Day Trippin’ (On Umpqua Fly Boxes)

No. Get your head out of the bag of ‘shrooms. You ain’t in school anymore…or passed out on a dock in the Bahamas. You are a respectable individual with a family and maybe a bed-wetting junior-you in the back room. This is a gear review…serious stuff, so sit down, put the beers and inflatable pig away and pay attention. Umpqua Feather Merchants has a new line of UPG fly boxes. My favorite is the “Day Tripper”—a 4.25 by 6 by 1.5 inch, do-it-all box that goes for $36.99. Whell…what’s so different about it? You may ask in your best Napoleon Dynamite voice. So, I will tell you. Or, better yet, I’ll relay the scoop I got from the crew from Umpqua…

“It is all about the little things. Unlike other slit foam boxes, these slits oppose each other so tails and heads of flies will not conflict...allowing you to really make use of the space available. Slits are also only as good as the foam they are cut into and these have the best—Zerust foam emits a vapor that coats metal and prevents rusting in fine-wire hooks. The spacing of the foam in the Daytripper (more open in the center) gives room for tails, heads and hackle of larger flies. The combination of microslit foam (that prevents midges from dropping into gaps and making them difficult to remove) and magnets gives you easy options both before and after tying on. (You can throw used flies on the magnet for clean up later.) Also, the push button opening—versus latch—allows for single hand opening and simple, single-step closure. And a see through lid. These aren't necessarily new concepts, but put them all together and there's nothing like them. Each of our new box style has its own unique features to solve a specific problem (i.e. Double Wide to hold large flies that need headroom and deeper foam). I think this is why they are Field & Stream's "Best of the Best" winners.”

So…there…and your mom goes to college…