S8, Ep 6: From Fly Tying to Foodie: Tim Flagler's Passion for Culinary Arts

In this episode of The Articulate Fly, host Marvin Cash sits down with Tim Flagler to explore an unexpected side of the renowned fly tyer—his culinary expertise and journey as a cook. While most anglers know Tim from his tying videos and guiding, this conversation reveals his passion for food preparation, from family pot roast traditions to mastering Asian cuisine and sushi. Tim shares insights from his culinary influences including his mother and brother (a former chef), discusses his 2026 hosted travel schedule to Argentina, British Columbia and Montana for golden dorado, brown trout and steelhead, and touches on his evolving fly tying philosophy focused on creating mottled, natural-looking patterns. The discussion weaves between cooking techniques, ingredient selection and parallels to fly tying craftsmanship, offering listeners a unique perspective on creativity both in the kitchen and at the vise.

EPISODE SUMMARY

Guest: Tim Flagler - Fly Tying Instructor, Guide and Owner at Tightline Productions (New Jersey)

In this episode: Renowned fly tyer and instructor Tim Flagler shares his culinary journey and cooking expertise alongside updates on his 2026 hosted travel and fly fishing show schedule. Topics include his evolution from family comfort food to Asian cuisine mastery, parallels between cooking and fly tying, ingredient selection philosophies and upcoming fishing adventures.

Key fishing techniques covered:

• Fly tying with mottled patterns to mimic natural insect coloration
• Golden dorado fishing on Argentina's Ibera Marsh
• Streamer fishing for trophy brown trout on Patagonia's Limay Medio river
• Lake Erie steelhead techniques
• Bull trout and pike fishing in northern British Columbia

Location focus: New Jersey (home base), Argentina (Ibera Marsh, Patagonia rivers including Chimehuin, Collon Cura and Limay Medio), Lake Erie tributaries, Northwest Montana (Kootenai River), Northern British Columbia (Northern Rockies), Spruce Creek Pennsylvania

Target species: Golden dorado, brown trout, steelhead, rainbow trout, bull trout, pike, lake trout, grayling

Equipment discussed: Tightline Video fly tying tutorials, mottling techniques in fly patterns, culinary tools including spoonula, rice cooker and sous vide machine

Key questions answered:

• How did Tim Flagler develop his cooking expertise?
• What are Tim's 2026 hosted fishing trips?
• How does ingredient selection in cooking parallel fly tying material selection?
• What new fly tying techniques is Tim developing?
• Where can anglers find Tim at fly fishing shows?

Best for: Anglers interested in fly tying instruction, hosted fishing adventures to Argentina and North America, and those curious about the creative parallels between culinary arts and fly fishing

Full Transcript:

Marvin Cash00:00:00

Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of The Articulate Fly. On this episode, Tim Flagler returns to the podcast.Most of you know Tim from his tying videos, the show circuit, or his articles in Fly Tyer. However, you probably don't know that Tim's culinary skills match his prowess at the vice.So I thought you would enjoy hearing about his journey as a foodie and get an update on his 2026 hosted travel and show schedule. I think you're really going to enjoy this one. But before we get to the interview, just a couple of housekeeping items.If you like the podcast, please tell a friend and please subscribe and leave us a rating review in the podcast of your choice. It really helps us out. And as 2026 gets into full swing, just a reminder for our industry friends that the Articulate Fly offers consulting services.Whether you need help planning for 2026, help figuring out how AI can boost your bottom line, or just need help with some old school blocking and tackling, we would love to hear from you. Check out the link to our consulting page in the show notes. And finally, a shout out to our sponsor, Trout Routes.We all know streams are getting crowded, and chances are you're not the only one at your local access point. Get away from the crowds and busy gravel lots by using Trout Routes Pro.With over 350,000 access points mapped across 50,000 trout streams and much more, Trout Routes has all the data you need to help you find angling opportunities that others will overlook. Up your game and download the app today.Use code artfly20artfly20 all one word for 20% off of your Trout Routes Pro membership at maps.troutroutes.com now on to our interview. Well, Tim, welcome back to the Articulate Fly.

Tim Flagler00:01:42

It's good to be here with you, Marvin.

Marvin Cash00:01:44

Absolutely. It's been a bit, right?

Tim Flagler00:01:46

Yeah, yeah. Couple weeks, maybe a month, something like that.

Marvin Cash00:01:50

Yeah, Somewhere in between that. Well, you know, folks, I thought it was interesting to bring Tim back on.You know, folks are familiar obviously with his fly tying videos and his guiding and his host to travel, but many folks may not know that Tim is. He says he's not a chef, he's a cook, but he's a very talented cook.And so I think I thought it would be interesting to bring him on and kind of talk about his culinary journey. And I guess we'll start off, Tim, by asking you, have you always been a foodie?

Tim Flagler00:02:19

Um, yeah, well, sort of. I. When I.When I was very young, I had just no taste at all like I, you know, vanilla ice cream and angel food cake was birthday party fair, but somewhere around like eight or nine years old, I think that's about what, what it was. I, I just, I don't know, I developed taste and, and, and you know, switched from, it's pretty big leap from vanilla to, to coffee ice cream.So, you know, I, Kids didn't want to come to my. Well, maybe it was just me, but they didn't want to come to my birthday parties anymore because nobody liked coffee ice cream to hack with them.

