S6, Ep 124: Fly Tying with Chase Smith
In this engaging episode of The Articulate Fly, host Marvin Cash sits down with Chase Smith, the creative mind behind the innovative Spiral Spook. Together, they explore Chase's design philosophy, the evolution of his signature pattern and the challenges of scaling a fly tying business. Chase shares insights into his journey from conventional angling to fly fishing, highlighting the influence of his Texas roots and his passion for predator species like bass and redfish.
Chase delves into the intricacies of fly design, discussing the importance of materials and the unique challenges of creating flies that mimic conventional lures. He emphasizes the value of creativity and adaptability in fly tying, offering tips for fellow tiers on how to enhance their craft. Listeners will also learn about Chase's upcoming projects, including collaborations with Montana Fly Company and The Chocklett Factory.
Don't miss this opportunity to hear from a talented fly designer and gain insights into fly tying innovation. Tight lines!
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Helpful Episode Chapters
00:00 Introduction
06:54 Influences in Fly Design
11:25 Scaling Up Production Tying
20:44 Spiral Spook Development
24:46 Design Philosophy and Inspiration
27:39 Tips for Aspiring Fly Tiers
29:43 Upcoming Projects
00:00 - Introduction
06:54 - Influences in Fly Design
11:25 - Scaling Up Production Tying
20:44 - Spiral Spook Development
24:46 - Design Philosophy and Inspiration
27:39 - Tips for Aspiring Fly Tiers
29:43 - Upcoming Projects
Speaker:
Intro: Hey, folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly.
Speaker:
Intro: On this episode, I'm joined by Chase Smith, the fly designer behind the Spiral Spook.
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Intro: Chase and I take a deep dive into his design philosophy and process,
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Intro: the evolution of the Spiral Spook, upcoming creations, and much more.
Speaker:
Intro: But before we get to the interview, just a couple of housekeeping items.
Speaker:
Intro: If you like the podcast, please tell a friend, and please subscribe and leave
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Intro: us a rating and review in the podcatcher of your choice. It really helps us out.
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Intro: And a shout out to our sponsor, Trout Routes. I've known Zach and the team at
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Intro: all one word, for 20% off of your Trout Routes Pro membership at maps.troutroutes.com.
Speaker:
Intro: Now on to our interview.
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Marvin: Well chase welcome to the articulate fly thanks.
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Chase: For having me on marvin i'm excited.
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Marvin: Yeah i'm looking forward to it and we have a tradition on the articulate fly
Speaker:
Marvin: we like to ask all of our guests to share their earliest fishing memory.
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Chase: Yeah, let me think. Honestly, whenever someone asks me about the first time
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Chase: fishing, I usually think about going with my granddad out to Lake Amistad in Texas.
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Chase: And we went to Walmart and bought combos before we went out there.
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Chase: So I was probably 12 or 13 at the time, but that was like the first big,
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Chase: we're going fishing and we're going to go catch bass.
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Chase: And it was really fun and we snapped our rods and everything,
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Chase: but that was when I got hooked.
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Marvin: Very, very neat. So when did you come to the dark side of fly fishing?
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Chase: I didn't start fly fishing until I was my senior year of college.
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Chase: So I spent a long time, uh, just conventional bass fishing, some saltwater stuff,
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Chase: some, uh, I like to do, uh,
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Chase: shark lines at the beach, paddle, paddle out lines really far and, and stake them out.
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Chase: We did that a little bit, but mostly just conventional bass fishing until,
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Chase: uh, until my senior year of college.
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Marvin: Got it. And so who are some of the folks that have mentored you on your fly fishing journey? Yeah.
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Chase: Uh, honestly, a lot of it has been just me and a couple of my friends who,
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Chase: uh, got into fly fishing before around the same time as me.
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Chase: And we just kind of figured it out on our own for the most part.
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Chase: Of course, we, you know, looked stuff up online and, uh, there was one local
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Chase: fly shop with, uh, uh, with a few people who, who helped us out.
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Chase: But most of it was just me and my buddies getting on the water.
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Marvin: Yeah, it's interesting. You know, I used to live in Dallas and I don't really
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Marvin: think of Texas, particularly like back when I was there, like really having
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Marvin: very many fly shops at all.
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Chase: Yeah, you know, there's a few
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Chase: really good ones. Living Waters is my favorite, but it's over in Austin.
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Chase: I'm in Kerrville, so I'm an hour away from San Antonio and a couple hours away from Austin.
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Chase: There's an Orvis store in San Antonio.
