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!

Thanks to TroutRoutes for sponsoring this episode. Use artfly20 to get 20% off of your TroutRoutes Pro membership.

Donate to the North Carolina Disaster Relief Fund

All Things Social Media

Follow Chase on Instagram and YouTube.

Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

Support the Show

Shop on Amazon

Become a Patreon Patron

Subscribe to the Podcast

Subscribe to the podcast in the podcatcher of your choice.

Advertise on the Podcast

Is our community a good fit for your brand? Advertise with us.

In the Industry and Need Help Getting Unstuck?

Check out our consulting options!

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

Intro: Hey, folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly.

Intro: On this episode, I'm joined by Chase Smith, the fly designer behind the Spiral Spook.

Intro: Chase and I take a deep dive into his design philosophy and process,

Intro: the evolution of the Spiral Spook, upcoming creations, and much more.

Intro: But before we get to the interview, just a couple of housekeeping items.

Intro: If you like the podcast, please tell a friend, and please subscribe and leave

Intro: us a rating and review in the podcatcher of your choice. It really helps us out.

Intro: And a shout out to our sponsor, Trout Routes. I've known Zach and the team at

Intro: Trout Routes almost before Zach had a team at Trout Routes.

Intro: We all know streams are getting crowded, and chances are you're not the only

Intro: one at your local access point. Get away from the crowds and busy gravel lots

Intro: by using Trout Routes Pro with over 350,000 access points mapped across 50,000

Intro: trout streams and much more.

Intro: Trout Routes has all the data you need to help you find angling opportunities

Intro: that others will overlook.

Intro: Up your game and download the app today. Use code ARTFLY20, A-R-T-F-L-Y-2-0,

Intro: all one word, for 20% off of your Trout Routes Pro membership at maps.troutroutes.com.

Intro: Now on to our interview.

Marvin: Well chase welcome to the articulate fly thanks.

Chase: For having me on marvin i'm excited.

Marvin: Yeah i'm looking forward to it and we have a tradition on the articulate fly

Marvin: we like to ask all of our guests to share their earliest fishing memory.

Chase: Yeah, let me think. Honestly, whenever someone asks me about the first time

Chase: fishing, I usually think about going with my granddad out to Lake Amistad in Texas.

Chase: And we went to Walmart and bought combos before we went out there.

Chase: So I was probably 12 or 13 at the time, but that was like the first big,

Chase: we're going fishing and we're going to go catch bass.

Chase: And it was really fun and we snapped our rods and everything,

Chase: but that was when I got hooked.

Marvin: Very, very neat. So when did you come to the dark side of fly fishing?

Chase: I didn't start fly fishing until I was my senior year of college.

Chase: So I spent a long time, uh, just conventional bass fishing, some saltwater stuff,

Chase: some, uh, I like to do, uh,

Chase: shark lines at the beach, paddle, paddle out lines really far and, and stake them out.

Chase: We did that a little bit, but mostly just conventional bass fishing until,

Chase: uh, until my senior year of college.

Marvin: Got it. And so who are some of the folks that have mentored you on your fly fishing journey? Yeah.

Chase: Uh, honestly, a lot of it has been just me and a couple of my friends who,

Chase: uh, got into fly fishing before around the same time as me.

Chase: And we just kind of figured it out on our own for the most part.

Chase: Of course, we, you know, looked stuff up online and, uh, there was one local

Chase: fly shop with, uh, uh, with a few people who, who helped us out.

Chase: But most of it was just me and my buddies getting on the water.

Marvin: Yeah, it's interesting. You know, I used to live in Dallas and I don't really

Marvin: think of Texas, particularly like back when I was there, like really having

Marvin: very many fly shops at all.

Chase: Yeah, you know, there's a few

Chase: really good ones. Living Waters is my favorite, but it's over in Austin.

Chase: I'm in Kerrville, so I'm an hour away from San Antonio and a couple hours away from Austin.

Chase: There's an Orvis store in San Antonio.

Chase: There's a tiny little fly shop that an older gentleman runs in Fredericksburg,

Chase: about 20 minutes away from me.

Chase: And we've stopped in there a couple times. but uh for the most part there's

Chase: just there's not much in this area uh in terms of the fly fishing world so you

Chase: kind of have to travel a little bit before you get over to austin and houston

Chase: dallas where you get more people that are into it.