Marvin Cash00:02:59

And so it's, so it goes and the rest is.

Tim Flagler00:03:02

Yeah, and it's, you know, it's been downhill ever since, just almost, you know, stronger and stronger tastes every year. And so. Yeah, I push it pretty far now.

Marvin Cash00:03:14

Yeah, it's funny too.Cause you were kind of saying the genesis of all this is very similar for me too, is that, you know, food was a very important part of your family growing up.

Tim Flagler00:03:22

Yeah, yeah, it really was. And you know, anytime. Well, with my family, my direct family, you know, mom, dad and two brothers, it was important for us. It really was.Meal, mealtime was a big deal. But for my extended family, it was a really big deal. Aunts and uncles, grandparents, things like that.We, we, you know, when we get together, it every. Everybody helped to cook, everybody helped to clean up. And you know, it was a big participation thing.It wasn't just, you know, waiting for somebody to serve you.

Marvin Cash00:04:01

Interesting. And so were you self taught or did you have some training?

Tim Flagler00:04:05

Well, my, my mother was an excellent, excellent cook and not, not really, you know, a recipe cook. She was more just, you know, that, that instinct and knowing what goes well together, knowing how to season. And so I learned a ton from her.She's probably my, my biggest influence. But later on, my brother, my older brother would be a chef at the Jersey Shore for many years and in a seafood restaurant.And so I learned a ton from him as well after that. And then his friends were chefs as well and just hanging out with them, I learned quite a bit.

Marvin Cash00:04:48

Yeah, it's interesting, my mom calls that a process. We ask her for the biscuit recipe, she's like, yeah, I don't have a recipe. It's just a process.

Tim Flagler00:04:56

It is.And some of the best stuff to me is like that and I still cook very much that way is just sort of seated the pants and not a whole lot of measuring going on.

Marvin Cash00:05:12

Yeah, it's interesting too.I mean, I think that's, you know, if you come from a family where the food is important and not we're not talking about, like, having like, you know, prime rib every night, but we're talking about where, you know, the social aspect of cooking together and being together as a family, and it's just such a phenomenally neat thing. And it is kind of a process.And so, like I tell my boys, I was like, you know, spend time with your grandmother and learn how she makes her biscuits or how she makes her pie crusts. That was a huge part of, like, how our family. We show each other we love each other.

Tim Flagler00:05:42

Yo. Yeah. Yeah. And mine as well. That, that was. Yeah, it really held our family together in many respects.Just whether it was cooking food, eating the food or, or talking about, you know, a meal and collecting ingredients, if they, they were things, you know, like, like fish or shellfish or. Or vegetables that, that, you know, we, we. We grew or, you know, that you, you got from friends or something like that.And, and how that all came together, what went with what. And yeah, big part of growing up for me.

Marvin Cash00:06:21

Yeah, any you know, kind of, you know, ethnic Northeastern or kind of Northeastern kind of food traditions, kind of like we have in the south, that you were kind of part of that growing up in those big family meals.

Tim Flagler00:06:33

Yeah, we, we. My. My family, even my extended family, we didn't have a whole lot of money. And so it was not fancy ingredients, fancy meals.It was more like, you know, kind of country type type meals or stuff that we could get locally that was fairly cheap. And so that had a big influence. And the fact that we spent a lot of time down at the Jersey Shore.My grandparents had had a property there since, like the 40s on Long beach is. And spent all my summers down there and then many, many weekends throughout the year, except for the wintertime.And so we were always, you know, fishing, duck hunting was another big kind of family thing for us for time. And so you were all clamming, crabbing, always getting food that way.And so, yeah, that, that, I guess, you know, that fairly local Mid Atlantic fare, if you will.

Marvin Cash00:07:44

Yeah.So when you were younger, I spent a lot of time doing meal prep with the, with my grandmother and great aunts where I would be shelling peas or, you know, doing things like that or snap peas or helping them prepare to. Can stuff anything like that in your childhood?

Tim Flagler00:08:01

Well, yeah, I, I had a grandmother too. My father's mother and she. We made two brothers would spend two weeks with her down at the Jersey shore. My parents took a vacation.I think they just, you know, we were, we were pretty feral, I guess. I Wouldn't want to spend the whole year with us either. But so she, my mom and dad would farm us out to our grandmother for two weeks.And she was, she was a skinny, skinny little woman, but like a drill sergeant.And so she had us hopping from, from dawn till dusk, catching fish, clamming, made root beer, canned or jarred, jarred vegetables, all sorts of wild, made bread, all sorts of wild stuff with her. And, and again, that, that was a big, big influence. And a lot of the stuff that I have, you know, the, the bas.Her, honestly, you know, whether it's making gravy or something like that, you know, when, when do you use flour, when to use cornstarch? Thinking back, that that all came from her, and, and yeah, I, I, I guess, Golly, I guess she was a big, bigger influence than I, I really thought.Yeah.

