Join host Marvin Cash on The Articulate Fly for an inspiring conversation with Adam Hortenberry, the creative mind behind Anchor Fly and Tackle. In this episode, Adam shares his rapid journey from a gear enthusiast to a passionate fly angler and fly tier. He also provides exciting details about the inaugural Rhode Island Fly Bash on July 13 at Rejects Brewing Company.

Adam dives into his earliest fishing memories, recounting nostalgic days spent chasing bluegill with his grandfather. He discusses his transition to fly fishing in 2018 and the subsequent leap into fly tying in 2020. Adam highlights the mentors who have guided him, including Allen Rupp, Robb Alexander and Landon Mayer, and the invaluable lessons they've imparted.

Listeners will gain insights into Adam's fly tying techniques, his favorite materials and the importance of preparation and organization. He also shares his experiences at fly fishing shows and the significance of learning from fellow anglers. Whether you're a seasoned fly tier or just starting, this episode is packed with practical tips and inspiration to elevate your craft. Tight lines!

Books Adam Mentioned

Pop Fleyes: Bob Popovics's Approach to Saltwater Fly Design

Fleye Design: Techniques, Insights, Patterns

Modern Streamers For Trophy Trout II: More Techniques, Tactics, And Patterns

Game Changer: Tying Flies that Look and Swim Like the Real Thing

Smallmouth Bass Flies Top to Bottom

Smallmouth: Modern Fly-Fishing Methods, Tactics, and Techniques

Snag a Ticket to the Rhode Island Fly Bash

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Helpful Episode Chapters

00:00 Introduction

10:37 Starting the Fly Tying Journey

13:28 Mentors and Progression

19:03 Transition to Production Tying

22:42 Lessons from Production Tying

25:05 Organization and Preparation

29:07 Consistency in Fly Tying

37:46 The Rhode Island Fly Bash

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

Intro: On this episode, I'm joined by Adam Hortonberry, the driving force behind Anchor Fly and Tackle.

Intro: Adam shares his rapid journey from being a gear dude to becoming an obsessed fly angler and fly tire.

Intro: He also updates us on the inaugural Rhode Island Fly Bash on July 13th at Rejects

Intro: Brewing Company. I think you're really going to enjoy this one.

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 we've received several listener questions asking about ways to support the show.

Intro: One way is to become a member of our community on Patreon and make a single or recurring donation.

Intro: Our community has some great benefits like discounts on tying materials,

Intro: guide trips, and more. Or check out the link in the show notes for more details.

Intro: And we recently released an interview-only show, The Long Haul with the Articulate Fly.

Intro: So if you prefer to listen to The Articulate Fly without the fishing reports,

Intro: just search The Long Haul in your favorite podcatcher.

Intro: Now, on to the interview.

Marvin: Well, Adam, welcome to The Articulate Fly.

Adam: Thanks, Marvin. Thanks for having me, man. Appreciate it.

Marvin: Yeah, I'm really looking forward to it. And we have a tradition on The Articulate

Marvin: Fly. We'd like to ask all of our guests to share their earliest fishing memory.

Adam: Sure. My earliest memory is chasing bluegills on farm ponds with my grandpa.

Adam: That was kind of our big thing growing up.

Marvin: Yeah. And so was that Zebco 33 chasing or was that cane pole chasing?

Adam: Uh, actually both ironically. So it's, he, he, he would, he was like a sight

Adam: fisherman. He was, he was a very interesting guy.

Adam: He was, yeah, he's very eccentric fella.

Adam: You know, he, he was a Vietnam vet, so he's a pretty, pretty wild guy,

Adam: but yeah, we would, we would sight fish him. Um, and, uh, and the Zebcos.

Marvin: Yeah, that's neat. It's kind of funny. I've got a picture here in my office

Marvin: of me, I'm probably, gosh, maybe, maybe six years old fishing for trout on a

Marvin: cane pole with my grandfather.

Marvin: And he's got one of those aluminum worm boxes on his belt and he's wearing,

Marvin: we didn't call them wellies back then, but basically like, you know,

Marvin: above your knee rubber boots.

Marvin: And that was fly, well, it wasn't fly fishing, but it was trout fishing, right?

Adam: Oh yeah. Yeah. I can remember people doing that too back home in Ohio. Yeah.

Marvin: Yeah. And so when did you come to the dark side of fly fishing?

Adam: Um we tinkered with it as kids but um not officially until 2018 is when i got

Adam: super into it and then fly tying 2020 yeah.

Marvin: And so uh you know what made you kind of make the official leap in 2018.

Adam: Um it was just a matter of a more challenging way to do things in my opinion

Adam: and i wanted to do it for bass specifically like the trout thing was cool but

Adam: i wanted to focus on the warm water stuff and really hone that in yeah.