Marvin: Yeah i got it yeah it's interesting i spent some time in the hill country when

Marvin: i lived in dallas down around kind of green and san marcos.

Chase: Yeah yeah on the guadalupe down there yeah.

Marvin: I didn't fish but uh went and you know drank lone star beer and went to the

Marvin: dance halls and all that kind of good stuff.

Chase: Gotcha yeah yeah we uh we uh we started fishing on on the guadalupe down there

Chase: where they stocked the trout but we would go try to catch the striped bass that

Chase: are eating the trout so uh some people don't like them but that's that's the

Chase: only way we fish down there yeah.

Marvin: That's that's funny that we have that problem on the uh watauga in the south holston too.

Chase: Of the striped bass eating the

Chase: trout yep yeah yeah it's a good problem to have i think so uh so when so.

Marvin: When did you get interested in fly tying.

Chase: Uh so i've i've always been kind of

Chase: i really like to do arts and woodworking stuff

Chase: like that you know growing up i used to uh in

Chase: fact for one of my birthdays when i was like eight or nine uh

Chase: we invited like 30 or 40 kids

Chase: over to my house and i had built like medieval weapons

Chase: out of popsicle sticks and duct tape for everybody and we

Chase: just had a melee battle of like 30 you know

Chase: 10 11 year olds just hacking at each other with all this stuff so i've always

Chase: liked building things and making stuff and uh so as soon as i got introduced

Chase: to fly fishing i knew i wanted to start tying flies so i probably had a vice

Chase: within three or four months after i started fly fishing yeah.

Marvin: Do you remember what was the first vice you had and what fly you tied on it.

Chase: The first vice i had was something really cheap probably off of ebay the first

Chase: real vice i had was a stanfo cayman uh it was it's kind of like a regal where

Chase: you just it just has the clamp,

Chase: Uh, but it, it didn't, uh, it didn't hold shanks very well.

Chase: So I upgraded pretty quickly, but I had that one for a good little while and,

Chase: uh, trying to think what the first, what the first fly I tied,

Chase: it wasn't a woolly bugger.

Chase: I know a game changer is one of the first things I tied.

Chase: Uh, it was, it was real crappy, but I was really excited about it.

Marvin: Yeah. And what do you tie on today?

Chase: I have a Renzetti Master now.

Marvin: Got it. And I bet you you have shank jaws on it.

Chase: I actually don't. I just have the regular jaws, and they work great for me.

Chase: I'm sure the shank jaws are awesome, but now I don't have them.

Marvin: Yeah. And so, you know, who are some of the folks that you kind of pay attention

Marvin: to and have kind of influenced you as you developed as a tire?

Chase: Well, obviously, Blaine's probably the one

Chase: biggest influence because uh when i first started

Chase: fly fishing one of my one of my uh

Chase: friends around here that i fly fish

Chase: with is a doctor he's a bit older than me and

Chase: uh he sent me a video i was like

Chase: chase if you get a chance look at this i think

Chase: you would really like this fly and it was a video

Chase: one of the older game changers i

Chase: think that blaine had put out but i saw that

Chase: and immediately i was ordering all the materials i

Chase: needed to try to tie that up and i tied up the first

Chase: one and gave it uh to my friend for him

Chase: to in the fish with and uh so that

Chase: that's probably the first thing that i looked it up and tied it

Chase: i used to just go on on

Chase: youtube and it was more if i saw a pattern

Chase: that i liked that someone was fishing with then i would look it up

Chase: rather than you know following specific people

Chase: per se but uh i pretty

Chase: quickly i just kind of started doing my my own

Chase: thing for a lot of them but definitely definitely

Chase: blaine uh clauser minnows i used to tie a lot of clauser minnows at first so

Chase: i really liked bob's design on that and uh you know there's a there's a few

Chase: guys i follow now you can kind of you can kind of sift through all the chaff

Chase: on instagram and and find a few guys who are really doing some cool stuff.

Chase: There's a few guys that I like to watch because they come out with unique stuff.

Chase: But I also, you know, I really try not to,

Chase: spend too much time looking at other people's stuff so that I don't just subconsciously

Chase: start trying to imitate other people and doing stuff, especially now that I'm

Chase: licensing patterns and coming up with stuff on my own.

Chase: I like to, as much as I can, I like to try to be thinking and ruminating on

Chase: things in my own mind and not taking in other people's stuff and then like,

Chase: you know, condensing that all into something different.