Marvin Cash00:09:29

That's funny. Did you have any pressure cooker explosion problems like canning?

Tim Flagler00:09:34

No, we, we didn't have any explosions, but that, that pressure cooker, first of all, the thing scared the living heck out of me.I mean, even till the time I was in my 20s, I think whenever my mom or grandmother would crack out the pressure cooker, and they used it a lot for a lot of different things, I still have it somewhere. I kind of inherited all that stuff. And. Yeah, that little metal disc clacking away on top of it. Just that's. It'll put the fear of God in you.

Marvin Cash00:10:05

Yeah, it's kind of funny.So I was just up with my mom at Thanksgiving with the rest of my family and my sister's family, and we were actually talking about, like, knives and utensils we were using to prepare the meal. And like, you know, this was like my great grandmother's. This was my grandmother. So it's kind of cool.It sounds like maybe we had some similar experiences growing up. Yeah.

Tim Flagler00:10:23

And I, I have, I have some of my grandmothers. To me, they're, they're for me, their prized possessions.Clam knives that, that I believe that she may have gotten them from her mother or grandmother, that they're ancient. I still use them, and there's nothing like them. You, you cannot, you can't buy one like, like this.And I have about five of them of different flexibilities and things like that. So. Yeah, and a couple of her other, other kitchen tools that are, that are just really, really, yeah. Prized possessions for me, and I still use them.So.

Marvin Cash00:11:05

You know, it's kind of funny you say that. One of my great memories, Tim, is me with my grandmother making pecan pies.And the deal she would have, you know, in the south, if you have a pecan tree, you can, you know, pick up a bag of pecans in probably grocery bag in like five minutes. And so then the deal I always had with her was if, if I would shell them, she would make the pie.So you then spend a couple hours sitting outside on the front porch with the nutcracker eating half of what you crack to get enough for a pie.

Tim Flagler00:11:33

Well, yeah, I was kind of the same way, but it was with blue claw crabs. Excuse me. I love crab cakes. So did my brothers.And if we went out and got, you know, got a mess of crabs either out in the boat or off a dock and you know, we would like picking crabs, just eating them, but really liked her.My grandmother's crab cakes in the summertime and, and, but yeah, you can't believe how many crabs you gotta pick to put together a batch of nice big crab cakes.

Marvin Cash00:12:04

Yeah, absolutely.And so it sounds like, you know, we both, you know, you're in the North, I'm in the south, but we had kind of that kind of comfort family food tradition, you know, from, you know, what, what we were lucky enough to, to taste up at Spruce Creek. You know, that's certainly evolved. I mean, you're doing sushi, you're doing Asian dumplings.You know, how did that, how did you kind of progress from, you know, the family cooking to kind of what you're, you know, producing, you know, when you're out on a hosted trip, for example.

Tim Flagler00:12:31

Well, a lot of it actually comes from my older brother and he, he was a chef for a time at a seafood, very good seafood restaurant in the Jersey Shore. And, and so, and he, he really kind of was given a lot of freedom there to, to cook and so kind of explored newer, newer things, if you will.And you know, back then, this is, gosh, 70s into the early 80s and sushi and rolls really wasn't a thing yet here in the States. But he was learning to do that type of cooking back then and a lot of Asian influence for him.And so I learned a lot from him just kind of passing it down and hanging out with other chef friends of his and, and yeah, that's really where it came from. And then we have so many great resources now in terms of, with a lot of that Asian food, it's not as ingredient that's not going to sound right.It's very technique driven, if you will.And so having the ability, gosh, just like fly tying, really having the ability to actually see someone doing it, rather than say, series of still pictures really helps, you know, or. Or just having a written text in a recipe. And so I, I do watch a lot. Lot of video of.Of, you know, people preparing different cuisines, whether it's, you know, Mexican or. Or Asian or, you know, more. More South American. We run trips to Argentina every year. And so those guys are amazing. Amazing. Oh, man.

Marvin Cash00:14:32

Yeah. Particularly with the fire, right?

Tim Flagler00:14:35

Yeah. It is something that if I have a little more time, I really want to.Just dying to pursue that, to learn how they do that cooking with the coals from wood.And I swear to you, Marvin, the guys that are good, even, like on a camp crew, you're doing overnights down there, camping on the river, and what they can prepare just with fire is remarkable and tastes like just out of this world. Totally different set of techniques than, say, Asian cooking.

Marvin Cash00:15:16

Yeah, super interesting. And so your brother was an important influence. Your grandmother sounds like was a really important influence.Any other folks have kind of, you know, mentored you on your cooking journey?

Tim Flagler00:15:27

Well, what happened was. And again, this comes back to the Jersey Shore, and it's going to sound a little weird, but during the summertime anyway, I. I was.Me and my brothers were pretty much given free reign down at our house at the Jersey Shore. And so from the time I think I was 13, was the first summer I spent. We spent down there. My parents would come down on weekends. They both worked.And so.And there were a fair number of my friends and my brother's friends that were in the same boat sort of, and we would get together and cook meals and, you know, got. Got a lot of stuff from them. They got a lot of stuff from me.Some of them went on to become chefs themselves, and a couple still own restaurants, actually. And so, you know, just kind of trading ideas and literally, you know, nights you get. Get in from surfing or something like that, and.And everybody's starving and you got six hungry guys and. And what. What's in the cabinets? You know, what. What can we put together? And, you know, some, Some. Some of the meals were really amazing.From next to nothing.