Marvin: Because if i remember correctly right you were kind of a gear guy kind of fishing

Marvin: for bass before you picked up the fly ride.

Adam: Exactly and it was like we were obsessed with like finesse fishing for uh smallmouth

Adam: bass and stuff like that that that's kind of where we were we loved doing you

Adam: know the the seven foot ultra you know you know ultra light kind of deals,

Adam: chasing big big small mouth yeah.

Marvin: And so you know who are some of the folks that have mentored you in your fly

Marvin: fishing journey what have they taught you.

Adam: Oh sure yeah um slowly along the way i mean for fly tying i would say my friend

Adam: alan rup and um a couple other um randoms i would have to say my friend Rob,

Adam: Rob Alexander, huge, huge mentor.

Adam: Um, and then lately I, uh, I've been picking Landon, Landon's brain,

Adam: Landon Mayer, like he's, he's been a huge help and he,

Adam: he just knows so many, like people don't think about him as being a guru fly

Adam: tire, but in my opinion, he is, he is certainly that.

Marvin: Yeah. It's interesting, right? There's a, there's a certain level of kind of

Marvin: knowledge and skill to be as reductive as he is with his patterns, right?

Marvin: You know, to find something that, you know, you can tie, you know,

Marvin: I guess you call it a guide fly, that you can tie relatively easily,

Marvin: but, you know, consistently works when you're out on the water,

Marvin: you know, trying to put fish in the net.

Adam: Yeah, that's one big thing he was telling me when we were over cocktails one night.

Adam: I don't know what night, but it was just focused on making something easy and

Adam: obtainable for someone else to try to do, replicate, and have success.

Marvin: Yeah, it's interesting. It's actually kind of one of my pet peeves with the

Marvin: fly fishing industry. I think we do a pretty lousy job of simplifying things for people.

Marvin: And, you know, I think we have a tendency to try to bury people in kind of disassociated

Marvin: information. And I think it makes it harder on them than it needs to be.

Adam: Oh yeah 100 like we were just out there with him he and my sister in colorado and,

Adam: it was her first fly fishing trip and she's like oh is it always this easy because

Adam: he's he's just such a good teacher and it was it opened my eyes truly yeah.

Marvin: It's it's an interesting place i mean i i've had the chance to go out there

Marvin: i guess i was out there a couple years ago for clean the dream and uh i don't

Marvin: know we maybe spent two hours kind of looking for uh uh,

Marvin: you know, for big, uh, big jawed, uh, brown trout, but yeah,

Marvin: it's an interesting fishery for sure.

Marvin: And the great thing you have there is you can go fish the still waters too.

Adam: Oh yeah. That's actually what we, we got to do that for a whole day and the

Adam: belly boat thing. It was really cool.

Adam: It was an interesting experience with really good weather and I was very happy

Adam: and pleasantly surprised.

Marvin: Yeah. And, you know, so being, you know, up in new England, you know,

Marvin: is, are you, is your favorite species to chase still small mouth bass,

Marvin: maybe large mouth, but you know, what are you like super honed in on?

Marvin: I know you're not trouty, but you do it sometimes, but, uh, you know,

Marvin: if you had to pick three species to chase on the fly, what would, what would they be?

Adam: Uh, top three is, I mean, people are going to laugh, but obviously number one, small mouth.

Adam: Um, and then, you know, large mouth basketball, but probably panfish would have to be number three.

Adam: Um, that's, that's one of my favorite fish and on a four weight glass rod,

Adam: like you can't really beat that.

Marvin: Yeah it's pretty awesome you know i guess the only downside with panfish is

Marvin: they're so damn slimy yeah that's very.

Adam: True i uh it's very true.

Marvin: Yeah it's uh it's hard to kind of do that evening you know two hours of fishing

Marvin: and come home and not have to take a shower because you smell like you were

Marvin: in a fish market all day long oh.

Adam: Yeah yeah i mean i i've I've worked in that industry as well.

Adam: So I just get used to it after a while.

Marvin: Yeah. And so you were saying, you know, in 2020, you kind of got the inkling to get behind the vice.

Marvin: You know, what led you to decide that you wanted to tie flies?

Adam: Sure. Um, at first I thought it was, uh, you know, Oh, the old, I'll save money thing.

Adam: And my wife chuckled and she said, I can tell you right now,

Adam: this is, this is not going to be that. It's like a whole hobby.

Marvin: Yeah. I would say for sure. You know, if you're tying big flies,

Marvin: you're definitely not going to save money.

Marvin: I mean, anything that involves buying a brush, there's just no way to save money.

