S7, Ep 102: Wrapping Up 2025: Product Drops and More from The Chocklett Factory

EPISODE SUMMARY

Guest: Blane Chocklett - Fly Designer, Guide, Founder of The Chocklett Factory (Blue Ridge, Virginia)

In this episode: Fly fishing innovator Blane Chocklett reveals his revolutionary AHREX hook line designed specifically for articulated fly platforms. Topics include millimeter-based hook sizing, forged hook testing on giant fish, bootstrapping product development without financial backing and the Golden Ticket promotion.

Key fishing techniques covered:

• Game Changer platform fly tying
• Articulated fly construction with millimeter-matched hook shanks
• Hook selection for pike, musky and smallmouth bass
• Streamer fishing for trophy fish
• Multi-section fly building strategies

Location focus: Blue Ridge, Virginia (guide service), Cuba (upcoming R&D trip), South Dakota, Wyoming, East Tennessee

Target species: Pike, musky, smallmouth bass, trout, jack crevalle, saltwater species

Equipment discussed: AHREX hooks (8mm-80mm), Scientific Anglers fly lines, TFO rods, Nautilus reels, Game Changer shanks (10mm, 15mm, 20mm, 25mm), Chocklett Factory products (support discs, rattle boxes, swim bladders)

Key questions answered:

• How to match hook sizes to articulated shank systems
• What makes traditional hook sizing inconsistent
• How to test hook strength on trophy fish
• When to use different shank lengths in Game Changer platforms
• How to build a fly fishing business without financial backing

Best for: Intermediate to advanced anglers interested in articulated fly design, Game Changer platform tying, hook engineering and product development

Marvin Cash00:00:00

Hey, folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of The Articulate Fly.We're back with the last Chocklett Factory of the year with the man himself, Blane Chocklett. Blane, how are you?

Blane Chocklett00:00:12

I'm good, man. How about you?

Marvin Cash00:00:14

I'm just, I got hit with that norovirus that's been rolling around, so I'm just on the other side and trying to claw things back just in time for the holidays.

Blane Chocklett00:00:22

Yeah, sorry to hear that. I get it though, that time of year.

Marvin Cash00:00:26

Yeah, exactly. I mean, if you're out doing what you're supposed to be doing, highly high likelihood you're going to get sick.But speaking about being out and around, you've been everywhere, man.

Blane Chocklett00:00:36

I have been. It's been a whirlwind year for sure. And one more trip to finish the year off and then start a new one. Yep. Heading down to Cuba to do some.Research and development on some crab and shrimp patterns and you know, been I guess since like maybe last time I talked to you.I had a pretty much a month long trip from South Dakota visiting a dealer there, Dakota Angler and some good buddies, Todd and Chip, at Empire Lodge over in Wyoming, and then headed up to Scientific Angler and visited Brad and Josh and Joe and, and Moose and the team there with some fly lines that we've been working on for a couple years and finally getting down to the, I guess the finish line here with those. So I'm excited to be. Taking some of these samples, you know, in different places and pretty happy with them.So we'll, we'll see, see how we do with the tropical version stem down south here next week and we can talk about that later on on all that. But that's, that's coming a little bit later. So not sure when that would be launched, but I don't want to get too far ahead of that.

Marvin Cash00:01:59

Yeah, but you've been busy nonetheless.I mean, I think right around Thanksgiving saw a ton of kind of new product releases from the chocolate factory, you know, dams and all kinds of cool stuff like that.But the one that I really wanted to spend our time talking on is you got your hooks launched with AhreX and I think the super cool thing is, you know, you've kind of completely reimagined kind of hook sizing to work with your hook shank combos.

