Have one, leave one. Need one, take one. Thatap the ethos behind the Flybrary Project, which seeks to unite fly fishing enthusiasts through a growing network of fly patches where they can share and borrow lures.
Coloradans may have seen the little foam boards, imprinted with the word “FLYBRARY” in large font, near local trout fishing hotspots. The idea is similar to Little Free Library boxes that have popped up across the U.S. in recent years: If you have a fishing fly you’re willing to share, hook it to the board for the next hopeful to cast in a nearby river or lake.
Andrew Gilbert and Jamieson Craske, avid fly fishermen and co-hosts of the podcast, said the idea for communal lure boards came about accidentally in 2019, through their friends and fellow podcasters Larry Littrell and Carl Granger.
As the story goes, Littrell and Granger were going to fish Mosquito Lagoon in Florida and stopped by a gas station known as one of the last spots to fill up on boat gas. On this fortunate trip, there was a small piece of foam at one of the pumps with a fly attached to it, which inspired the duo to leave one of their own. The next time they returned, the fly had been replaced by a new one.
Littrell coined the term “flybrary,” and the men began promoting the concept on their podcast. Both the gas station and the Flybrary became somewhat fabled among Tailer Trash listeners who made it a must-stop destination on trips to the lagoon, Craske said. Soon enough, a company called Castaway Customs created templates that the general public could order and put near their favorite fishing hole. Some people even took the initiative to make their own.
“The cool thing, especially from a fly fishing perspective, because I’ve been in that boat, where you get to the river and you forgot your fly box. Maybe, luckily, the Flybrary would be there and could save your day. Maybe a good fly that was working on that part of the lagoon that day would be on the Flybrary, so you’d know what to throw and you’d replace that fly with something else,” Gilbert said. “So there’s a lot of practical use to it, but really it was the lore and building community around it.”
There’s no way to know for certain exactly how many Flybrarys exist — “More than 100, probably less than 1,000,” Craske guessed — though they have been sighted throughout the U.S. and from Canada to the African nation of Seychelles. They tend to be popular in trout fishing areas where fishers are more amenable to sharing both their gear and go-to fishing spots, Craske said.
“Along trout rivers I feel pretty confident, 9 times out of 10, if I’m going to a well-known public spot I’m going to find a Flybrary, which is always super cool to see,” he said.
The Tailer Trash Fly Fishing podcast crew used to keep a map of everywhere people in their listening community found one or sent videos of one being installed. But keeping track proved tricky as the movement became increasingly popular. They are now so well disseminated that Gilbert and Craske have seen them in use in the wild.
“I had just come back from a trip in Colorado. I ran into a guy who, while I was watching him, placed a fly on Flybrary. It’s just shocking all the corners and fishing destinations that have Flybrarys. It kind of blew my mind that people who probably didn’t know anything about the podcast were still putting Flybrarys there. It’s bigger than us,” Gilbert said.
Now, the Tailer Trash guys are working to relaunch the website to both inform fly fishing enthusiasts and to honor Littrell, who died in March of 2025 due to prostate cancer. They hope that spreading awareness of where Flybrarys are located will keep Littrell’s legacy alive and also remind outdoors people that there are likely friends nearby.
“If we’re going somewhere — Chicago or Wisconsin or California, wherever it is — there’s probably someone there who’s willing to go fishing with you and maybe show you around. And if you’re cool enough to participate in the Flybrary, you’re probably cool enough to go fishing with, too,” Gilbert said.
Keep up with the Flybrary Project on Instagram at .