Adam: No no and then i jumped straight into woolly buggers into articulated kelly

Adam: gallop stuff and russ madden patterns and then it just it just kept going and

Adam: i'm and it was like a snowball effect yeah.

Marvin: But that's pretty amazing i mean we were talking before we started recording

Marvin: i mean you've only been tying for four years you know what was the first vice

Marvin: and uh fly that you tied on it.

Adam: Yeah um i had a rinzetti traveler um

Adam: most people start out with that i think it's one of the

Adam: best all-around vices to start on um and

Adam: the first fly i would say it was

Adam: a woolly bugger and then i did um a ck baitfish um also one of my favorite flies

Adam: ck baitfish which is from your neck of the woods i believe chuck craft and um

Adam: i think those are the first two because they're the most productive in my opinion

Adam: so that's what i started with yeah.

Marvin: It's interesting too you know because that ck BK baitfish is a lot like maybe

Marvin: Landon's patterns. I mean, it's a dead simple pattern, but it crushes.

Adam: I mean, from California to Connecticut, that fly is something you have to have in your box.

Adam: That's my opinion, but that's just a staple, no matter what,

Adam: for trout or bass, you know.

Marvin: And so do you still tie on that same traveler or have you moved on to like a

Marvin: presentation or something like that?

Adam: Sure. Yeah, I went on to Regal for a little bit and then met the folks at NoroVice

Adam: and I tried their stuff out and ended up jumping on their team,

Adam: which I really, really like.

Adam: And I think it's solved the problems for a lot of production tying and it just

Adam: made more sense for what I was doing.

Adam: And they came out with a whole line of jaws and they're just a great company

Adam: and great people to deal with.

Marvin: Yeah, absolutely. You know, they've been a longtime advertiser on the podcast.

Marvin: And I say, you know, if you go watch Tim, you know, lay down a dubbing noodle

Marvin: with that vice, you'll kind of be sold, right?

Adam: That, yeah, most definitely. He's really good at that. Yeah, it was awesome.

Marvin: Yeah. And so what's your preferred Norvice configuration? Yeah.

Adam: Right now I like the fine tip things. It kind of looks like,

Adam: um, I wouldn't say it looks like a Renzetti, but it kind of has that,

Adam: um, that arm thing like a Renzetti would.

Adam: And it, it spins, um, like a true rotary as well.

Adam: Um, not that the others don't, but like it for me, for what I do,

Adam: it kind of helps me, you know, do what I'm doing with game changers and,

Adam: you know, little flies too.

Marvin: Yeah, got it. And that's the one basically where it kind of is like a,

Marvin: it looks like an L, right? Cause you got to get the shank on axis to be able to rotate it.

Adam: Yeah. Yeah. And then, um, the device I use from them is the legacy C and yeah,

Adam: you can choose whatever color you want, but that's, that's the one I like right now.

Marvin: Yeah. I bet you're a purple guy, right?

Adam: That's it. Purple.

Marvin: You've been profiled.

Adam: Yeah, for sure. Sure.

Marvin: So you had mentioned Alan Rupp a little earlier in the interview,

Marvin: you know, who are some other tires that you follow?

Adam: Sure. Uh, tires I, um, I follow would have to be, uh, locally in the flat fishing

Adam: circuit world would be, um, Sergeant Bass Fisher, of course.

Adam: Um oh uh my

Adam: buddy matt bailey but big big names i really

Adam: um love is uh kelly um russ

Adam: madden blaine of course i mean that's huge bob bob popovich um i mean the list

Adam: is endless um and then yeah like landon's he's huge too charlie craven of course

Adam: i mean i can go on all day yeah.

Marvin: And is Is there kind of a particular, I mean, all those guys are accomplished,

Marvin: but you know, like Sergeant Bass Fisher is a deer hair guy.

Marvin: I mean, is there something in particular that you're kind of gravitating to right now?

Adam: Um, right now I've been, I've been tying a lot of crayfish patterns and I nerd out with that.

Adam: And, uh, Kelly has the best perspective on that, in my opinion.

Adam: So crayfish patterns and like not overdressed in the fly and yeah.

Adam: Yeah. Cray crayfish are definitely the fly I've been, you know,

Adam: trying to, that's the bait I'm trying to replicate the most lately.

Marvin: Gotcha. And so kind of what is your kind of prototypical crayfish file look like?

Adam: Um, I think the easiest way to start it out is, uh, you use Dave's,

Adam: uh, near enough crayfish as a, as a starting point and then go from there and

Adam: tweak it and add on what you want to track.

Adam: And he's kind of already laid it out. And the other crayfish pattern that's

Adam: awesome is that another Chuck craft pattern.

Adam: I think it's a call dad or one.

Adam: I think that's the name of it. That's an awesome one.