Marvin Cash00:16:40

Very neat. Sounds like that's the idea. For the next interview, we'll talk about your surfing life.

Tim Flagler00:16:47

Yeah, those. Those were the days, Marvin.

Marvin Cash00:16:50

Fair enough.

Tim Flagler00:16:51

Yeah.

Marvin Cash00:16:52

So you knew about Solarez before Fly tight.

Tim Flagler00:16:54

Oh, long before. I have a feeling that's why I'm so sensitized to it is fixing surfboards and sailboards and boats with that stuff back in the day.And let's just say that protective safety gear was not really in my toolbox.

Marvin Cash00:17:12

Yeah, well, I still can't get. Yeah, I can't get a straight answer from anybody about using the UV light today, for that matter.

Tim Flagler00:17:18

Yeah, yeah. I do not do well with it.In fact, we just had the tying symposium, and I must walk through a cloud of the vapor because reacted very, very badly to it.

Marvin Cash00:17:31

Yeah, you're not the only one.I mean, I've got guys that are coming on the butcher shop and they're like, dude, I was fine for a while, and then I went to Bob in the hood and 30 guys were cooking off solar as the next thing you know, I looked like I was an Oompa Loopa or something.

Tim Flagler00:17:44

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think your body can only take so much of it and then it just says and reacts poorly to it. And so, yeah, I'm super sensitized to it.

Marvin Cash00:17:59

Yeah. So it's interesting. You've got this incredibly varied palette of styles of cuisine.Do you have a favorite style or do you have a style that you're kind of digging into really deeply right now?

Tim Flagler00:18:15

I guess more Asian than anything else at this point. There's so much there, and it's not just Japanese and it's not just Chinese or Thai. It's variations within each of those cultures.And so many things when you look at it, the variety of food that those cultures eat and the level of preparation that goes into it, it's really remarkable.I don't want to beat up on American cooking, if you will, but it really does come from Europe originally and so was not the fanciest affair other than, say, French cooking over there. And so I just have a lot of interest in. In that. That type of cuisine at. At this point. Just. Just the, the flavors and the techniques.I just, I really enjoy preparing it as well as eating it.

Marvin Cash00:19:26

Yeah, it's amazing too. I mean, you know, kind of, you know, what we've talked about kind of pre.Pre interview and a little bit during the interview is just, you know, like Americans, it's so. It's so convenience driven. Right. Particularly now. Right.And, you know, whether you, like, look at French cooking or Japanese cooking, there's so much about the process.

Tim Flagler00:19:46

Right, right.

Marvin Cash00:19:48

Which is probably like tying a fly, right?

Tim Flagler00:19:50

Yeah, it is. And it's, you know, it's about very much like tying a fly. It's about getting the best ingredients.And I don't think I can use the F bomb on here, but.

Marvin Cash00:20:04

Yeah, you can. I can market e. Go for it. Knock it out.

Tim Flagler00:20:07

No, Anthony, Bourdain was one of my heroes, and he said the key to being. I'm not sure if he said it originally, but someone that he knew did.Anyway, the key to being a great chef is getting together the best ingredients she could possibly find and trying not to fuck it up from there. And it, you know, that. That's it. Get the best ingredients and it applies to fly tying as well. You know, get.Get the, get the good hackle, get the good wood duck, you know, get the good Hungarian partridge and that, that kind of artisanal almost materials. And then you put together something really, really classic. And food's the same way. You know, I'm very lucky.We have a couple of stores around here or people that produce like local general store in town. They slice their own bacon.And I don't know where it's actually smoked and prepared and cured and all that stuff, but having that, you know, having like, really good quality bacon is huge. Other things like, you know, New Jersey, I don't know whether a lot of people know this.They think turnpike and refineries and cities and all that stuff, but it is the Garden State. And we, we have. I'll. I'll put New Jersey tomatoes, sweet corn, asparagus up against just about eggplant, just about, up against just about anybody.And so being able to access those really good ingredients, know where to get them, to get them is. Is a big part of it. Yeah.

Marvin Cash00:21:55

And you're in a lucky part of the world too, because kind of, you know, with the kind of New York City restaurant culture, I imagine, like, you know, everything awesome is heading in your direction. Right.

Tim Flagler00:22:05

Yeah. Yeah. And we, we do have also access to particularly not.

Marvin Cash00:22:11

Not. Right.

Tim Flagler00:22:12

I'm kind of out in the. Kind of out in the country in New Jersey, live in a very, very small town in a rural community. And.But, you know, because it's such a small state, we're, It's. We're not far from very ethnic communities.And you know, where, where you drive down one road and everything is in Korean and drive down the next road and everything is from a Thai community or, you know, an Indian community. And so getting to go there, sample the food and, and shop, you know, get. Get those. The. The true local ingredients is. Is really. That's a gift.And a lot, A lot of people can't do that depending on where they live.