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Chase: There's a tiny little fly shop that an older gentleman runs in Fredericksburg,
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Chase: about 20 minutes away from me.
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Chase: And we've stopped in there a couple times. but uh for the most part there's
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Chase: just there's not much in this area uh in terms of the fly fishing world so you
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Chase: kind of have to travel a little bit before you get over to austin and houston
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Chase: dallas where you get more people that are into it.
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Marvin: Yeah i got it yeah it's interesting i spent some time in the hill country when
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Marvin: i lived in dallas down around kind of green and san marcos.
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Chase: Yeah yeah on the guadalupe down there yeah.
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Marvin: I didn't fish but uh went and you know drank lone star beer and went to the
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Marvin: dance halls and all that kind of good stuff.
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Chase: Gotcha yeah yeah we uh we uh we started fishing on on the guadalupe down there
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Chase: where they stocked the trout but we would go try to catch the striped bass that
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Chase: are eating the trout so uh some people don't like them but that's that's the
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Chase: only way we fish down there yeah.
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Marvin: That's that's funny that we have that problem on the uh watauga in the south holston too.
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Chase: Of the striped bass eating the
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Chase: trout yep yeah yeah it's a good problem to have i think so uh so when so.
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Marvin: When did you get interested in fly tying.
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Chase: Uh so i've i've always been kind of
Speaker:
Chase: i really like to do arts and woodworking stuff
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Chase: like that you know growing up i used to uh in
Speaker:
Chase: fact for one of my birthdays when i was like eight or nine uh
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Chase: we invited like 30 or 40 kids
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Chase: over to my house and i had built like medieval weapons
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Chase: out of popsicle sticks and duct tape for everybody and we
Speaker:
Chase: just had a melee battle of like 30 you know
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Chase: 10 11 year olds just hacking at each other with all this stuff so i've always
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Chase: liked building things and making stuff and uh so as soon as i got introduced
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Chase: to fly fishing i knew i wanted to start tying flies so i probably had a vice
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Chase: within three or four months after i started fly fishing yeah.
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Marvin: Do you remember what was the first vice you had and what fly you tied on it.
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Chase: The first vice i had was something really cheap probably off of ebay the first
Speaker:
Chase: real vice i had was a stanfo cayman uh it was it's kind of like a regal where
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Chase: you just it just has the clamp,
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Chase: Uh, but it, it didn't, uh, it didn't hold shanks very well.
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Chase: So I upgraded pretty quickly, but I had that one for a good little while and,
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Chase: uh, trying to think what the first, what the first fly I tied,
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Chase: it wasn't a woolly bugger.
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Chase: I know a game changer is one of the first things I tied.
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Chase: Uh, it was, it was real crappy, but I was really excited about it.
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Marvin: Yeah. And what do you tie on today?
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Chase: I have a Renzetti Master now.
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Marvin: Got it. And I bet you you have shank jaws on it.
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Chase: I actually don't. I just have the regular jaws, and they work great for me.
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Chase: I'm sure the shank jaws are awesome, but now I don't have them.
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Marvin: Yeah. And so, you know, who are some of the folks that you kind of pay attention
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Marvin: to and have kind of influenced you as you developed as a tire?
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Chase: Well, obviously, Blaine's probably the one
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Chase: biggest influence because uh when i first started
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Chase: fly fishing one of my one of my uh
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Chase: friends around here that i fly fish
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Chase: with is a doctor he's a bit older than me and
Speaker:
Chase: uh he sent me a video i was like
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Chase: chase if you get a chance look at this i think
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Chase: you would really like this fly and it was a video
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Chase: one of the older game changers i
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Chase: think that blaine had put out but i saw that
Speaker:
Chase: and immediately i was ordering all the materials i
Speaker:
Chase: needed to try to tie that up and i tied up the first
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Chase: one and gave it uh to my friend for him
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Chase: to in the fish with and uh so that
Speaker:
Chase: that's probably the first thing that i looked it up and tied it
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Chase: i used to just go on on
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Chase: youtube and it was more if i saw a pattern
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Chase: that i liked that someone was fishing with then i would look it up
Speaker:
Chase: rather than you know following specific people
Speaker:
Chase: per se but uh i pretty
Speaker:
Chase: quickly i just kind of started doing my my own
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Chase: thing for a lot of them but definitely definitely
Speaker:
Chase: blaine uh clauser minnows i used to tie a lot of clauser minnows at first so
Speaker:
Chase: i really liked bob's design on that and uh you know there's a there's a few
Speaker:
Chase: guys i follow now you can kind of you can kind of sift through all the chaff
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Chase: on instagram and and find a few guys who are really doing some cool stuff.