Blane Chocklett00:02:24

Yeah. So obviously extremely happy and excited to have those finally available. Working with Mo and Soren and the team over at Ahrex.And you know, we came to the table about a year or so ago and I told him, you Know what I was wanting to do and didn't want to keep Robin from Peter? The PayPal scenario. Basically trying to make hooks work on the platform, right?So there you may have a certain hook that you like, but the wire gauge may not be good enough or the gap may not be perfect for, you know, using brushes or supports or whatever it may be. So you run into these, these issues, right? And with the, obviously with the game changer platform, you have different shank links.So you're trying to build.Sometimes you need a hook, a stinger hook somewhere either in the very back or midway back for more of that grabby style fish like pike, muskies, you know, smallmouth bass, just because of their mouths being so small, and trout, for example. So it was important to be able to have a, a hook that would be the best of all worlds right now.So right now we have a more salt, a little bit heavier wire, and in the, who knows, in the future we may have a thinner wire for specific freshwater. But I wanted to have the strongest hook that we could with the smallest wire gauge, right.So we have them forged, so that makes them stronger in itself. But I tested them on some super strong fish, you know. You know, with the Jack project I'm doing with asga, you know, it was a perfect place to.Since we had a lot of shots where I could really test the. In this specific hook size. It was a 40 millimeter and we'll get into that. But.When you can take, you know, fish that are 35 inches at the fork to 42 inches at the fork and lock it, you know, take a hundred pound backing, the heaviest fly line core that we could use, and using straight hundred pound leaders just to test the. I wanted to test how strong the hook was.If you literally took a Nautilus, you know, GT reel and crank that drag to where you can't pull line off and then see what happens, right? That whole F around and find out deal. So we did it and the hooks didn't open up. They were fantastic.And trying to keep a fish that size from going into your backing and then testing it, you're never going to put that much pressure on anything, right? So I feel very confident that these hooks will be really good for everybody in all types of fishing scenarios.But getting back into the design of the hook, you know, a lot of times we're looking at gap and we're looking at shank length, right? So it's, it's real important when you're building that platform that you don't Have a shank length.If you want to have a hook in the middle section that you make sure that you don't. Your shank link's not too long, so doesn't interrupt the flow of the fly when you're building it, right?So for instance, if you're building a fly that's around six inches and you want to put a stinger in there somewhere, so you can decide to put it closer to the tail or you can put it more in the middle of the body of the, of the fly itself. But the farther you go up into the fly, the more body that you're going to run into.So the gap needs to be wider and the, the shank length needs to kind of flow with what you're trying to build. And for me on Game Changers, it's all about the vertebrae system.So the more vertebrae that you have built in, the more swim that three dimensional swimming action, right? So, and no hook is equal.Like you could take X hook from one company that may just be a size one ought and take another one ought hook from another company and they're not that, they're nowhere near the same.So it makes it very difficult for someone that's trying to buy a hook for certain size flies or whatever, because especially if they're not familiar with that brand. So it's just kind of like fly line and rod designs now that we're so far away from the industry standard on rods and lines.It's the same with hooks, right?So to me, it was important to have wire gauge, have wire gap and then have sync mean shank gap right from the bottom of the shank to the gap of the hook. Having that wide enough, but also having the length of that shank to, to, to be right as well.And the easiest way to solve that problem is do them in millimeters, right? That way you know exactly what the shank length in millimeters is going to be. And the, and the gap between the point and the bottom of the shank.And so for instance, to, to make this as easy as possible. So if you're building a fly that's X long, right?So say, say 5 inches and you're gonna put two 10 mil shanks and then you're gonna build a hook into it and then finish it off moving forward having six articulations, for example. And I want to create a fly that's about 6 inches, including the tail.I would probably do 2 or 310 mil and then I'd be moving into that 15 mil platform to get that length that I want and then finish it off with a hook at the head. So we made it simple. So if you're doing 210 mils and you're moving into a 15, we have a 16 millimeter shank or hook length shank of that.Sorry, I'm getting confused. We have a 16 millimeter hook that would flow nicely into moving into those 15 mil shanks. And the same if you're going bigger.So you know, if you're building a fly a little bit bigger, you need a wider gap and you're going say from 15s to 20s or 25s. We have 20 millimeter hooks that would fit that with the right gap to fit the body style.You know, whether it's a wide or narrower body, depending on what you're doing. Brushes, bucktail, whatever materials. So there was a lot of thought that was built into this hook design. Right.So not only are you getting something that's going to be very close to the shank length that you're building into the platform, you're also getting the right gap distance, which is super important. And then moving into the head part, having a head system. That's right.So having our, our larger hooks from 25 mil, 30 mil, 35 mil, 40 mil up to 80 mil. Right. So we have, you know, where you have everything built into.So if you get bigger flies, you have the right hook shank length and the right gap with the white right wire size. That way you can have nice bucktail heads or brush heads or whatever, brush bodies that you don't interfere with the gap of the hook.The keeling's really nice.So there is a lot of thought built into this, this hook design with a rex and the fact that you can go from 8mil, 12mil, 16, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40 and on up. Right. You're able to build platforms that's going to suit what you're building, um, and not have to guess. Right. So.And for example, if you're, if you're building a little bit fuller bodied fly, you could always go up to the next hook size, which isn't going to be a giant leap in between the shank lengths. Um, so if that, hopefully that simplifies it a little bit more.Um, but again, like I've said, you don't have to use these hooks just for game changer platforms. I think the traditional tire that's tying to sievers or, or beast flies or, you know, hollows or you name any type of streamer that's on the market.I think you're really going to like the shank length with the gap. You don't have to worry about interfering with, with the hookups because of it.And the, like I said wire gauge with the tensile strength and worrying about them failing opening up. I think these hooks are going to fit just about everybody's tying platform super neat.