Marvin Cash00:23:01

Yeah, interesting. So in terms of getting inspiration for kind of new things you want to try out, is it, you know, going to the shop or is it reading a cookbook?Or is it reading a blog post or a YouTube video kind of. Where do you kind of get your creative cooking juices stoked?

Tim Flagler00:23:15

I. It's all the above, Marvin. Really and truly. You know, I'll see something online and I'll go, oh, you know, wow. And.And it just kind of flashes by, you know, it's, it's, it's part of something else. And then, then I'll take that and go, oh, you know, I wonder what they were doing.And then if I can find a video on, on how that's done and then go to the, Go to a store. Let's.

Marvin Cash00:23:42

We.

Tim Flagler00:23:42

We have an Asian chain, I don't know how many people have it called H Mart. A massive grocery store with, with food from all over.And so just going down the aisles and picking out ingredients that, you know, I can't read any of the labels. I don't even know what it is, but I recognize it from a video.And so I'll just grab whatever that is and take it home and give it a taste and see what it fits in. Pretty much, yeah.

Marvin Cash00:24:11

It's very neat. And you've been fortunate enough to travel, which I'm sure also has a huge impact on, on what you want to cook, right?

Tim Flagler00:24:17

Yeah, yeah, I, I do. I get to, you know, I've been to a lot of places. I'm very fortunate in that regard.And each one has got, you know, really unique stuff, whether it's Iceland or Newfoundland or Nova Scotia, you know, Argentina. Just. Just incredible variety of food. And, and I, I just, I want to, I want to learn how to do it all. And that.That's kind of a problem, you know, that. That takes time and takes money, but definitely an interest for me.

Marvin Cash00:24:58

And very neat. And, you know, this is actually kind of funny. We were talking about before we started recording, can we like relate this to fly fishing?And I actually stole. This is kind of out of my, my question quiver. But it's tying oriented.And as opposed to asking you for your favorite tying tool or something weird on your bench, you know, what's your favorite kitchen tool or gadget?

Tim Flagler00:25:18

You're not going to believe. Nobody's going to believe me if I tell you this, but I have. It's a. It. It's a spoonula. Okay. So it's not really a spatula. It's not really a spoon.It's made out of silicone and silicon. Silicone. I don't get the two mixed up.

Marvin Cash00:25:41

We're marking it explicit. It doesn't matter.

Tim Flagler00:25:45

And it just it's one of those things that it will scrape out a pan, it will scrape out a bowl and not leave anything. And so, yeah, of all the. And I, My kitchen is pretty complete, but yeah, that's probably my favorite tool out of everything. I have that.And I'm pretty fond of my rice cooker. I have a rather expensive rice cooker and I use that a lot.

Marvin Cash00:26:18

Yeah, I thought your sous vide machine was pretty impressive.

Tim Flagler00:26:21

Yeah, the sous vide machine is. That's right up, right up there as well. Yeah, I guess, Guess I have a lot of favorite kitchen tools.But the spoonula, if you, if you guys don't have one, get one. The other thing that you must have to me is ditch the non stick stuff.Just whether you use carbon steel, stainless steel, cast iron, just ditch that non stick junk. Excuse me. And yeah, you'll be a lot, lot happier.

Marvin Cash00:26:59

Got it. And so we talked about how important ingredients are. You know, what other, you know, keys do you think it takes to be. We won't.I'll say successful chef, and you can roll your eyes and answer the question.

Tim Flagler00:27:12

I, One of the main things, and I really see this a lot when I watch, watch other people cook or, or eat their food is you, you absolutely have to taste your food every step of the way. And I just, I cannot believe that people don't. It's just, it's staggering to me.My, you know, my grandmother did, my brother did, my mother did, you know, just taste, taste, taste all the way through. I, I don't know how else you, you're. You're gonna make something taste good unless you taste all the way through.That would be, to me, for anyone to be successful cooking is to taste as you go.

Marvin Cash00:27:56

Yeah, anything kind of on prep or process.

Tim Flagler00:28:00

Good knives, that's a real, real big one, and know how to sharpen them, and life is just so much easier that way.And things that you're required, like in a lot of the Asian cooking, anyway, the way things are cut influences, directly influences how they cook and how they taste as a result and how they interact with other ingredients. And so being able to cut things properly requires good sharp knives and different knives, not just one knife.And understanding how different knives have different applications, very important.

Marvin Cash00:28:49

Yeah. And are you a messy cook or do you clean as you go?

Tim Flagler00:28:52

Oh, I'm pretty messy. Unfortunately. My wife Joan, she does, she, she's, she's a good cook. Just doesn't really enjoy cooking as much as I do.But, but she, she seems to really enjoy cleaning up. So A match made in heaven, if you will. She, she might not tell you that, but I think it is.

Marvin Cash00:29:15

Yeah. She's a great baker though.

Tim Flagler00:29:17

Yeah. Oh yeah. She bakes very well and she, she has some, some of her recipes, some of the things that she does, I, I do not mess with them.I just let her do her own thing and they're absolutely great.