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Chase: There's a few guys that I like to watch because they come out with unique stuff.
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Chase: But I also, you know, I really try not to,
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Chase: spend too much time looking at other people's stuff so that I don't just subconsciously
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Chase: start trying to imitate other people and doing stuff, especially now that I'm
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Chase: licensing patterns and coming up with stuff on my own.
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Chase: I like to, as much as I can, I like to try to be thinking and ruminating on
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Chase: things in my own mind and not taking in other people's stuff and then like,
Speaker:
Chase: you know, condensing that all into something different.
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Marvin: Yeah. You're not, uh, not taking a fly and putting a different color hotspot
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Marvin: on it and calling it something different.
Speaker:
Chase: Yeah as as much as you
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Chase: can i try i try not to do that i think you know
Speaker:
Chase: to a certain point everything's you know there's a lot
Speaker:
Chase: of things that you might you might come up with something and it's already been
Speaker:
Chase: done and you might not know it or uh you know you think making one little change
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Chase: it warrants something like that i think there's a way a way to you know find
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Chase: a good balance of when it when a fly,
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Chase: gets a new name versus, you know,
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Chase: such with a hotspot, like you say.
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Marvin: Yeah. And so, you know, when did you decide to jump in the deep end of the swimming
Speaker:
Marvin: pool and start production fly time?
Speaker:
Chase: You know, it was actually fairly quickly and it wasn't really on purpose.
Speaker:
Chase: I was a senior in college. I still wasn't sure what I was going to do coming out of college.
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Chase: So I had stuff on my personal Instagram and realized that all I was doing was
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Chase: posting fishing pictures and all these people I didn't know would be getting
Speaker:
Chase: on my personal Instagram and messaging me.
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Chase: So I started a separate Instagram page for buying and pretty quickly just had
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Chase: a bunch of people wanting to order them.
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Chase: So I decided I'd try to make it official and get,
Speaker:
Chase: you know, start paying excise taxes and Orvis store nearby had seen my stuff
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Chase: and started wanting to make wholesale orders.
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Chase: So that's kind of when I had to really kind of make it official.
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Marvin: Yeah, it's interesting you say that about the excise taxes. Because I think
Speaker:
Marvin: a lot of people don't realize that's a thing and then also what a pain in the behind it can be, right?
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Chase: Oh, yeah. It's a hassle. It's a hassle to set up.
Speaker:
Chase: It's annoying. You have to pay a straight 10 off the top kind of tax on everything flies.
Speaker:
Chase: Flies are already low margin as it is, especially when you calculate the time involved.
Speaker:
Chase: And then you try to build that into your pricing and people don't like that
Speaker:
Chase: it adds more expenses to it.
Speaker:
Chase: There's no good way to say, hey, this fly is such and such, but I got to add
Speaker:
Chase: an extra 10% because of this tax. You can't really do that.
Speaker:
Chase: So you kind of just end up eating that cost.
Speaker:
Marvin: Yeah. And so, you know, what were some of the big surprises or adjustments you
Speaker:
Marvin: had to make when you kind of went from tying for yourself to kind of scaling
Speaker:
Marvin: up your production tying business? Yeah.
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Chase: Uh you know it's it's from balance
Speaker:
Chase: of what what can you spend
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Chase: your time on that's worth it and uh
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Chase: how do you separate yourself from everybody
Speaker:
Chase: else who's you know
Speaker:
Chase: it's a there's a very low barrier to entry all you
Speaker:
Chase: need to do is get some hooks and advice and materials and
Speaker:
Chase: it's all fairly cheap and you can start selling flies and lots
Speaker:
Chase: of people that you know don't have a business set
Speaker:
Chase: up or any sort of llc nothing like
Speaker:
Chase: that can just start selling flies for
Speaker:
Chase: cheaper than you can and it's not sustainable but
Speaker:
Chase: they're just doing it for fun uh but and they're
Speaker:
Chase: they're in the same space as you and so
Speaker:
Chase: it's it's hard to it's hard to scale properly and
Speaker:
Chase: keep your margins to where they need to be to
Speaker:
Chase: make it profitable and uh you know
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Chase: sell the ball do and not spend more
Speaker:
Chase: time than it's worth uh tying them it's it's it is it's very difficult to find
Speaker:
Chase: something that's actually profitable within the fly tying space going to the
Speaker:
Chase: bigger companies and stuff like that if you're just doing it yourself it's hard
Speaker:
Chase: to be long-term profitable in that way yeah.