Marvin Cash00:11:16

And so I would imagine, obviously there are dealers. They're on your website, right?

Blane Chocklett00:11:20

Yes. Yep, yep. You can get them through us. You can get them through all my Chocolate factory dealers.Obviously a Rex works with Hairline and any Hairline just being the big distributor for a Rex in the US Any, any dealer out there has opportunity to get them as well from Hairline.

Marvin Cash00:11:40

Yeah. And I would imagine too right, they're gonna find their way into your flies, right?

Blane Chocklett00:11:44

Oh, yeah. Oh, yes. So as soon as we run through our other A Rex hooks with our, with our team, that they're all gonna be switched to all of my hooks.So that's going forward into probably middle part of spring. Most of the, most of the flies you're gonna start seeing that will be coming from us will be on all these hooks.

Marvin Cash00:12:07

Uh, very cool. And one reason to go to the Chocolate Factory to get your hooks is you're running a golden ticket promotion, right?

Blane Chocklett00:12:13

Oh, yeah. Yep. So yeah, I thought it'd be good, you know, for us just be straight, you know, like, you know as well as anybody.I didn't get any financial backing or partners and in this venture with the Chocolate Factory. So we decided since I have a bunch of new products I want to get out. We're trying to raise some capital.Usually I push most of my sales to dealers, but through Christmas, we started at Black Friday that we're, we're doing kind of a, a thing where we want to try to raise a little bit more cash flow so I can start getting some of this other products going. So we decided what we do is like you spend a hundred bucks or more, you, you.That puts you in a drawing to be able to get stuff from not only us at the chocolate Factory, box of flies and some other swag, but also with all my wonderful partners that I've worked with forever, you know, all. They all always been there to step up. Nautilus is going to put up a real tfo, is doing a ride coast is doing fair sunglasses for of your choice.Same with TFO of Rod of your choice. Scientific Aers doing fly lines of your choice that you want. So yeah, I'm, I'm really excited about that.You know, it's great to be able to say, hey man, if you support us, we're going to support you back by giving you a little bit more opportunity to be able to get something that's really cool. Right. Yeti's going to help us, probably do a go box or something with that. So, you know, you support us, we're going to support you.And we just wanted to throw something in there that would kind of up the ante a little bit. Right.You know, we greatly support everybody that's always helped us out and little extra incentive, incentive to, you know, spend a little bit more money, you know, for every purchase over that, it's another, another little notch in the belt to put, put your name in there and, you know, gives you a better opportunity to win more than one, you know, so you never know. But we're going to run that through January 1st and then do all the announcements of the winners on that.So hopefully everybody will get out there and buy some cool stuff. Got tons of inventory now with all the flies and, you know, support discs and the rattle boxes and obviously the hooks now and.The, the swim bladders and there's just a bunch of products that I've like, you know, been setting on for a long time and I'm ready to let the world see it. But I, you know, it's when you don't have financial backing, just got to build it slowly and I'm, I'm ready to really kind of open that up.And the more sales we get, especially here, moving into next year, the faster we can get new products out there.