Marvin Cash00:29:31

Yeah. Baking is so temperamental too, right? Temperature, flour, location. I mean, it's, to me, that's kind of like the genius level stuff. Yeah.

Tim Flagler00:29:40

And that's where you end, you have to measure, you know, and that's where I kind of fall apart a little bit. So. But I, you know, I, I, I do enjoy baking bread.I haven't done it in a while, but, but really like baking bread, probably a pandemic thing more than anything else.

Marvin Cash00:30:02

There you go. Yeah. And so for folks that kind of want to up their cooking game but are intimidated. Right.Because it's, you know, like everything else, it seems like there's reality TV shows, there's tons of retail, there's tons of stuff on the Internet. You know, what do you think they should do to kind of go to the next level with a little less.

Tim Flagler00:30:18

Intimidation, to just start off easy, really, you know, and not try to take it, not try to make it too, too fancy. Just get, you know, a couple of recipes down that, that you can, that are repeatable for you.Again, kind of like tying flies, you know, don't go for that full dressed Atlantic salmon, fly right out of the chute.Do something, you know, pheasant tail nymph or you know, elkhare catus, something that, that and, and learn how to perfect it and, and, and make it good, make it very usable, make it enjoyable for other people. And then you kind of develop those basic skills and from then you can start getting fancier, adding more ingredients, adding fancier stuff.But yeah, start off simple is the biggest one of all.

Marvin Cash00:31:19

Got it. And as your culinary skills have evolved, how has the way you experienced eating out changed?

Tim Flagler00:31:27

Well, quite frankly, Marvin, we don't, we don't eat out a lot. Mainly because I really do enjoy cooking here, eating out. I will go for things that are out of the ordinary.If I'm going to eat out, if I'm going to spend the money, I really want something that's very, very different, Usually from a different culture. And so I'll go for that.And I had a good friend who was doing the fly fishing show circuit for quite a while and he was one of those guys that he'd come into town, I just say, where are we eating?And he would always have the funkiest place where you're sitting on the floor or standing up or sitting on a pillow or eating with your hands or your feet or whatever. And those places. I really enjoyed eating out. He hasn't been around for a few years, so I miss that.But yeah, something off, you know, something different.

Marvin Cash00:32:44

Yeah.And then when you taste the dishes, are you kind of trying to kind of pick things apart kind of like from an ingredient or a style perspective or are you just kind of soaking in the whole experience?

Tim Flagler00:32:54

I. Soaking in the whole experience, but at the same time, you know, I guess in the back of my head picking out parts of it that I can use at home and you know, maybe not the whole dish because some of them are very, very complex.But you know, what parts of it, whether it's, it's, you know, the, the bread that's served with it or, or the, the, the way they did, you know, a little side salad or something like that. I'll, I will definitely stash that away in my head and try to, try to duplicate it or take something from it.

Marvin Cash00:33:26

Very, very neat. And so, you know, what's your all time favorite meal?And it doesn't have to be prepared for you, so it can be something that you prepared or something someone else prepared for you.

Tim Flagler00:33:37

Well, if it came right down to, would probably be my mother's pot roast.I know that sounds, it's like cliche almost at this point but, but well she, she could make pot roast that was just, you know, vegetables done perfectly. And you know when you, you talk about food being love.That, that was, that, that was it for me when, when she made pot roast in a cast iron Dutch oven. And like, you know, I get home from school and she, she'd slow cook it.I get you know, home at 3:30 or whatever from school as a kid and I could smell it. Like I didn't even have to go into the house and I could smell it. It was, it was going to be a good day. So yeah, Mom's pot roast.

Marvin Cash00:34:24

Yeah, that's neat. I mean I think my favorite for pot roast, I love the meat, but I also just love the onions.

Tim Flagler00:34:30

Yeah. All the onions. Yeah. If they're done right, if they're not stringy.Sometimes some people, they're, they're, they're, I don't know, they, they get a little weird. But yeah, pot roast, onions with the potatoes. Oh man, oh man.

Marvin Cash00:34:47

I haven't had, I haven't had dinner yet?

Tim Flagler00:34:50

Yeah, I have actually had, had Asian tonight. So we had some Asian chicken thighs and jasmine rice. It was very good.

Marvin Cash00:35:00

Well, that sounds pretty neat.So you know, we're, we're sliding into the holidays and you know, that means, you know, the first thing you know, we started talking about 2026 and you know, I'll get to the show stuff in a minute. But you, you know, you've got a ton of hosted travel stuff going on next year.You want to kind of share that with folks and let it, you know, I suspect a lot of it's pretty full, but if you got any spaces or anything like that.