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Marvin: And i would also say you know some of these bigger patterns i mean it's just
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Marvin: they're just so involved it's kind of hard to scale it right.
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Chase: Absolutely well i
Speaker:
Chase: uh yeah i don't sell game changers anymore but what
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Chase: i what i did you know the most i could tie in
Speaker:
Chase: a day was maybe eight to ten something like that because i'm making all the
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Chase: brushes making all the shanks doing it handmade and and then you're selling
Speaker:
Chase: the fly for 20 bucks and you know minus your material costs all the time it
Speaker:
Chase: takes putting into it then the excise tax on top of that.
Speaker:
Chase: Plus if you want to even consider selling them wholesale, that's 40 to 50% off the top right there.
Speaker:
Chase: And it's just, you know, you're looking at minimum wage or something like that at that point.
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Marvin: Yeah. Any other challenges kind of jump out to you kind of, you know,
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Marvin: being a production tire.
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Chase: Yes. So when you're trying to, you know,
Speaker:
Chase: production tie and you're having to use so much materials and you're having
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Chase: to tie so many flies, you're dealing not only with the monotony,
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Chase: but a lot of people think you've got to use materials from a fly shop that are specific to fly tying.
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Chase: But the reality is the industry is so small.
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Chase: Lots of the fly tying materials are repurposed materials from other industries.
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Chase: And so if you look around, you can find, you know, I use wig hair for a lot
Speaker:
Chase: of stuff because it's very similar to some of the stiffer synthetic fibers that
Speaker:
Chase: you can find from fly tying companies.
Speaker:
Chase: And it probably is just the same stuff being repackaged.
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Chase: But it's handy to be able to go off script and find bulk materials that are
Speaker:
Chase: not specifically branded fly tying, but that do the same thing.
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Marvin: Yeah, it's also too, I mean, it's like, you know, it's also a good idea for
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Marvin: folks to go to Hobby Lobby's and, you know, Michaels and places like that for
Speaker:
Marvin: exactly that reason. Because you can find some pretty cool stuff to tie with there.
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Chase: Absolutely i have spent way too much money at those stores so so what.
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Marvin: Attracted you to tying you know i guess what i would generally call predator
Speaker:
Marvin: flies is it just you know that's what you like to fish for or is there something
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Marvin: else that kind of drew you in.
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Chase: Uh i mean
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Chase: i i think it would just mostly stem from that's what
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Chase: i like to fish for uh because so if
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Chase: you if you go look on my website the flies that
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Chase: i tie are carp flies redfish flies
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Chase: you know saltwater predatory species
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Chase: and bass flies uh and so obviously you can use that kind of stuff for uh pike
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Chase: musky all sorts of other species but it's i tie for what i fish for because
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Chase: uh i can't go test my flies on other species because they're not here.
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Chase: I have to design for what I can fish for, typically.
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Chase: So that's what I do. And yeah, bass are mostly what I'm fishing for.
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Chase: So a lot of my time is spent trying to come up with bass flies.
Speaker:
Marvin: Got it. And you know, I think you're probably best known for your spiral spook pattern.
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Marvin: I was kind of wondering if you could let us know a little bit about where the
Speaker:
Marvin: idea for the pattern came from and kind of how you developed it.
Speaker:
Chase: Yeah i uh you know when i was conventional
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Chase: fishing i my favorite way to
Speaker:
Chase: catch fish was to throw a four
Speaker:
Chase: or five inch stone spook and catch
Speaker:
Chase: gas on top water that way and it's just
Speaker:
Chase: there's there's nothing quite like it but being able
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Chase: to move the bait so much in such a
Speaker:
Chase: short space so you're not you know ripping a ripping the
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Chase: lure away from the fish where you can really work it in one spot and
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Chase: uh seeing the lure go side to side it there's a lot to it that i i really enjoy
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Chase: it so you know there's there's really cool deer hair scoops that people tie
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Chase: and some of them are just gorgeous works of art but uh you know i don't do a
Speaker:
Chase: ton of deer hair work i've tied some of those but.
Speaker:
Chase: You know it takes a long time and they
Speaker:
Chase: can absorb water and get heavy and
Speaker:
Chase: all the well there's a host of reasons to fish them and there's a host of reasons
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Chase: not to and I just wanted to find something that was more in my wheelhouse and
Speaker:
Chase: I really like to use foam and synthetics and a lot of the newer style of fly tying stuff,
Speaker:
Chase: And so I also didn't want to just stick foam on a lathe or something like that.