Marvin: Yeah. You're not, uh, not taking a fly and putting a different color hotspot

Marvin: on it and calling it something different.

Chase: Yeah as as much as you

Chase: can i try i try not to do that i think you know

Chase: to a certain point everything's you know there's a lot

Chase: of things that you might you might come up with something and it's already been

Chase: done and you might not know it or uh you know you think making one little change

Chase: it warrants something like that i think there's a way a way to you know find

Chase: a good balance of when it when a fly,

Chase: gets a new name versus, you know,

Chase: such with a hotspot, like you say.

Marvin: Yeah. And so, you know, when did you decide to jump in the deep end of the swimming

Marvin: pool and start production fly time?

Chase: You know, it was actually fairly quickly and it wasn't really on purpose.

Chase: I was a senior in college. I still wasn't sure what I was going to do coming out of college.

Chase: So I had stuff on my personal Instagram and realized that all I was doing was

Chase: posting fishing pictures and all these people I didn't know would be getting

Chase: on my personal Instagram and messaging me.

Chase: So I started a separate Instagram page for buying and pretty quickly just had

Chase: a bunch of people wanting to order them.

Chase: So I decided I'd try to make it official and get,

Chase: you know, start paying excise taxes and Orvis store nearby had seen my stuff

Chase: and started wanting to make wholesale orders.

Chase: So that's kind of when I had to really kind of make it official.

Marvin: Yeah, it's interesting you say that about the excise taxes. Because I think

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?

Chase: Oh, yeah. It's a hassle. It's a hassle to set up.

Chase: It's annoying. You have to pay a straight 10 off the top kind of tax on everything flies.

Chase: Flies are already low margin as it is, especially when you calculate the time involved.

Chase: And then you try to build that into your pricing and people don't like that

Chase: it adds more expenses to it.

Chase: There's no good way to say, hey, this fly is such and such, but I got to add

Chase: an extra 10% because of this tax. You can't really do that.

Chase: So you kind of just end up eating that cost.

Marvin: Yeah. And so, you know, what were some of the big surprises or adjustments you

Marvin: had to make when you kind of went from tying for yourself to kind of scaling

Marvin: up your production tying business? Yeah.

Chase: Uh you know it's it's from balance

Chase: of what what can you spend

Chase: your time on that's worth it and uh

Chase: how do you separate yourself from everybody

Chase: else who's you know

Chase: it's a there's a very low barrier to entry all you

Chase: need to do is get some hooks and advice and materials and

Chase: it's all fairly cheap and you can start selling flies and lots

Chase: of people that you know don't have a business set

Chase: up or any sort of llc nothing like

Chase: that can just start selling flies for

Chase: cheaper than you can and it's not sustainable but

Chase: they're just doing it for fun uh but and they're

Chase: they're in the same space as you and so

Chase: it's it's hard to it's hard to scale properly and

Chase: keep your margins to where they need to be to

Chase: make it profitable and uh you know

Chase: sell the ball do and not spend more

Chase: time than it's worth uh tying them it's it's it is it's very difficult to find

Chase: something that's actually profitable within the fly tying space going to the

Chase: bigger companies and stuff like that if you're just doing it yourself it's hard

Chase: to be long-term profitable in that way yeah.

Marvin: And i would also say you know some of these bigger patterns i mean it's just

Marvin: they're just so involved it's kind of hard to scale it right.

Chase: Absolutely well i

Chase: uh yeah i don't sell game changers anymore but what

Chase: i what i did you know the most i could tie in

Chase: a day was maybe eight to ten something like that because i'm making all the

Chase: brushes making all the shanks doing it handmade and and then you're selling

Chase: the fly for 20 bucks and you know minus your material costs all the time it

Chase: takes putting into it then the excise tax on top of that.

Chase: Plus if you want to even consider selling them wholesale, that's 40 to 50% off the top right there.

Chase: And it's just, you know, you're looking at minimum wage or something like that at that point.

Marvin: Yeah. Any other challenges kind of jump out to you kind of, you know,

Marvin: being a production tire.

Chase: Yes. So when you're trying to, you know,

Chase: production tie and you're having to use so much materials and you're having

Chase: to tie so many flies, you're dealing not only with the monotony,

Chase: but a lot of people think you've got to use materials from a fly shop that are specific to fly tying.