Marvin: Yeah. And you can crank those things out. You just buy those pre-cut claws.

Marvin: Claws and i mean you can knock out a dozen in no time oh.

Adam: Yeah yeah that's a tremendous pattern guide fly.

Marvin: Yeah amazing yeah which is funny because uh you know i work with matt ryle and

Marvin: he says you know you're going to lose a lot of them with those lead eyes but

Marvin: uh it's a good thing they're easy to tie and you can do them pretty quickly that's.

Adam: Right yeah you got to fish from a confidence it's another reason you're not

Adam: scared to lose it so you know you're going to get where they are.

Marvin: Yeah. And it's interesting too, right? I mean, so you start tying in 2020,

Marvin: you know, I guess we probably, I know you were taking some of the COVID classes that I did with Blaine.

Marvin: Um, and I guess we probably met officially in person. Was it in Edison?

Adam: Edison. Yeah. That was my first year doing that particular show. And I, it was amazing.

Adam: Um, getting to meet like, um, Andy Mill was there.

Adam: It was just like all these guys that I really look up to and admire.

Adam: I was like, wow. You know, it was crazy. Yeah.

Marvin: And so, you know, it's amazing, right? So in four years you go from tying a

Marvin: woolly booger to like being, you know, a prominent tire on fly tire row.

Marvin: We're going to talk about your fly tying event coming up. You know,

Marvin: how did you progress so quickly?

Adam: Um i really paid attention to the detail and uh i watched a lot of kelly's videos

Adam: ironically and like he's very meticulous about like the amount of wraps you

Adam: do the amount of material you put on why you're putting it on etc etc it's just

Adam: managing your materials is number one and i don't think,

Adam: I don't think people do it enough. And, you know, I think sometimes people just

Adam: slap stuff on a hook and add more rubber and they call it a fly.

Adam: I mean, that's cool, too.

Adam: But I don't know. I like to put things on for a purpose.

Marvin: Yeah, it's interesting. But, I mean, there's got to be a little bit more to

Marvin: it than watching some Kelly videos because there are a lot of people that do that.

Marvin: So, you know, I'm going to push a little bit harder to get you to cough up the secret sauce.

Adam: Us yeah i mean i i truthfully think i

Adam: just got obsessed and just kept doing it reading books that's

Adam: a huge one people don't like guys my age don't do

Adam: you know in their 20s to 30s um they just they're afraid to buy that book and

Adam: just commit instead of just youtube is like really read it understand why they're

Adam: doing it and then you know you kind of have to get obsessed in a weird way is

Adam: to hone your craft so to speak like you gotta dial it in you gotta tie 100 bad

Adam: flies you get the good one,

Adam: really just repetition and, and really pay attention to what you're going and

Adam: have attention to detail.

Marvin: Yeah. And so what are your, some of your favorite time books so that you can

Marvin: kind of help some of your younger generation brethren?

Adam: Sure yeah i mean i would start out with um modern streamers kelly kelly gallops

Adam: um and then follow that up with bob popovics either of his books the uh pop

Adam: flies or the um oh the second one i'm blanking on it but um that's a huge one yeah.

Marvin: I think it's fly design.

Adam: Yeah yep it's.

Marvin: The one he co-wrote with jay nichols right.

Adam: Yep yeah that's it and then

Adam: uh blaine books tremendous um uh i

Adam: like um what's his name jake i think it's

Adam: jake uh the smallmouth guy from pennsylvania um his

Adam: book's really good yeah they'll watch yep yeah

Adam: he's really i like his book a lot and um those are some great uh books for trout

Adam: and smallmouth bass um kim landrier has one too i think it's called smallmouth

Adam: basics or one of those i'll send you all the uh the books i was referring to too.

Adam: So, you know, people can hook them up because they're huge, in my opinion,

Adam: especially for smallmouth.

Adam: But those are huge. And then in the trout world, I love Craven stuff. Charlie Craven.

Marvin: Yeah. I mean, I think his kind of introductory tying book is probably one of

Marvin: the best tying books I've ever read.

Adam: Yeah. Charlie's. Yeah. I would agree. Yeah. I would say if you're a trout guy,

Adam: you need that in your on your tying desk.

Marvin: Yeah. And then you can go down the rat hole and buy his nymph book and his streamer book and everything.

Adam: So yeah, supporting for sure.

Adam: And these people are tremendous in our industry is for sure by their books and,

Adam: you know, support them. Yeah.

Marvin: And it's interesting on the video side, because it's funny you say that,

Marvin: you know, because I'm kind of working on this book project.

Marvin: And so all of Kelly's old school videos, like, I mean, there's all the stuff he does on YouTube.

Marvin: I think he probably needs his own FCC license at this point.