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Chase: I wanted to actually tie up a fly that could walk the dog like that and replicate
Speaker:
Chase: that side-to-side motion.
Speaker:
Chase: And uh so the very first time i just i thought about you know having a weights
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Chase: inside of a foam wrapped body and i tried something and tied it up and,
Speaker:
Chase: seemed to work okay and I knew I had something that I could work with from that point.
Speaker:
Chase: It wanted to go side to side and I knew I could just play with the weights and
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Chase: the sizes and the thickness and all the different things that go into it and make it work.
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Chase: So, you know, I've been still messing with the design of that fly three, four years later now.
Speaker:
Marvin: Yeah, and interesting. And so are you imparting the action on the spiral spook
Speaker:
Marvin: the same way you would you know impart the action uh with a conventional bait
Speaker:
Marvin: or are you or did you adapt it for you know um for fly fishing.
Speaker:
Chase: That no that's a good question i uh with a conventional bait you know you're
Speaker:
Chase: using the rod tip you're having a profit you gotta let slack come into the line
Speaker:
Chase: and you do use some of the same concepts when you're fishing these scoops but
Speaker:
Chase: they're so light to compare to their conventional counterparts,
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Chase: but you do have to fish them differently.
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Chase: The first ones that I made, you had to strip them fast to get them to walk.
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Chase: It's kind of how I weighted them, was if you get a good cadence going,
Speaker:
Chase: you could get them to walk side to side.
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Chase: But I realized pretty quickly that not everyone can strip really fast or keep the tempo just right.
Speaker:
Chase: And if you couldn't do that, then it wouldn't walk, and so people would get frustrated.
Speaker:
Chase: So one of the solutions to that is to add more weight to kind of help keep it
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Chase: going side to side but then make it heavy to cast so I ended up kind of realizing
Speaker:
Chase: that the fly doesn't have nearly as much inertia as,
Speaker:
Chase: a conventional spook does so you can't
Speaker:
Chase: just weight the fly in one spot like a conventional spook you have to distribute
Speaker:
Chase: the weight throughout the fly and it's all wrapped under under that outer foam
Speaker:
Chase: wrap but it has to be very very precise uh to get it to go side to side so now i have it where,
Speaker:
Chase: you keep your rod tip in the water point it at the fly you don't move the rod
Speaker:
Chase: tip at all and you do a slow, deliberate, but sharp strip.
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Chase: Just maybe three or four inches of line with a very sharp stop.
Speaker:
Chase: But you can do it smooth and slow and that gets it walking side to side with
Speaker:
Chase: a lot more glide than I used to have it. It used to kind of chop side to side.
Speaker:
Chase: If you moved it fast, now it glides more and it's a lot easier to walk.
Speaker:
Chase: And it's a lot easier for people that aren't as skilled at stripping fast to be able to make it work.
Speaker:
Marvin: Very, very neat. And, you know,
Speaker:
Marvin: it's always interesting because I always find that kind of, you know,
Speaker:
Marvin: almost every predator fly guy I've talked to, they have a deep conventional
Speaker:
Marvin: angling background and they just decided that they wanted to kind of apply that
Speaker:
Marvin: knowledge in the fly fishing space.
Speaker:
Marvin: You know, what are some other things that your conventional angling backgrounds
Speaker:
Marvin: brought to your fly designs?
Speaker:
Chase: Yeah, so I think most of what I brought, Coming from a conventional background,
Speaker:
Chase: I wasn't super serious on the conventional side of things.
Speaker:
Chase: I did it for fun fairly often, but just the movements that trigger bass especially
Speaker:
Chase: were some of the things that I still try to replicate with my flies.
Speaker:
Chase: Uh whether it's you know right now
Speaker:
Chase: i've i've been messing around with uh
Speaker:
Chase: some glide bait style uh fries that i still haven't perfected but i just i love
Speaker:
Chase: seeing a glide bait chop side to side and that's something i want to uh do with
Speaker:
Chase: a fly and you know the stook obviously i've got a a frog that's really,
Speaker:
Chase: really cool that actually Blaine's going to be producing through his chocolate
Speaker:
Chase: factory and that'll hopefully be here this next spring but yeah.
Speaker:
Chase: Just replicating the style of what I used to enjoy throwing on conventional
Speaker:
Chase: bait, I still do that with a fly rod.
