The Show Me Fly Guy: Pencil Boxes Into Fly Boxes

My youngest son has a penchant for waking up early. Like really early. Like earlier than a human that isn't going fishing should be allowed to wake up. Anyway, I get up with him on weekends and let the rest of the house sleep. At this particular time of day, there isn't much to do and he is only 1 year old so that limits things even more. We go looking for deer, watch the sun rise, get donuts and coffee, but most of all, we go to Wal Mart. We look at toys, look for good movies in the five dollar bin, and hit the clearance aisle. Most of the time we don't buy much, but the other day I spotted something that I have had my eye on for some time.

Before the start of school, I saw these pencil boxes. They were sturdy, had good hinges, and were camo. All important selling points and I swear that I will stop and consider buying something if it is camouflage. The other thing it had was was a locking latch. This caught my attention too. I thought that it was a good idea at first. You just can't keep your pencils and erasers secure enough in the day and age that we live in. But then I thought, what is the point of locking a box that someone could practically put in his/her pocket and then smash with a hammer later? I don't know why all these thoughts ran through my head but I am going to chalk it up to still waking up or being over caffeinated. The only negative I could find, besides the locking mechanism, was that it was priced at ten dollars. Um, no. I was not about to buy a pencil box for that price that I A. did not need and B. did not know what I would do with it even if I did buy it. That's when the idea of turning it into a fly box donned on me. From there, I bided my time and waited...for the cost to come down. And come down it did my friends...like the Berlin Wall...mainly because it took a long time.

A couple of weeks ago, these objects of my desire finally found their way to the clearance aisle. At two dollars each (eighty percent off by my calculations) I bought four of them. It was only after my purchase that I noticed a little netted pocket inside the box that was attached to the lid. It would be the perfect place to hold some strike indicators! After getting home, I realized that I should have bought ten of them.

Anyway, it took a grand total 5 minutes to turn these suckers into fly boxes. I took some measurements first and then found some foam that I had laying around. Now when it comes to foam, I buy the good stuff. Not that 2 mm thick stuff from Wal Mart. I buy the 5 mm foam from Hobby Lobby or Michael's. DO NOT SETTLE FOR 2mm FOAM. YOU WILL REGRET IT. It just isn't thick enough to stick a fly hook into.

I then grabbed some super glue. I prefer the gel option because it doesn't seem to get soaked up by materials like the liquid does. I put glue on the inside of the box, on the foam, and then dropped it in place. Finally, I slapped some cool looking and fly fishing related stickers on it and that was it. I think they turned out pretty well so I thought I would pass the idea and steps along to you.

I auctioned off a couple of the boxes to the members of the middle school fly fishing club that I sponsor and I still have two left. Maybe I need to set one aside for my youngest son since I wouldn't have been able to do this without him and his awful sleeping habits.