[Botsari]

I’m looking to buy some larger sheets of foam for fly boxes and other fly related DIY projects. Foam to use to store flies, not tie them. The kind I especially have in mind is the corrugated stuff, or “ripple” foam. I’m looking for stuff to cut up myself that is economical. If by some miracle there is any stuff that is not sold AS “fly foam” with the usual %500 markup as such .... that would be awesome! But any source of larger sheets of the stuff to cut myself would be great.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

Added note: I was able to find “boat patches” of the stuff, 12x15” for on the order of $16. Since this is foam, the kind of stuff your electronics come packed in, this type, of thing strikes me as the very epitome of the standard %500 fly fisherman’s gouge. Anything out there that will not make me feel abused and ridiculous for buying it?

 

[john8]

I have been making some large wooden fly boxes to hold classic salmon flies, I was unsuccessful in finding foam like you mention. I ended up getting from a local craft store which is ok but not what I really wanted. If you end up finding something please post it or send me a PM.

 

[Botsari]

I have been making some large wooden fly boxes to hold classic salmon flies, I was unsuccessful in finding foam like you mention. I ended up getting from a local craft store which is ok but not what I really wanted. If you end up finding something please post it or send me a PM.

The only budget way I have in mind so far is to cut EVA foam sheets and glue them into rectangular arrays. So for example instead of triangular ridges glue thin strips of EVA either directly to the box or to a larger sheet of foam to serve as the “backing” that gets attached to the box. If done neatly I believe this would function just as well, and perhaps be even better since you can potentially adjust both the depths and spacing of the rectangular ridges depending on the flies you want the box to hold.

I guess another way is to just glue a thickish piece to the box and use a razor blade to slice some slits to hold flys. But if you are making something nice perhaps neither DIY will really satisfy. I’m mostly using leftover Altoid boxes so maybe the sloppiness will be endearing in that context.

EVA foam is cheap - at least the stuff not sold as having anything to do with fly fishing.