Today, after work, I wanted to go fly fishing in Boulder Creek. I had seen a massive brown a while back and wanted to try to find it again. Unfortunately the temperatures dropped below freezing, my breath was visible, and I just couldn’t do it. I know, I know, last December I stood in the Yampa in 7 degrees weather, I venture up to fish the Blue in February and March, and I regularly fish in Boulder all winter long but normally I have acclamated to the temperature drop; this has not happened yet. Alas.
So I did the next best thing and started organizing my fly fishing gear. I came across one of my favorite new pieces I added (err, one of my MBA classmates who works at Umpqua gave it to me) this year, the UPG Daytripper fly box. What is UPG? Umpqua Professional Guide. No worries, I had to look it up too.
UPG Daytripper - Dry Flies and Emergers
For a few years I had struggled when backpacking or hiking when fly fishing was not going to be the main reason (yes, occasionally I enjoy the outdoors without fishing or hunting) with how to compress my flies. As a general rule I carry four fly boxes (two with dry fly/emerger, one nymph, and one streamer) with maybe an extra box in the back of the vest; obviously this is too much to put into a daypack. The Daytripper solved the problem for me.
What I like about it.It is small, about the size of my nymph box, at 4″ wide by 6″ high by 1.5″ deep. The box can fit a ton of flies, giving you the variety without carrying a plethera of boxes. Sure I have more flies in my normal setup but, generally, the water I am headed to hiking requires smaller flies and a lot of the fish are less picky and I can make due with a reduced selection. Unlike most of my open plastic boxes I get to seperate tiny nymphs from drys, without the hooks getting all tangled. Additionally I can fit a few small to moderate sized streamers and hoopers in without crushing them.
UPG Daytripper - Nymphs
The box used thick plastic to give it solid construction. While I am not recommending testing by driving a Silverado over it the Daytripper is strong enough for me to throw into a pack and never worry about it, even when dropping to the pack onto a pile of rocks. Similarly strong, the foam grips flies enough stay in place after throwing the box in a bag and hiking for a couple of hours. I really like that I am not worried about breaking the box and pulling midge hooks out of my long underwear.
The Daytripper box has somthing called Zerust Corrosion Protection. I have no idea what exactly that is or how it differs from other materials, though I have never used a foam box before. All I know is that I have put wet flies away in it and have not seen any rusted hooks. Of course I live in Colorado and could probably dunk the box open in the river and have all the flies dry within an hour.
What I don’t likeThe box has two magnetic “compartments”. I end up dropping flies there to dry but it is not really neccessary. Perhaps the magnetic compartments are for the size 30 flies that I do not carry.The box is heavy. I am not saying it weights as much as all my other boxes combined, but it is heavy. As I am not a huge user of the magnetic backing I would imagine removing it would be a decent reduction in weight. While the box has some mass it is not enough to be an issue in my pack; perhaps after living with a spouse who works at Backpacker Magazine I just have weight on the brain for all gear.
I really like the Daytripper Box and, as the snow is falling deep enough to end most of my backpack fly fishing for the year, I got to smile happily at it one last time in 2011.
Before I forget there is one other benefit of the Daytripper: you get a UPG sticker inside the box – perfect to slap on your car and confuse all of the non fly-fishers. Oh, you do fly fish and haven’t heard of UPG? Well, at least now your are less confused and know to check out these boxes next time you are in the market.
