art influenced gear at mfcfishing.com.
You should too. Easily find a dealer near you to put your hands on some of their high quality gear.
