We fish a lot of tube flies for everything from salmon to trout. We think they offer a number of advantages over a traditional long shank fly, one of those advantages being the ability to quickly change out a dull or bent hook without changing flies.
However, the size stinger hook suitable for salmon is not necessarily appropriate for trout. Therefore, we tend to carry a bunch of different size stinger hooks around with us on the water. Most of the time, that means several different packs of hooks rummaging around the chest pocket of our waders. We got tired of digging through our waders for the right size hook all the time, so we looked for a better solution.
What we found was the Angler’s Image Ultra Thin Magnetic Hook Box. It holds a lot of hooks (sizes 6 through 1/0 are shown above), is magnetic, and it’s only a half inch thick! We chose the 8 compartment model which measures in at 5 inches long and 3 7/8 inches wide. That’s about half the size of most flip out chest wader pockets meaning that even when filled with dozens upon dozens of hooks, you hardly even notice it’s in there.
We really, really this little hook box, and at a whopping $9.99 we highly recommend picking one up.
It’s easy to make your own magnetic boxes. Craft stores sell magnetic sheeting. Also many businesses give away magnetic calendars. A lot of them find they have a bunch left over a month or so into the year. It’s easy to get them to give a bunch to you.
I just cut them to the size of the fly boxes partitions with an x-acto knife and a steel ruler. Then glue them in with a glue that won’t melt the plastic the box is made of.