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How do you sort / store your hooks?

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I found these C&F Design Hook Pallets, but they seem expensive considering the number of hooks you can store in it. I know in a lot of instances, you get what you pay for... are these things worth it? I'm looking for a decent solution other than having little boxes and packs of Daiichi hooks hanging on a peg. Any other ideas?

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I use these. Fly box. I have the double ones. For 7.00 you can't beat them. I have had no problem with them. The bottoms are curved at the front so you can slide the hook up with your finger tip.

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Oh Boy, I try to use compartimentalized boxes that you can get in hardware stores, I make sure compartments will hold the hooks in their original packaging. I have a 2 inch by 2 inch sheet of magnetic material glued down to the left side of my vice. Then if I am tying 200 size 14 dries, or 12 of them I pile those hooks on the magnetic sheet. In reality I have about 40 different boxes with hooks and a couple coffee cans full of packs that I have not sorted out. My bad. I have never found a box that you can dump hooks into each compartment that did not end up a mess or a mine field spill at some point.

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I use the little plastic drawers like what you keep nuts and bolts in in your garage. You find them at HD or Wal Mart or where ever back in the tools and fasteners. You can subdivide the drawers for small hooks, but most of what I tie is 5/0+ so the big drawers work well for me.

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I use about 3 of similar boxes that scud points out. One for nymph hooks one for dry fly hooks and the other with a mix of hooks for streamers, scuds and nymphs. Then I have another couple of boxes that have random packages of hooks. I really want to get a better system but most systems like the hook hotel would take up more space on the desk that I don't have. It becomes a mess when you have so many types of hooks in so many sizes. So that is a consideration. I also don't like to take hooks out of their packages too much (i buy 100's mostly) because i often forget about what size or style something is and what brand of hook it is. Although each to their own.

 

phil

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I keep them in there original container and then organizer them in some form of draw type container by function/type. Blind eye, salmon, dry, wet, streamer, etc.

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I work at a hospital and they were throwing out the small 2x2 bins they store screws in.There r 25 different drawers in in it,I keep all hooks,thread,markers,tinsels,lead,and any other thing i feel like keeping in it.Its great,plus it was free.Kinda looks like something at lows or similar store,where the drawers come out with small washers and screws inside.

shane

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I do the same as DaveB. I keep the hooks in original packages (but I combine packages of the same hook), I sort the drawers by type & size. Each type (dry, nymph, etc )gets a vertical column of drawers. Then they are sorted by size vertically, with the top drawer the largest. I normally only tie in a range from 8 thru 18, and have a few more drawers in another vertical column for odd ball sizes / types.

The units I use also have some larger drawers on the bottom, which is handy for herl, thin skin, etc.

I use one of those label gizmos to label EVERY drawer so I don't have to play hide & seek looking for stuff.

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I am also looking for a different way to store hooks. Right now I have them in the packages they came in seperated by type in zip locks, streamer, dry,wet, ect. I have Salmon hooks in there own plastic container. I like to have the hooks in their orignal packages so I can Id them. There is nothing more fustrating than to figure out loose hooks.

vtflyhack

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Hi I have Found one that works great it has10 to 18 compartments that open individually. Also they have individual locks on each compartment. You can get this one at Michaels.

It is made by craft mate.

 

 

tyrite

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I use the two sided hook boxes. I have a number of these boxes and they work well for most hooks, but they are not large enough to hold some types of streamer hooks. For those, I tend to keep in the original packaging.

 

Every time I buy new hooks and add them to the hook boxes, I cut the label out of the packaging and stick one hook through it. This way I will always have at least one left in the box to know which size/shape needs to be reordered. In the future if I buy more of the same hook, I just put all the hooks in the box.

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I have a few multi-compartmented boxes, one with 18 compartments that is pretty big and pretty old which I keep my "bigger" hooks in. I also recently got a 20 compartment Spirit River box from J Stockard which works great. On all of them I label the compartments with the data from the original packages- either cut and tape or carefully peel off the label and restick it on the box.

 

That said, there is really nothing wrong with keeping all your hooks in their orginal packages, especially ones like Mustads which usually come in a decent plastic box. The ones I don't especially like are the ones which come in plastic envelopes. There isn't any right or wrong way as long as it works for you.

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I have way too many hooks. But they are pretty well organized. I try to put all of one style hook (ie Mustad 3906) in a single Plano box. Smaller hooks are stored in Flex-A-Top boxes ( 1" x 5/8" x 1 1/2") which I place in the Plano box in a compartment with a larger hook size. This way, a 6-compartment Plano box can hold up to 12 sizes of a single style of hook. I store very small hooks in something called a microtitre plate (manufactured by Nunc Multidish and used in hospitals and research labs) which is about 3" x 5" and has 24 tiny compartments. Miscellaneous hooks are kept in their original packages.

 

I have so many hooks that I wrote a little program to help me identify hooks based on their characteristics. (For example, what hooks have light wire and are 2x long?) The program is found at:

 

http://fishermonk.com/pl/q_hook.pl

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I usepro hook box 20 has curved bottom and has lil separators on lid each side of divider,only trouble is tiny midge hooks do jump if it gets knocked over or upside down,i also have the c&f hook pallets three different boxes different number of compartments they are great idea for travel bag tying but the damn magnet needs to be far stronger,the hooks jump out and sometimes the lid pops open and then you have to literally sort and refile all the hooks.i use to use the umpqua hook boes but they are far worse than than the two previous all fifteen of those are collecting dust now. but having hooks organized by size and style as well as use really does make tying much easier and pleasurable.

Tight Wraps& Tight Lines

Rick Wallace

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