Plan D Fly Box Review: The Solution for Articulated Flies

When I was just beginning in this sport, my goal was to catch fish. Lots of fish. And I think that’s the goal for most anglers. We want action and numbers.

Then, after a while something happens. All of a sudden numbers isn’t enough. We need bigger fish with the risk/reward factor coming into play—we’ll take one or two good ones, at the risk of missing the score box, rather than a dozen dinks. Most anglers go through this developmental stage and the key to catching bigger fish, many of us come to believe, is to use a bigger fly. Now, that’s not always true, but I’ve proven that correlation many times. For that reason, some of the flies we fish are ungodly, with massive amounts of material wound to their articulated bodies. They take fish, but can be a pain to manage in our fly boxes. The back of a fly may rest peacefully in groove, while the rogue head of the fly, complete with the eye, wanders aimlessly. Try to find a fly you want when most of them are falling all over each other. Not going to happen. That’s why Plan D launched it’s new boxes, which are designed specifically for those articulated flies we love dearly. Now, we can carry all those Intruders and Tacos and such, and easily find them when we want to make a switch.

Plan D: The Fly Box Design

So what makes these boxes so special? Simple: Plan D’s designers understood that big-fish fanatics like to fish big, articulated flies, and they don’t like to paw through a snarl of flies to do so. So they designed their boxes with individual stainless steel hooks/posts at either end of the box that allow you to fasten the eye of the hook to the post. The rear portion of the fly (with the hook) slips into a groove in the foam bottom of the box. This prevents the front articulation (meaning the forward portion of your fly) from swimming around in your fly box. Ditto for the hook portion of your fly. The inserts that your hooks sit in are foam, so make sure your fly is dry before it goes into the box, which prevents rusting.

The Products

The 50/50 Boat Box that’s available through North 40 hold up to 28 articulated flies on one side of the box and 28 on the other side. You can add more flies if you choose, but they’ll be loose, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of this box. There’s a fly patch on the outside of the box where you can dry flies or store the patterns you need for quick access. $59.99

The Pack Articulated box holds up to 20 articulated flies. It also has foam inserts to control the back half of your flies. With a see-through design, you can quickly locate a streamer without having to open the box. The Pocket Articulated comes in as Plan D’s smallest box. You can carry up to eight articulated flies at a time. This does not limit the ability to sneak a few other flies on the opposing end of the box. $34.99 Pack; $24.99 Pocket.

Takeaway

With such a simple design, and the ability to “train” your flies to sit tight, I have to ask, Why didn’t I think of this? I’ve battled the dreaded articulated fly scramble when I’ve packed steelhead flies to the river in other boxes and I consider these Plan D boxes to be the answer. Think of it this way—less time looking for flies and unknotting them from each other, and more time fishing those flies.