If you pay attention on the river, you’ll notice something kind of funny.
Zyn cans are everywhere.
Clipped to packs. Hanging off waders. Sitting on drift boat rails. Empty ones almost never get thrown away. They just… migrate.
At some point, fly fishers collectively decided that an empty Zyn can is too useful to toss. And without anyone really talking about it, they became part of the gear ecosystem.
How This Even Started
Nobody sat down and said, “I’m going to use Zyn cans for fly fishing.”
It just happened.
They’re small. They’re waterproof. They’re durable. They clip easily. And if you use Zyn and fish, you already have one within arm’s reach most of the time.
So people started putting things in them.
What People Actually Put in Empty Zyn Cans
If you ask around (or just peek into a few), you’ll usually find some combination of:
• Split shot
• Tippet rings
• Leaders
• Indicators
• Random “I’ll deal with this later” pieces of gear
• Used flies
That last one matters.
Because flies are the one thing people are constantly taking off, putting back on, swapping, drying, and losing track of. And when you’re standing mid-river, nobody wants to open a pack and dig out a fly box just to park a fly for a minute.
So flies end up in Zyn cans.
Why This Sort of Works (and Sort of Doesn’t)
To be fair, the Zyn can hack works… a little.
Pros:
• Waterproof
• Convenient
• Already clipped to you
Cons:
• Everything rattles around
• Hooks snag each other
• Wet flies stay wet
• You forget what’s inside
• It’s fine until it’s annoying
It’s a classic fly fishing solution. Good enough to keep doing. Bad enough to complain about.
The Real Problem Is Fly Changes
Fly boxes are great. They’re just not great right now.
When you’re standing in moving water and switching flies, the friction adds up:
• Dig into the pack
• Open the box
• Find a spot
• Put everything away again
That’s why people keep defaulting to whatever’s closest. And for a lot of anglers who use Zyn, that’s the can clipped to their gear.
When a Hack Turns Into a Tool
At some point it becomes obvious: if everyone is already doing this, someone should probably do it properly.
That’s where the Addictive Fly Puck comes in.
It’s a magnetic insert designed to snap cleanly into an empty Zyn can. Strong magnets hold flies securely, let them dry, and keep them easy to grab. It doesn’t replace your fly box. It just makes the thing people are already doing less clumsy.
It’s not affiliated with Zyn. It doesn’t come with a can. It just uses a container fly fishers already carry because, accidentally, it’s almost perfect.
This Isn’t About Being Clever
It’s not ultra-technical gear. It’s not trying to reinvent fly fishing. It’s not a lifestyle statement.
It’s just a small improvement to a habit that already exists.
If you already use Zyn and already stuff fly fishing gear into the cans, this will probably make sense immediately. If you don’t, it probably won’t.
And that’s fine.
👉 If you’re curious, here’s the Addictive Fly Puck.