Speaker:
Chase: The reason I use a fly rod is I enjoy the casting so much.
Speaker:
Chase: I enjoy being able to make my own flies. I enjoy the light presentation of the flies.
Speaker:
Chase: Everything about that is what draws me to fly fishing.
Speaker:
Chase: I don't feel the need to throw any conventional anymore just because I have
Speaker:
Chase: more fun not catching fish fly fishing than I do if I were catching fish conventional.
Speaker:
Chase: And so that's kind of my baseline. And fortunately, fly fishing,
Speaker:
Chase: you usually do catch fish.
Speaker:
Chase: And one of the best parts is you can see any fish, any fish in the river that
Speaker:
Chase: you see, typically there's a fly that it's going to eat.
Speaker:
Chase: So that's the other side of that coin is when I was conventional fishing,
Speaker:
Chase: I would never catch a carp or some of these cichlids or other things that are in the river.
Speaker:
Chase: Just you don't catch those on the things that you're throwing for bass so now
Speaker:
Chase: i i use it to three rods you know topwater streamer and then a carp or panfish
Speaker:
Chase: style style rod and any fish i come across in our rivers i can make a decent
Speaker:
Chase: presentation to that has a chance of catching them.
Speaker:
Marvin: Got it and you know it's interesting too because your patterns are you know
Speaker:
Marvin: stylistically different but i was wondering if there's maybe you know like a
Speaker:
Marvin: unifying design philosophy that you have when you're trying to create new patterns.
Speaker:
Chase: You know probably the
Speaker:
Chase: one thing i keep coming back to is trying to make weedless designs or at least
Speaker:
Chase: naglis because i get really frustrated throwing any fly that's hook point down
Speaker:
Chase: and i also don't enjoy throwing jig flies all that much so,
Speaker:
Chase: I really like to try to get level sinking flies that are hook point up you know
Speaker:
Chase: whether it's a game changer that has a little bit of foam in it in certain places or uh,
Speaker:
Chase: Some of the slide-style flies that I have, the spook sits hook point up.
Speaker:
Chase: The frogs that I've been designing are weedless.
Speaker:
Chase: So I really like being able to throw flies back into the junk and into the thick
Speaker:
Chase: stuff where the bass typically are and not get snagged.
Speaker:
Chase: So even on my carp flies, they all sit hook point up. And that's probably a
Speaker:
Chase: pretty unifying thing that I use.
Speaker:
Marvin: Got it. And, you know, where do you get your, you know, your ideas for your
Speaker:
Marvin: new patterns and kind of like, how do you like to kind of go from kind of concept to finish fly?
Speaker:
Chase: Uh most of the time i start from being
Speaker:
Chase: on the water and seeing um either
Speaker:
Chase: like a localized event where i see bass beating on
Speaker:
Chase: a certain bait fish or uh something acting
Speaker:
Chase: a certain way and wanting to replicate that movement or
Speaker:
Chase: uh or just just a bait fish in general
Speaker:
Chase: or for example the frog it's just wanting to
Speaker:
Chase: replicate the kicking motion of a frog uh so
Speaker:
Chase: on the fly that that i've designed the the legs
Speaker:
Chase: when you strip it forward the legs kick backwards
Speaker:
Chase: and then retract and it looks it looks
Speaker:
Chase: like a frog swimming but it took forever to figure out how to how to make that
Speaker:
Chase: happen because it's a very unique motion in you know like the the design world
Speaker:
Chase: to have you know fraught legs that kind of stay in place as you strip forward
Speaker:
Chase: and then can spring back.
Speaker:
Chase: It's very difficult.
Speaker:
Chase: But I enjoy that aspect of it. I like to try to have something slightly unique
Speaker:
Chase: as kind of a selling point in each fly to make it worth designing a new fly around something.
Speaker:
Marvin: Got it. And I always like to ask, you know, really serious tires to share three
Speaker:
Marvin: tips for us mere mortals that will kind of help us up our game and bench, right?
Speaker:
Chase: Yes, I can. You know,
Speaker:
Chase: some of the probably the biggest thing that that has helped me is not being
Speaker:
Chase: limited to materials and recipes
Speaker:
Chase: and more understanding the inherent like qualities of each material.
Speaker:
Chase: So being able to see a specific fiber and know that it's stiff or going to absorb water or whatever it is.
Speaker:
Chase: And it doesn't have to be exactly what a certain fly pattern calls for.
Speaker:
Chase: But if you have something that's going to perform the same, typically you can
Speaker:
Chase: sub it out and it's going to be just fine.