Marvin: But, you know, all of his old school stuff, you can actually find those on Vimeo

Marvin: and buy them or rent them.

Adam: Oh, yeah. I saw those, actually. Like, you know, back when I first got started

Adam: typing on Google, you know, what to do, where to find kind of thing.

Marvin: Yeah. And then I would say the other thing on the video front is if you haven't

Marvin: checked out Fishing TV, it's insanely cheap.

Marvin: It's like six bucks a month, and they're old DVD VHS tapes of Bob Clouser and

Marvin: Lefty Time Flies and Bob telling the story of the Clouser minnow.

Marvin: I know Popovic's videos are up there as well, so that's another great place for people to go.

Adam: Yeah, that was some of that's from like the 90s and then the stuff from the

Adam: other guy like Lefty and Bob. Those are tremendous videos.

Adam: Joe Humphries is on there too. His little documentary. It's amazing. Love that documentary.

Marvin: Yeah, absolutely. And so, you know, I'm going to push one more time because

Marvin: again, you can buy books and you can watch videos, but you don't go from zero

Marvin: to a hero in four years. So what did you do?

Adam: Oh yeah so i mean i just pick in the

Adam: brains of guys that shows honestly like what really has helped me

Adam: progress um my buddy rob he's not

Adam: like um you know he's not big on social media he has one but he'll be at my

Adam: event that we'll talk about in a bit but he he's been tremendous with like you

Adam: know helping me out and what to do what not to do kind of thing and then just

Adam: just overall like asking people their opinions like hey did this did this suck

Adam: does this look good like be

Adam: honest don't don't shy away and if you really want to get good at fly tying

Adam: you have to kind of find that person that'll just be honest with you not just

Adam: be nice to you for social for social media you know yeah.

Marvin: It's interesting so i think sundays at the fly fishing show are great days to get that kind of intel.

Adam: Huge days yeah this this year in marlboro on sunday um very insightful um Um,

Adam: yeah, it was, it was after the show was even better.

Adam: It was football, a couple of cocktails and laughs, you know,

Adam: it was, it's the best time to learn.

Marvin: Yeah. And so you start tying in 2020, right? So when did you decide,

Marvin: Hey, I want to be a production fly tire?

Adam: I would say a couple of years after that. Yeah. And I started that up and I,

Adam: I thought I was going to like just destroy it and had a few hiccups.

Adam: Since it's very it was very a lot

Adam: of lessons learned early on and

Adam: then i've kind of dialed back on that sort

Adam: of thing and and then i kind of i'm focusing on um trying to create my own stuff

Adam: too so instead of producing like a blaine's changer craw i'm trying to dial

Adam: that back because he has his own thing going too so i'm trying to just you know

Adam: make my own mark eventually but but, you know, slowly but surely work on my own stuff.

Marvin: Yeah. And so what were some of those surprises and lessons you learned as you

Marvin: kind of went down the production time path?

Adam: Um, production tying and overall the industry is just like, just don't try to

Adam: rush it because it, um, it, you're not gonna get back to get there super, super fast.

Adam: You got to kind of pay your dues, you know, just sit back and,

Adam: you know, you'll get there eventually.

Adam: And with the production tying, it's, it was, um, it's a lot of work, man.

Adam: And I, like for the, um, production pliers tied overseas, I give those people

Adam: kilos because it's, it's tremendous to, to sit there and tie,

Adam: you know, a dozen game changers. I, I asked anyone to do it and get consistency.

Adam: It's, it's very time consuming way from your family and friends and fishing, like what we like doing.

Marvin: Yeah. It's interesting too. Right. Because my impression is there's a difference

Marvin: between being a production tire and cranking out parachute atoms and being a

Marvin: production tire tying, I'll just call them loosely predator flies.

Marvin: And it's kind of like people call you like, dude, I need a dozen of these tomorrow. Yeah.

Adam: Yeah, unrealistic expectations are a big thing.

Adam: But you kind of have to be nice about it, too, because you don't want to be

Adam: that butthead at the shows or with your customers or your friends.

Adam: You know hey dude i need a dozen of these flies for my trip oh i normally just

Adam: tack on a service fee and they kind of understand you know because you have

Adam: to sacrifice at that point,

Adam: so you know if people want flies like that cranked i normally you know there's

Adam: it's you know you just tack on your fee make your time worthwhile yeah.

Marvin: But i mean particularly during covid i mean dude just getting hooks and materials

Marvin: was hard so i mean it wasn't like you could just kind of you to pull flies out of the air.