Tim Flagler00:35:21

Yeah, we, we are, we're, we're fairly filled up for next year. There, there are two places where we do have open spaces. I should let people know if they're interested.We end up my wife and I and my son, Our, our son Drew, who's also, he, he's joined our video production business. So. But he is also a fly fisher and a guide and he, he works in logistics for the fly fishing shows.So all three of us do the shows throughout the winter months. That's kind of our entire winter. But then starting in April, I go to Argentina and I have a week up Golden Dorado fishing up on the Ibera marsh.And there are openings there. It's a spectacular place. Anybody's interested, just a must see before you, before you expire. And then another week which is very filled.That's more just trout fishing on the classic Patagonia rivers. The Chimi in Cajun, Cora Luminae Maggio. And then we do have openings on another trip.It's a six day float on the Maimario which is huge minnow eating brown trout. It's, you know, camping every night on the river.It's, you know, I love being in, in Argentina and Patagonia, but the camping on the river, for me that, that's, that's the highlight right there. And the, the possibility of truly giant brown trout. And then after that we do a bunch of trips out at Spruce Creek, Pennsylvania.And throughout the year, four day trips, I go out to the Linehans. I believe that trip's fully booked for 2026 out in Northwest Montana on the Kootenay river for a full week trip that's a ton of fun.Then some more little trips around here and then another big one. I'll be up for two weeks in very northern Rockies in British Columbia almost to the Northwest Territories and the Yukon.Incredible fishing up there with northern Rockies adventures. I Got two weeks there. They're both pretty much filled up now. And that's trophy pike, bull trout, lake trout, rainbow trout and grayling.Four fly outs throughout the week. Super, super cool. And then more Spruce Creek and then actually I kind of forgot one in there. We do it. It's going to start in another week or 2.Got two 5 day trips and they're both booked for this year up in Lake Erie for lake run rainbows, Steelhead, if I'm allowed to say that.

Marvin Cash00:38:23

You're allowed.

Tim Flagler00:38:24

I'm allowed.

Marvin Cash00:38:25

You're allowed.

Tim Flagler00:38:27

And so fingers crossed for the weather. It's a little snowy and cold up there, but they finally got some fish coming in. So it's looking good for this year.And that's pretty much our year, Marvin. I'll be away somewhere like 160 days I think next year.

Marvin Cash00:38:45

Well, there you go. I'll drop the link to all those Adventures in the show notes.And it's interesting too because I fished with the guys at Set way back when they were Andy's drifters. And folks, they're awesome outfitters in Argentina.

Tim Flagler00:38:58

Yeah. And I tell you what, the food everywhere down there is insane. It's so good. Particularly at Spring Creek Lodge, the trout one.People go, you've got to be kidding me. This is, I mean, it's like some of the finest dining in the world. All done right there.

Marvin Cash00:39:21

Yeah.Or even the camping, I mean, I don't know, to fish hard all day and you step out of your drift boat and they hand you a glass of red wine and you go sit around the fire and eat salamis and cheeses while, you know, they work on, you know, the barbecue for dinner. I mean, it's, it's pretty awesome.

Tim Flagler00:39:37

Yeah. Yeah. And they, when they do, you know, they got the full lamb that's cooking over, over the open fire and you, you can oftentimes you can smell it.You know, you're a half mile away in the drift boat coming down the river and you get a whiff of, of, of lamb cooking over an open flame after a long day of fishing. Yeah, it's enough to.

Marvin Cash00:40:01

Oh, but even the star, I mean, just the stars, right? I mean like, you know, seeing the Milky Way and the Southern Cross down there.I mean, there's no light pollution because you're literally in the middle of nowhere.

Tim Flagler00:40:10

No, yeah, it, it's the, the place is incredible. And, and you know, I, I enjoy the hook. The, the dorado fishing up north, that, that's got its own whole thing.You know, the trout the, the regular trout fishing at Spring Creek Lodge. But, but that, that float on the Lemai, if you're up for it, you know, if you've got a little, little adventuresome in you, it, it's.That to me is just kind of the ultimate. Just being out there in that wilderness, in that just unspoiled, untamed wild is super, super cool.

Marvin Cash00:40:49

Yeah. When I was down the. You could hear the Red Stag bugling at night.

Tim Flagler00:40:54

Yeah. Yeah. And, and just, just something about that place, it's kind of, kind of haunts me, I think.

Marvin Cash00:41:01

Yeah, it's super neat.And so, you know, I know you're going to do all of the official d fly fishing shows, but do you have any other appearances in 2026 you want to let folks know about?

Tim Flagler00:41:11

Yeah, kind of all over. You know, I do do classes and throughout the year and some other smaller shows. We've kind of cut back on some of those.Just kind of running out of time. I love going down to the Saobug Roundup every year. It's going to be real close this year whether I can go or not.It's kind of up against the Patagonia trip and so can't quite commit to that yet. But any you fly tires out there that haven't been to the Sow Bug, you should put it on your list.It's really cool and great fishing on the White and on the Norfork down there.

Marvin Cash00:41:54

Very, very neat. And I will drop links to all the show notes stuff too. And that's a great place, folks I know.Are you doing any destination theater talks about your travel or are you just sticking to the fly tying for the fly fishing shows?

Tim Flagler00:42:05

No, we're doing, you know, destination travel presentations.So if anybody's at the fly fishing shows, I'll be kind of alternating between, you know, our major trips, whether it's Argentina, Montana or British Columbia or even the steelhead trips. I also do seminars, you know, on what trout like to eat, for example, or on trout spay fishing, things like that.And then classes as well at the show. So. Yeah, I'm pretty busy at the shows too.