Speaker:
Chase: And honestly, fish are not nearly as picky as we like to think they are.
Speaker:
Chase: For the most part especially in the streamer world
Speaker:
Chase: and uh you can get away with
Speaker:
Chase: with some changes that may not
Speaker:
Chase: be exactly what the original recipe calls for
Speaker:
Chase: but uh but it'll work out just
Speaker:
Chase: fine so i i found that i tied up
Speaker:
Chase: when i was first starting to you know tie i
Speaker:
Chase: found that i would i had a lot more fun when i started like straying from from
Speaker:
Chase: designs and from the recipes and using new things and trying things out and
Speaker:
Chase: not being afraid to do that because you don't have to stick to exactly what's being called for.
Speaker:
Chase: The second thing is something that I tell everybody whenever they come to any
Speaker:
Chase: of my shows, especially if I'm tying up game changers and I'm using certain tools.
Speaker:
Chase: But if you're going to mess with wire, dubbing brushes, anything like that,
Speaker:
Chase: buy a pair of orthodontics pliers, orthodontics snips.
Speaker:
Chase: They are the best tool for $10 that you'll ever get.
Speaker:
Chase: I've tied thousands of game changers with the same stainless steel orthodontics
Speaker:
Chase: snips, and they're better than the flush wire cutters you can get at hardware
Speaker:
Chase: stores, anything like that.
Speaker:
Chase: They're probably my favorite tool that I've found that doesn't come from a fly shop.
Speaker:
Marvin: Got it. And how about number three?
Speaker:
Chase: Let me think. The last one that I really use a lot is learning to make your own shanks.
Speaker:
Chase: It just is so helpful to be able to measure out to the millimeter how big I
Speaker:
Chase: want a shank to be and then make it myself.
Speaker:
Chase: So whether you're buying a wire bending jig or getting the, there's a one-step
Speaker:
Chase: looper tool and you can bend stainless steel wire yourself, that's probably
Speaker:
Chase: another of the biggest things that I use all the time.
Speaker:
Marvin: Got it. And I always like to ask, you know, serious tires, The other one is
Speaker:
Marvin: like everybody's got some kind of squirrely tool that may not even kind of officially
Speaker:
Marvin: be a tool that they can't live without. Do you have anything like that?
Speaker:
Chase: I, you know, those orthodontics pliers are up there.
Speaker:
Chase: I use those all the time, and I have multiple pairs in case I ever lose them. Let me think.
Speaker:
Chase: You know, I don't use too many, I don't use a lot of tools, honestly.
Speaker:
Chase: Probably those One Step Looper, the wire benders, I use those a lot.
Speaker:
Chase: So that's probably the one, if it broke, I would have to order a new one that same day.
Speaker:
Marvin: Got it and you know are there uh are there any projects you're working on you'd
Speaker:
Marvin: like to share with our listeners.
Speaker:
Chase: Uh yeah you know i've got uh i've got several patterns coming out with montana
Speaker:
Chase: fly company that i'm excited about we've been working on those for a long time,
Speaker:
Chase: and uh they'll they'll be hopefully here
Speaker:
Chase: pretty soon and finalized and everything so i'm excited about
Speaker:
Chase: that i'm really excited to be working with lane
Speaker:
Chase: uh with the chocolate factory stuff you know i've stopped
Speaker:
Chase: selling game changers because his he's
Speaker:
Chase: finally selling them himself and he's the
Speaker:
Chase: original designer so i strongly believe that he
Speaker:
Chase: should be getting royalties uh from that
Speaker:
Chase: pattern and so it's unfortunate to see all
Speaker:
Chase: these other companies selling game changers but uh you
Speaker:
Chase: know no royalties going to him so anyway i can push people towards that i do
Speaker:
Chase: but uh i'm also i'm super excited that he's going to be making one of my flies
Speaker:
Chase: with that frog so hopefully that'll be this next year and that'll be really cool.
Speaker:
Chase: Other than that, I've got a new hook that I'm putting on the Spiral Spook that
Speaker:
Chase: has made the hookup ratio probably five or six times better because I spent
Speaker:
Chase: a lot of time watching bass eat it and seeing why they didn't get hooked.
Speaker:
Chase: And so I've made a switch on that, and I'm finally finishing up rebalancing
Speaker:
Chase: all the different sizes of the spooks and getting the new hook sourced and everything like that.
Speaker:
Chase: And they'll be way better. So pretty soon I'll be back in production on those.