Chase: But the reality is the industry is so small.

Chase: Lots of the fly tying materials are repurposed materials from other industries.

Chase: And so if you look around, you can find, you know, I use wig hair for a lot

Chase: of stuff because it's very similar to some of the stiffer synthetic fibers that

Chase: you can find from fly tying companies.

Chase: And it probably is just the same stuff being repackaged.

Chase: But it's handy to be able to go off script and find bulk materials that are

Chase: not specifically branded fly tying, but that do the same thing.

Marvin: Yeah, it's also too, I mean, it's like, you know, it's also a good idea for

Marvin: folks to go to Hobby Lobby's and, you know, Michaels and places like that for

Marvin: exactly that reason. Because you can find some pretty cool stuff to tie with there.

Chase: Absolutely i have spent way too much money at those stores so so what.

Marvin: Attracted you to tying you know i guess what i would generally call predator

Marvin: flies is it just you know that's what you like to fish for or is there something

Marvin: else that kind of drew you in.

Chase: Uh i mean

Chase: i i think it would just mostly stem from that's what

Chase: i like to fish for uh because so if

Chase: you if you go look on my website the flies that

Chase: i tie are carp flies redfish flies

Chase: you know saltwater predatory species

Chase: and bass flies uh and so obviously you can use that kind of stuff for uh pike

Chase: musky all sorts of other species but it's i tie for what i fish for because

Chase: uh i can't go test my flies on other species because they're not here.

Chase: I have to design for what I can fish for, typically.

Chase: So that's what I do. And yeah, bass are mostly what I'm fishing for.

Chase: So a lot of my time is spent trying to come up with bass flies.

Marvin: Got it. And you know, I think you're probably best known for your spiral spook pattern.

Marvin: I was kind of wondering if you could let us know a little bit about where the

Marvin: idea for the pattern came from and kind of how you developed it.

Chase: Yeah i uh you know when i was conventional

Chase: fishing i my favorite way to

Chase: catch fish was to throw a four

Chase: or five inch stone spook and catch

Chase: gas on top water that way and it's just

Chase: there's there's nothing quite like it but being able

Chase: to move the bait so much in such a

Chase: short space so you're not you know ripping a ripping the

Chase: lure away from the fish where you can really work it in one spot and

Chase: uh seeing the lure go side to side it there's a lot to it that i i really enjoy

Chase: it so you know there's there's really cool deer hair scoops that people tie

Chase: and some of them are just gorgeous works of art but uh you know i don't do a

Chase: ton of deer hair work i've tied some of those but.

Chase: You know it takes a long time and they

Chase: can absorb water and get heavy and

Chase: all the well there's a host of reasons to fish them and there's a host of reasons

Chase: not to and I just wanted to find something that was more in my wheelhouse and

Chase: I really like to use foam and synthetics and a lot of the newer style of fly tying stuff,

Chase: And so I also didn't want to just stick foam on a lathe or something like that.

Chase: I wanted to actually tie up a fly that could walk the dog like that and replicate

Chase: that side-to-side motion.

Chase: And uh so the very first time i just i thought about you know having a weights

Chase: inside of a foam wrapped body and i tried something and tied it up and,

Chase: seemed to work okay and I knew I had something that I could work with from that point.

Chase: It wanted to go side to side and I knew I could just play with the weights and

Chase: the sizes and the thickness and all the different things that go into it and make it work.

Chase: So, you know, I've been still messing with the design of that fly three, four years later now.

Marvin: Yeah, and interesting. And so are you imparting the action on the spiral spook

Marvin: the same way you would you know impart the action uh with a conventional bait

Marvin: or are you or did you adapt it for you know um for fly fishing.

Chase: That no that's a good question i uh with a conventional bait you know you're

Chase: using the rod tip you're having a profit you gotta let slack come into the line

Chase: and you do use some of the same concepts when you're fishing these scoops but

Chase: they're so light to compare to their conventional counterparts,

Chase: but you do have to fish them differently.

Chase: The first ones that I made, you had to strip them fast to get them to walk.

Chase: It's kind of how I weighted them, was if you get a good cadence going,

Chase: you could get them to walk side to side.

Chase: But I realized pretty quickly that not everyone can strip really fast or keep the tempo just right.

Chase: And if you couldn't do that, then it wouldn't walk, and so people would get frustrated.