Marvin Cash00:42:39

Yeah. Which is the inside baseball tip. If you want to talk to Tim, don't try him on tires row. Track him down at a seminar.

Tim Flagler00:42:46

Yeah, the seminar. And catch me while I'm walking back. I also should get. I, I don't know when this is going to air, Marvin. That's the.But I have a tie off with cheech in, in Mr. Rosenbauer tomorrow.

Marvin Cash00:43:00

So yeah, I, I'M I'm good. I'm not that good.

Tim Flagler00:43:03

Yeah, I gotcha. Yeah. So. But they can wish me luck anyway in. In retroactively.

Marvin Cash00:43:12

Well and prospectively. Because I have a suspicion it won't be the last one. You do either.

Tim Flagler00:43:16

No, no. They're always fun.

Marvin Cash00:43:18

Yeah. And so do you have any. Anything kind of neat going on at the vice or behind the camera you want to share with folks before I let you go this evening?

Tim Flagler00:43:26

Yeah, actually, one of the things that just over the last couple years, and this comes from really looking closely at sampling aquatic macroinvertebrates and looking, you know, the stuff that the trout like to eat and looking at them up close and shooting video of them and their movements and everything like that. And one of the things that's just really striking to me is how their actual coloration.And we get really, really obsessed about, you know, different shades of a specific color when the fact of the matter is when you look at these insects up close or really any living things up close, honestly, it's more of a modeled appearance. Blotches of different colors. And so to me, those. That, that blotchiness or that modeling indicates life. And if it's living, it's protein.And if it's protein, it's nutritionally valuable to the fish. And so I've been trying with a lot of my patterns to add more of that modeling in. And some of the techniques to do it are a little bizarre.It takes a little more time.But I kind of feel like it's, it's, you know, for me, anyway, it's the next little step to take to make my flies look, look a little more natural and maybe get taken a little bit more than, you know, just a plain colored fly, for example.

Marvin Cash00:44:53

Interesting. I suspect if people stay tuned on YouTube, they'll find some, some tips, right?

Tim Flagler00:44:58

Yeah, yeah, but we're, we're really heading that way. I don't want to, you know, totally belabor the point on, on YouTube, but I'm coming close.I think it's really gotten to be a thing for me, learning different techniques to generate that model look and experimenting with new stuff every day.

Marvin Cash00:45:20

Very neat. Anything else you want to share with our listeners before I let you go tonight?

Tim Flagler00:45:25

Just now I'm incredibly hungry and want to eat a second dinner.

Marvin Cash00:45:29

Pot roast.

Tim Flagler00:45:31

I'd love to put together a pot roast, but we're getting a little late. Marvin.

Marvin Cash00:45:36

But you got the pressure cooker.

Tim Flagler00:45:39

You'll be done in 15 minutes if I don't blow the whole place up.

Marvin Cash00:45:46

So if Folks want to kind of follow your adventures at the vice and on the road and on the water. Where should they go?

Tim Flagler00:45:53

They can go to. Our YouTube is tightlinevideo.com or better yet, just go. Just a Google search will find me on YouTube. That's the easiest thing.Tightline video on YouTube as well. And, you know, that's where the majority of our stuff is. We just got a nasty note from Vimeo. Pay up or we're deleting your stuff.And I didn't pay up, so no more Vimeo.

Marvin Cash00:46:18

Well, there you go. Well, Tim, I will drop all that stuff in the show notes.And I really appreciate you carving some time out between first dinner and second dinner for me this evening.

Tim Flagler00:46:28

It's been great chatting with you, Marvin. Um, let's do it again sometime. How about.

Marvin Cash00:46:33

You betcha? And we'll. We'll talk about surfing.

Tim Flagler00:46:35

Yeah, there you go.

Marvin Cash00:46:36

Yeah, we'll talk about jams and all kinds of stuff.

Tim Flagler00:46:40

Jams?

Marvin Cash00:46:41

Yeah, the, the. Those. Those were the surfer shorts that were super popular when I was in high school.

Tim Flagler00:46:46

Yeah, but surfers never wore em. We don't need to get into that.

Marvin Cash00:46:50

All right, well, we'll talk about that. We'll talk about that next time.

Tim Flagler00:46:53

Yeah, that's a can of worms right there. Just ask any surfer.

Marvin Cash00:46:59

Never worse. Should I not. Should I not say anything about ocean?

Tim Flagler00:47:04

Don't tell a surfer you wore jam.

Marvin Cash00:47:05

How about Ocean Pacific?

Tim Flagler00:47:08

That's almost as bad, those corduroy shorts. Yeah, but you want a real. You want a surfer brand, so.

Marvin Cash00:47:17

Fair enough. Well, we'll save that for next time. We'll listen, have a great holiday season, and I will see you on the show circuit.

Tim Flagler00:47:24

All right, Very good. You too, Marvin.

Marvin Cash00:47:26

Take care.

Tim Flagler00:47:27

All right. Bye. Bye.

Marvin Cash00:47:28

Well, folks, we hope you enjoyed the interview as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you. Remember, links to all this episode's sponsors are in the show notes. Check them out. Tight lines, everybody.