Adam: Oh yeah that was huge yeah and

Adam: then like then i didn't have some commercial accounts

Adam: and stuff so it was also like oh man

Adam: it adds up quick yeah and like you said like hooks

Adam: like you're just that's another reason i learned never go with a specific hook

Adam: brand like just just kind of keep it loose like oh size one size two like you

Adam: know stick to the three you like can kind of because it'll change quick now

Adam: we're looking good in the industry but then it was like yeah and.

Marvin: That's even before having to think about collecting and remitting all that excise

Marvin: tax stuff too which is an absolute nightmare for fly tires.

Adam: It's yeah that's a big piece of it that's another reason why i'm kind of like

Adam: oh all right let's figure something else out yeah i still want to tie flies

Adam: and stuff but like maybe i'll just try to create a commercial fly and keep it

Adam: low-key and not have to worry about it as much.

Marvin: Yeah. That's a lot of brain damage to move 12 game changers, you know?

Adam: Oh, yeah, 100%.

Marvin: So, you know, as you kind of got in this production groove, and I know you're

Marvin: not doing as much of it as you used to, but, you know, I was wondering if you

Marvin: could maybe share three tips for mere mortal tires that you kind of learned

Marvin: on that journey to kind of help folks kind of up their game.

Adam: Sure. Um, one big piece is like, um, preparation, kind of like,

Adam: uh, kind of like a chef does, you know, you got your mirepoix and like,

Adam: uh, blah, blah, blah. You got everything ready to rock.

Adam: I would do the same in fly tying, you know, set out your, your feathers or we'll

Adam: just use a feather game changer, for example. So make it easy.

Adam: You know, those little prepping stations from hairline are a huge asset to your, to your fly tying bench,

Adam: prep your feathers in advance, you know pluck them

Adam: all up nicely nice get everything ready you know

Adam: um get your shanks ready have everything at

Adam: the ready that you're going to use and then clean as you go is a

Adam: huge piece because some desks can look and

Adam: it just overwhelms you and you you know if you want a production tie for your

Adam: own box it just makes it a nightmare um yeah that's a huge piece like another

Adam: easy one is like moorish hoppers or like a chubby is just stamp it out get it

Adam: ready you you know, you crank them because it's, it,

Adam: it can be intimidating to have all those materials flying around and you're

Adam: jumping around from a chair,

Adam: like just do one fly at a time and do like six for a, for a normal tire.

Adam: I would do, you know, pick a, okay, I got squirmy wormy. I'm going to do six.

Adam: Just do sixes and twelves and your boxes will be really full.

Adam: That's a huge piece. I learned from some guys and shows always tie six or 12.

Adam: And then, you know, you got some some for your box and some to sell, you know.

Marvin: Yeah, it's interesting you say that because, I mean, that was kind of how,

Marvin: like, particularly when I was, you know, trying to get better at tying dry flies,

Marvin: I would do six, and then I'd go down a size and tie six, and go down a size

Marvin: and tie six, and that was a trick.

Marvin: So, I guess I'll give you credit for maybe, like, one and a half.

Marvin: I'll squish those together, and I think those hairline blocks you're talking

Marvin: about are the ones, right?

Marvin: They're, I think, Drew Chacon has them, but they're basically,

Marvin: like, blocks of foam that have slits in them, right, that you just kind of,

Marvin: it's almost like a mail, it's like a bill holder almost, right? Right.

Adam: Yeah. Yeah. You could probably craft one yourself, but they're like,

Adam: they're like six bucks. Like just, just go to your flash shop and get one, you know?

Adam: Yeah. They're super helpful. Try like huge piece of my, my time and many others, many other people's.

Marvin: Yeah. And so what's tip number two?

Adam: I organization is huge. I kind of taxed him with the other one,

Adam: but it all kind of closed together.

Adam: So organization is huge. Sometimes I'm really bad about that.

Adam: I'll admit it, but organization is huge.

Adam: Like, uh, that's another reason why I like Landon is cause like,

Adam: I, I really like to observe people when they're doing something,

Adam: not just sit there and watch them just to watch them.

Adam: It was like the dudes, everything's organized hooks, you know,

Adam: his, his, uh, pine squirrel for his leech with a patterns and et cetera, et cetera.

Adam: Everything's meticulously, um, organized so that when he goes to tie,

Adam: it's right there where he knows it is. So stay organized on your bench.

Adam: And um on your desk too that's you that's a huge piece is organization and preparation

Adam: and then third would have to be um,

Adam: uh planning you know it kind of goes into preparation as well but just just

Adam: make sure you have everything ready to rock and um yeah and then the the slash

Adam: to that would be um consistency Consistency with your flies is,

Adam: you know, if you do two wraps on that, do two wraps on the other,

Adam: et cetera, et cetera, make a match and it'll give you confidence in your fly

Adam: too. Cause you don't want the wonky doodle one.