Chase: So one of the solutions to that is to add more weight to kind of help keep it

Chase: going side to side but then make it heavy to cast so I ended up kind of realizing

Chase: that the fly doesn't have nearly as much inertia as,

Chase: a conventional spook does so you can't

Chase: just weight the fly in one spot like a conventional spook you have to distribute

Chase: the weight throughout the fly and it's all wrapped under under that outer foam

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,

Chase: you keep your rod tip in the water point it at the fly you don't move the rod

Chase: tip at all and you do a slow, deliberate, but sharp strip.

Chase: Just maybe three or four inches of line with a very sharp stop.

Chase: But you can do it smooth and slow and that gets it walking side to side with

Chase: a lot more glide than I used to have it. It used to kind of chop side to side.

Chase: If you moved it fast, now it glides more and it's a lot easier to walk.

Chase: And it's a lot easier for people that aren't as skilled at stripping fast to be able to make it work.

Marvin: Very, very neat. And, you know,

Marvin: it's always interesting because I always find that kind of, you know,

Marvin: almost every predator fly guy I've talked to, they have a deep conventional

Marvin: angling background and they just decided that they wanted to kind of apply that

Marvin: knowledge in the fly fishing space.

Marvin: You know, what are some other things that your conventional angling backgrounds

Marvin: brought to your fly designs?

Chase: Yeah, so I think most of what I brought, Coming from a conventional background,

Chase: I wasn't super serious on the conventional side of things.

Chase: I did it for fun fairly often, but just the movements that trigger bass especially

Chase: were some of the things that I still try to replicate with my flies.

Chase: Uh whether it's you know right now

Chase: i've i've been messing around with uh

Chase: some glide bait style uh fries that i still haven't perfected but i just i love

Chase: seeing a glide bait chop side to side and that's something i want to uh do with

Chase: a fly and you know the stook obviously i've got a a frog that's really,

Chase: really cool that actually Blaine's going to be producing through his chocolate

Chase: factory and that'll hopefully be here this next spring but yeah.

Chase: Just replicating the style of what I used to enjoy throwing on conventional

Chase: bait, I still do that with a fly rod.

Chase: The reason I use a fly rod is I enjoy the casting so much.

Chase: I enjoy being able to make my own flies. I enjoy the light presentation of the flies.

Chase: Everything about that is what draws me to fly fishing.

Chase: I don't feel the need to throw any conventional anymore just because I have

Chase: more fun not catching fish fly fishing than I do if I were catching fish conventional.

Chase: And so that's kind of my baseline. And fortunately, fly fishing,

Chase: you usually do catch fish.

Chase: And one of the best parts is you can see any fish, any fish in the river that

Chase: you see, typically there's a fly that it's going to eat.

Chase: So that's the other side of that coin is when I was conventional fishing,

Chase: I would never catch a carp or some of these cichlids or other things that are in the river.

Chase: Just you don't catch those on the things that you're throwing for bass so now

Chase: i i use it to three rods you know topwater streamer and then a carp or panfish

Chase: style style rod and any fish i come across in our rivers i can make a decent

Chase: presentation to that has a chance of catching them.

Marvin: Got it and you know it's interesting too because your patterns are you know

Marvin: stylistically different but i was wondering if there's maybe you know like a

Marvin: unifying design philosophy that you have when you're trying to create new patterns.

Chase: You know probably the

Chase: one thing i keep coming back to is trying to make weedless designs or at least

Chase: naglis because i get really frustrated throwing any fly that's hook point down

Chase: and i also don't enjoy throwing jig flies all that much so,

Chase: I really like to try to get level sinking flies that are hook point up you know

Chase: whether it's a game changer that has a little bit of foam in it in certain places or uh,

Chase: Some of the slide-style flies that I have, the spook sits hook point up.

Chase: The frogs that I've been designing are weedless.

Chase: So I really like being able to throw flies back into the junk and into the thick

Chase: stuff where the bass typically are and not get snagged.

Chase: So even on my carp flies, they all sit hook point up. And that's probably a

Chase: pretty unifying thing that I use.

Marvin: Got it. And, you know, where do you get your, you know, your ideas for your

Marvin: new patterns and kind of like, how do you like to kind of go from kind of concept to finish fly?