Speaker:
Marvin: Got it. And is that a hook that's going to be available to everybody else or
Speaker:
Marvin: is that just something just for you?
Speaker:
Chase: Oh, it's already a hook that's out there. It's a Gamakatsu finesse wide gap hook.
Speaker:
Chase: It just has an upturn point that works way better than the one that I had.
Speaker:
Chase: The other hook is an A-Rex hook, and it's great, just not for this application.
Speaker:
Chase: So, you know, switching to that is, that other hook has made a huge difference.
Speaker:
Marvin: Got it. And so, if folks want to check out your flies and purchase a few, where should they go?
Speaker:
Chase: Yeah, they can go to my website, www.fishchaseflies.com.
Speaker:
Chase: And they can also go to my Instagram, which is fishchaseflies.
Speaker:
Chase: And that's typically all my stuff is either on my website or coming out on my instagram,
Speaker:
Chase: uh there's a quite a few fly shops that have this groups and pretty soon there'll
Speaker:
Chase: be a lot more once i get back into the swing or producing them again got.
Speaker:
Marvin: It because i know you've got i know your favorite fly shop in austin has them for sure right.
Speaker:
Chase: Oh yes yeah they've got they've had a bunch of those yeah.
Speaker:
Marvin: And so is there anything else you'd like to share with our listeners before
Speaker:
Marvin: I let you go this evening?
Speaker:
Chase: Oh, you know, I can't think of much off the top of my head.
Speaker:
Chase: Just, you know, I'm always trying to get out there and film and hopefully pretty
Speaker:
Chase: soon I'll have a bunch of topwater stuff for that frog and spook.
Speaker:
Chase: And I've been trying not to put as much on Instagram lately just because I've
Speaker:
Chase: been redesigning the spook with a new hook and everything.
Speaker:
Chase: And, uh, so pretty soon I'll have, well, I've been taking a bunch of footage
Speaker:
Chase: and you can, you can see it all on my Instagram once I get it all put out there,
Speaker:
Chase: but that'll, that'll all start ramping back up pretty soon.
Speaker:
Marvin: Got it. And, uh, if folks want to find you, uh, on the show circuit in 2025,
Speaker:
Marvin: you got any shows on the calendar?
Speaker:
Chase: I'll always be at trout fest uh here
Speaker:
Chase: here in texas they do that one uh over
Speaker:
Chase: on the guadalupe by by green and all
Speaker:
Chase: those other places uh it's an awesome show i'll also be at a there's a couple
Speaker:
Chase: other local texas shows that i'll do i'm not sure if i'm going back up to um
Speaker:
Chase: to the uh schultz Outfitters bobbing the hood, but I hope so.
Speaker:
Chase: Um, other than that, I don't have anything quite planned. I've still got,
Speaker:
Chase: you know, two little kids at home. So some, a lot of my time is pretty limited.
Speaker:
Marvin: Yeah, no, fair enough. We were talking about that. I, uh, you know, it's interesting.
Speaker:
Marvin: Mine are 22 and 16 and, uh, just different challenges, I guess is the easiest way to say it.
Speaker:
Chase: Absolutely. Yeah.
Speaker:
Marvin: Yeah. And so if, uh, folks want to follow your adventures at the Vicer on the
Speaker:
Marvin: water where should they go.
Speaker:
Chase: Uh following my instagram
Speaker:
Chase: is the the best way fish chase flies on on
Speaker:
Chase: instagram that's that's where i i post everything and
Speaker:
Chase: put all my videos and i i do have a bunch on youtube uh tutorials and stuff
Speaker:
Chase: like that so i'm pretty sure it's just fish chase flies on youtube as well but
Speaker:
Chase: those would be the two places to see pictures and videos and then And you can
Speaker:
Chase: actually buy the flies on my website.
Speaker:
Marvin: Got it. And I'll drop all that stuff in the show notes for you.
Speaker:
Chase: Awesome.
Speaker:
Marvin: Yeah. Well, listen, Chase, I appreciate you spending some time with me this
Speaker:
Marvin: evening. It's been a lot of fun.
Speaker:
Chase: Of course. Yeah. Thank you so much.
Speaker:
Marvin: Have a great one.
Speaker:
Chase: You too.
Speaker:
Intro: Well, folks, we hope you enjoyed the interview as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you.
Speaker:
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Speaker:
Intro: Use Artfly20, A-R-T-F-L-Y-2-0, all one word, to get 20% off of your membership.
Speaker:
Intro: Tight lines, everybody.
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