Adam: That's the one you'll never fish. You always have that one sitting in your box, wasting space.

Marvin: Yeah. It's funny you say that. I remember Tim Camisa convincing me to like,

Marvin: you know, cut all the stuff off my crappy flies for the hooks.

Marvin: And that was like a two-and-a-half-hour football game beer drinking thing that

Marvin: was – I was like, I should have just put them on corks and thrown them in the trash can.

Adam: But –,

Adam: That's a huge commitment. And props to Camisa. Yeah.

Marvin: But I didn't slice my fingers open. And then, of course, some of them I tied,

Marvin: you know, for my early days of tying.

Marvin: So I had to basically, you know, go get my digital drug scale so that I could

Marvin: try to figure out, you know, what the hook was based on what I had.

Marvin: But, you know, you know, in terms of organization, do you generally like to

Marvin: have your vice and tools kind of set up the same way every time or for every pattern?

Adam: It pretty much yeah like i'm i mean with the

Adam: with the um norvice for example it has the different jaws so sometimes you got

Adam: to beep up the jaws if you're going you know bigger salt water stuff like popovix

Adam: flies or whatnot but um for the most part yes for different vices you know it's

Adam: going to be a little bit different you know but like the rinzendi for example you're going to just,

Adam: flow with it you know it's easy peasy regal same way so you know peak whatever

Adam: you got got, HMH, whatever the vice company is, just, you know,

Adam: get it to your comfort level and try to keep it that way. That way your flies

Adam: are coming out consistent.

Marvin: Yeah. And in terms of kind of organization, kind of on the, on the bench part,

Marvin: I mean, are there any kind of particular ways you like to store particular materials?

Adam: Yeah. Right now I use, I like to simplify things, which is something I didn't do before.

Adam: So for example, like it's, um, we'll just say game changers again,

Adam: just to make it easy, but I'll have my, you know, my thread scissors and then

Adam: my larger curve scissors for, for the trimming process.

Adam: Like, you know, how Blaine does, you know, to get it nicely, nice and a good taper.

Adam: Um, so having those ready to go and then, um, for the Norvice we have,

Adam: you know, how you have to like load the threads all onto the, uh, spools and whatnot.

Adam: So I print those in advance, have those ready in the little container and I

Adam: have the colors I need ready to go next to me or I have them preloaded on a Bob.

Adam: And, and then for a regular tire, I would say just load them.

Adam: Like if you got a fire orange and a black load them up, ready to go.

Adam: So you can just swap in between the two.

Adam: So that's, that's huge pieces in production tying, in my opinion,

Adam: and just, you know, having what you need ready to go.

Marvin: Yeah.

Adam: Preloaded.

Marvin: Yeah. Yeah, but anything like, you know, any particular interesting way you,

Marvin: like, store feathers or hooks or keep flash from getting all smushed or anything

Marvin: like that you want to share with folks?

Adam: Oh, yeah. Yeah, sure. So, the Flashaboo, I just hang, like, on a,

Adam: one of those, what are they called? Oh, whatever.

Adam: You know, like the tool rack things. So, I use those with little pegs on them

Adam: for the flash because I like to have mine exposed because, like,

Adam: I'm at a flash shop, you know?

Marvin: Mm-hmm.

Adam: So I can kind of see all my colors. It's just the way my brain works.

Adam: And it keeps it from getting all ratty.

Adam: And then, um, so there's like keeping, um, these like industrial bags we use

Adam: at, uh, in the cooking world.

Adam: And I put like, um, those little, uh, food, you know, moisture things in there

Adam: with them and I zip them up so that there's no chance that buggies are going

Adam: to get in there, which is a huge piece and keeping chicken around or any dead critters.

Adam: You know, I seal all those stuffs up, like the feathers and the,

Adam: the deer hides. I put it in these big, like food safe, like Ziploc bags beefed up.

Adam: Um, and I zip them up nice and airtight and throw a couple of those little packets

Adam: in there. And it keeps all the critters away if there are any.

Marvin: Yeah. It's a, yeah, that'll make you cry for sure. Um, yeah,

Marvin: I'm trying to think, you know, any kind of tricks about like how you like to

Marvin: organize your hooks or your beads or anything like that you want to share with folks.

Adam: I just use a couple of hairline items. and then I use simple tackle

Adam: boxes from um Bass Pro obviously like

Adam: it's it's it sounds so silly but they're so cheap and

Adam: you go buy a five pack and load it

Adam: up with your beads and your hooks and your cones and

Adam: all that stuff even you could you could probably put some threads in there too

Adam: if you want to go that route um I got a uh thread um organizer from Joann's

Adam: actually they have them so I put all my little threads on there ready to go

Adam: color code them and that makes life easy too Yeah.