Chase: Uh most of the time i start from being

Chase: on the water and seeing um either

Chase: like a localized event where i see bass beating on

Chase: a certain bait fish or uh something acting

Chase: a certain way and wanting to replicate that movement or

Chase: uh or just just a bait fish in general

Chase: or for example the frog it's just wanting to

Chase: replicate the kicking motion of a frog uh so

Chase: on the fly that that i've designed the the legs

Chase: when you strip it forward the legs kick backwards

Chase: and then retract and it looks it looks

Chase: like a frog swimming but it took forever to figure out how to how to make that

Chase: happen because it's a very unique motion in you know like the the design world

Chase: to have you know fraught legs that kind of stay in place as you strip forward

Chase: and then can spring back.

Chase: It's very difficult.

Chase: But I enjoy that aspect of it. I like to try to have something slightly unique

Chase: as kind of a selling point in each fly to make it worth designing a new fly around something.

Marvin: Got it. And I always like to ask, you know, really serious tires to share three

Marvin: tips for us mere mortals that will kind of help us up our game and bench, right?

Chase: Yes, I can. You know,

Chase: some of the probably the biggest thing that that has helped me is not being

Chase: limited to materials and recipes

Chase: and more understanding the inherent like qualities of each material.

Chase: So being able to see a specific fiber and know that it's stiff or going to absorb water or whatever it is.

Chase: And it doesn't have to be exactly what a certain fly pattern calls for.

Chase: But if you have something that's going to perform the same, typically you can

Chase: sub it out and it's going to be just fine.

Chase: And honestly, fish are not nearly as picky as we like to think they are.

Chase: For the most part especially in the streamer world

Chase: and uh you can get away with

Chase: with some changes that may not

Chase: be exactly what the original recipe calls for

Chase: but uh but it'll work out just

Chase: fine so i i found that i tied up

Chase: when i was first starting to you know tie i

Chase: found that i would i had a lot more fun when i started like straying from from

Chase: designs and from the recipes and using new things and trying things out and

Chase: not being afraid to do that because you don't have to stick to exactly what's being called for.

Chase: The second thing is something that I tell everybody whenever they come to any

Chase: of my shows, especially if I'm tying up game changers and I'm using certain tools.

Chase: But if you're going to mess with wire, dubbing brushes, anything like that,

Chase: buy a pair of orthodontics pliers, orthodontics snips.

Chase: They are the best tool for $10 that you'll ever get.

Chase: I've tied thousands of game changers with the same stainless steel orthodontics

Chase: snips, and they're better than the flush wire cutters you can get at hardware

Chase: stores, anything like that.

Chase: They're probably my favorite tool that I've found that doesn't come from a fly shop.

Marvin: Got it. And how about number three?

Chase: Let me think. The last one that I really use a lot is learning to make your own shanks.

Chase: It just is so helpful to be able to measure out to the millimeter how big I

Chase: want a shank to be and then make it myself.

Chase: So whether you're buying a wire bending jig or getting the, there's a one-step

Chase: looper tool and you can bend stainless steel wire yourself, that's probably

Chase: another of the biggest things that I use all the time.

Marvin: Got it. And I always like to ask, you know, serious tires, The other one is

Marvin: like everybody's got some kind of squirrely tool that may not even kind of officially

Marvin: be a tool that they can't live without. Do you have anything like that?

Chase: I, you know, those orthodontics pliers are up there.

Chase: I use those all the time, and I have multiple pairs in case I ever lose them. Let me think.

Chase: You know, I don't use too many, I don't use a lot of tools, honestly.

Chase: Probably those One Step Looper, the wire benders, I use those a lot.

Chase: So that's probably the one, if it broke, I would have to order a new one that same day.

Marvin: Got it and you know are there uh are there any projects you're working on you'd

Marvin: like to share with our listeners.

Chase: Uh yeah you know i've got uh i've got several patterns coming out with montana

Chase: fly company that i'm excited about we've been working on those for a long time,

Chase: and uh they'll they'll be hopefully here

Chase: pretty soon and finalized and everything so i'm excited about

Chase: that i'm really excited to be working with lane

Chase: uh with the chocolate factory stuff you know i've stopped

Chase: selling game changers because his he's

Chase: finally selling them himself and he's the

Chase: original designer so i strongly believe that he

Chase: should be getting royalties uh from that

Chase: pattern and so it's unfortunate to see all

Chase: these other companies selling game changers but uh you

Chase: know no royalties going to him so anyway i can push people towards that i do

Chase: but uh i'm also i'm super excited that he's going to be making one of my flies

Chase: with that frog so hopefully that'll be this next year and that'll be really cool.