Marvin Cash00:15:11

Yeah, and I would say too, like, you know, always support your local fly shop. And I know it's important for you to support your dealers and I agree with that too.But you know, folks, you also have to support the guy that designs the stuff. So I'd encourage you to head over to the Chocolate Factory and check out all this neat stuff.

Blane Chocklett00:15:26

I appreciate it. And you know me, I mean, it is all about my dealers. I mean, if it's, if they're not healthy, I can't be.And you know, I had a fly shop for over 15 years and I know how important it is to have the industry support you and what you're doing because you're the face of all of our companies and without the support of dealers and them pushing your products, you know, it's out of sight, out of mind. So, you know, I've always been dealer first and the friends that I have in the industry and always will be that way.And like I said occasionally throughout the year I may do promotions like this to just try to get a little bit more capital to get something special that I want to get out there quicker. You know, that's just nature of doing business.

Marvin Cash00:16:09

I'm with you.And so, you know, if folks want to see this stuff in action, I know if we kind of talk about you're going to be in Cuba, you'll be back, you'll be home for the holidays and then we'll be in 2026, I know you're going to be on the road, you're going to be at Bobbin. So that's a great place for people to see all this new stuff. You know. What else have you kind of got on your dance card?Kind of like January, February 2026.

Blane Chocklett00:16:28

Yeah. So I'm heading up to Boston to do a talk for this old club in Boston. It's been around for a long time. Honored to be a part of that.Then sliding over from there to Bears Den and seeing Scott and the team over there and doing a weekend over there right after that, which I think it's like around the 6th through the 9th of January. And then I have that Muskie school with Mad river leading up to that. I think that starts on January 3rd. And then have a couple other trips I'm doing.Gonna do a southern tour to get out of this cold and then back in the muskie grind a little bit. But I've got a full dance card going into next year, man.Just trying to hit dealers and supporting them and doing tying demonstrations so not only their customers could see what I'm doing, but also teaching the staff at these shops and having them have a better understanding of what, what our products can do and you know, the tie in aspect of it, but also the fishing aspect. And then we then leading into March, we're doing Lefty's Top Fest again with ASGA to raise money for fish conservation.You know, the Jack Project's a five year deal and with, you know, Carter Andrews being gracious, you know, putting up his ranch down in Florida, we're able to do that again. I'm really excited about that. And that's going to be the March 20th weekend. I think Saturday, March 21st is the day that of the event.And you know, again, another example of why I wanted to bring it back last year, losing Popovics, you know, and Lefty prior to that and you know, Whitlock, you know, all of our heroes that we've kind of followed all these years that are no longer with us. And unfortunately, you know, that's one reason I wanted to do it. But fortunately, too, you know, I was blessed by all those guys.And, you know, we just lost Flip, and, you know, we want to honor him and, you know, just share our love of those that we've lost and, you know, make sure we honor those that are still here and.And, you know, just try to spend as much time with those people and that we still have and, you know, share the sport that we all love and let everybody meet these people and learn from them and just have a good time and raise money for a great cause.

Marvin Cash00:19:02

That's awesome. And I'll drop all that stuff in the show notes and I'll let you hop Blane so you can finish packing.I don't want you to forget anything because you were doing a podcast with me before you went to Cuba. But hopefully I'll see you over the holidays.But this will be the last time we get together in 2025, and I want to wish everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year, Blane.

Blane Chocklett00:19:23

You too, Marvin. I appreciate all you do for all of us in the sport, too.You know, what you're doing, putting all that, all this information out there for not only shops, but guides and people like myself doesn't go unnoticed. And, you know, keep up the great work.

Marvin Cash00:19:40

Well, I appreciate it. Well, listen, safe travels, and hopefully we'll have a ham biscuit sometime between Christmas and New Year's.

Blane Chocklett00:19:46

Sounds good, man.

Marvin Cash00:19:47

Take care.