Chase: Other than that, I've got a new hook that I'm putting on the Spiral Spook that

Chase: has made the hookup ratio probably five or six times better because I spent

Chase: a lot of time watching bass eat it and seeing why they didn't get hooked.

Chase: And so I've made a switch on that, and I'm finally finishing up rebalancing

Chase: all the different sizes of the spooks and getting the new hook sourced and everything like that.

Chase: And they'll be way better. So pretty soon I'll be back in production on those.

Marvin: Got it. And is that a hook that's going to be available to everybody else or

Marvin: is that just something just for you?

Chase: Oh, it's already a hook that's out there. It's a Gamakatsu finesse wide gap hook.

Chase: It just has an upturn point that works way better than the one that I had.

Chase: The other hook is an A-Rex hook, and it's great, just not for this application.

Chase: So, you know, switching to that is, that other hook has made a huge difference.

Marvin: Got it. And so, if folks want to check out your flies and purchase a few, where should they go?

Chase: Yeah, they can go to my website, www.fishchaseflies.com.

Chase: And they can also go to my Instagram, which is fishchaseflies.

Chase: And that's typically all my stuff is either on my website or coming out on my instagram,

Chase: uh there's a quite a few fly shops that have this groups and pretty soon there'll

Chase: be a lot more once i get back into the swing or producing them again got.

Marvin: It because i know you've got i know your favorite fly shop in austin has them for sure right.

Chase: Oh yes yeah they've got they've had a bunch of those yeah.

Marvin: And so is there anything else you'd like to share with our listeners before

Marvin: I let you go this evening?

Chase: Oh, you know, I can't think of much off the top of my head.

Chase: Just, you know, I'm always trying to get out there and film and hopefully pretty

Chase: soon I'll have a bunch of topwater stuff for that frog and spook.

Chase: And I've been trying not to put as much on Instagram lately just because I've

Chase: been redesigning the spook with a new hook and everything.

Chase: And, uh, so pretty soon I'll have, well, I've been taking a bunch of footage

Chase: and you can, you can see it all on my Instagram once I get it all put out there,

Chase: but that'll, that'll all start ramping back up pretty soon.

Marvin: Got it. And, uh, if folks want to find you, uh, on the show circuit in 2025,

Marvin: you got any shows on the calendar?

Chase: I'll always be at trout fest uh here

Chase: here in texas they do that one uh over

Chase: on the guadalupe by by green and all

Chase: those other places uh it's an awesome show i'll also be at a there's a couple

Chase: other local texas shows that i'll do i'm not sure if i'm going back up to um

Chase: to the uh schultz Outfitters bobbing the hood, but I hope so.

Chase: Um, other than that, I don't have anything quite planned. I've still got,

Chase: you know, two little kids at home. So some, a lot of my time is pretty limited.

Marvin: Yeah, no, fair enough. We were talking about that. I, uh, you know, it's interesting.

Marvin: Mine are 22 and 16 and, uh, just different challenges, I guess is the easiest way to say it.

Chase: Absolutely. Yeah.

Marvin: Yeah. And so if, uh, folks want to follow your adventures at the Vicer on the

Marvin: water where should they go.

Chase: Uh following my instagram

Chase: is the the best way fish chase flies on on

Chase: instagram that's that's where i i post everything and

Chase: put all my videos and i i do have a bunch on youtube uh tutorials and stuff

Chase: like that so i'm pretty sure it's just fish chase flies on youtube as well but

Chase: those would be the two places to see pictures and videos and then And you can

Chase: actually buy the flies on my website.

Marvin: Got it. And I'll drop all that stuff in the show notes for you.

Chase: Awesome.

Marvin: Yeah. Well, listen, Chase, I appreciate you spending some time with me this

Marvin: evening. It's been a lot of fun.

Chase: Of course. Yeah. Thank you so much.

Marvin: Have a great one.

Chase: You too.

Intro: Well, folks, we hope you enjoyed the interview as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you.

Intro: Don't forget to check out Trout Routes Pro at maps.troutroutes.com.

Intro: Use Artfly20, A-R-T-F-L-Y-2-0, all one word, to get 20% off of your membership.

Intro: Tight lines, everybody.