Marvin: It's funny you say that because I've got one of those racks too with like a

Marvin: bajillion spikes for holding spools of thread.

Adam: Yeah. Yeah. They're, they're a really good piece.

Marvin: Yeah. It's a, it's interesting too. Cause I think probably the only thing I

Marvin: can, you know, one of the things I do is I have, I buy those like,

Marvin: you know, individual like three ring binder hooks and you buy a whole box of

Marvin: them for like two or three bucks at like office Depot or staples.

Marvin: And that's kind of how, you know, since hooks now are in boxes for the most

Marvin: part, um, super easy to do and, uh, organize, um, beads the same way.

Marvin: And then, um, I guess also, you know, dubbing. Yeah, but that's an obsession in and of itself.

Marvin: And then you start going to places like Jo-Ann's or Hobby Lobby and you come out and, you know.

Marvin: Yeah. You try not to like buy any like, you know, silk flowers or anything,

Marvin: but, you know, get some containers and beads and pliers and stuff.

Adam: Mm-hmm.

Marvin: Yeah.

Adam: Yeah, it's quite interesting.

Marvin: Yeah. So do you have any favorite materials you like to tie with or maybe stuff

Marvin: that you're playing around with right now?

Adam: Sure. I'm, I'm obsessed with like a lot of the stuff from Enrico EP.

Adam: A lot of his brushes and stuff. I think, man, I was talking to him in Edison

Adam: and he was just like, obviously the tarantula, the woolly critter,

Adam: like all those brushes are phenomenal for what we do with game changers,

Adam: crayfish flies, shrimp flies, baitfish flies. A lot of his stuff just makes life easy.

Adam: But a lot of the stuff he has coming out and some of his production flies,

Adam: lies man that he's has tied and just

Adam: in general his stuff is crazy like he's very

Adam: meticulous man and he i love his materials so ep i love the ep stuff and then

Adam: um i'm obsessed with rubber legs for some reason i don't i don't know what it

Adam: is but sight cast has some really cool rubber legs if people want to check those

Adam: out i'm not affiliated with uh either of them really but those are huge those are awesome yeah.

Marvin: So have you gone down the uh the rat hole of making your own brushes?

Adam: I was going to, and then I was like, you know what?

Adam: For now for now i'm good like enrico i think hasn't dialed in his foxy brush

Adam: is his tarantula brush i mean they're just so good and he's a really i think

Adam: he's awesome nice guy yeah.

Marvin: It's interesting in edison i remember watching uh squimpish flies making brushes

Marvin: and it was just mind-blowing right.

Adam: Oh that's one company i forgot to

Adam: mention that squimpish of course i mean

Adam: david and nelson and his wife oh my god tremendous people

Adam: i their material it's fantastic as well i

Adam: like i don't tie too much of that big stuff anymore

Adam: i don't use it too much but um what you can do with that with those materials

Adam: is just tremendous so if you if you're a you know musky guy or tarpon or steelhead

Adam: like you need to check david's stuff out yeah.

Marvin: It's an amazing thing i I mean, you know, kind of once Bob cracked the code

Marvin: on getting size without, you know, in creating something that was big that you could cast.

Marvin: I mean, those brushes are insane, right?

Adam: Oh, yeah.

Marvin: But, you know, another question I always like to ask serious tires is I bet

Marvin: you have some kind of goofy bizarro tool on your tying table that you can't

Marvin: live without. I was wondering if you could share that with us.

Adam: Yeah. I mean, maybe it would have to be, everything else is pretty common.

Adam: I would have to say a big pen, um, a big pen or, um, I use the finger comb brushes. You ever seen those?

Adam: I don't know if it's crazy or whack a doodle, but it's very essential to what I do.

Adam: Like some guys use like regular combs, but this is like a little finger comb.

Adam: It looks like a cat toy thing. It's really, like I said, it has tons of little

Adam: spikes on it. So that's what I use a lot.

Marvin: Oh, I'm with you. It's kind of like a dog or a pet brush, but it's the one that

Marvin: you put on your finger. Is that what you're talking about?

Adam: Yep. Yeah, I would.

Marvin: Say that's an unusual one for sure. Yeah, you're the only person on over 800

Marvin: episodes of the Articulate Fly to say that you use a finger brush when you fly tie.

Adam: I think it's just you it's it's for consistency and um not making sure you trap

Adam: the fibers and all that stuff it's huge yeah.

Marvin: And i would imagine right you're using the big pin you're just throwing the

Marvin: uh the pin part away and you're using it to reverse tie bucktail and stuff like that.

Adam: Yeah yeah there's some really expensive cool tools from i'm sure awesome companies but man man.

Adam: When in doubt, I pick it out. You know, it's, it's, it's right there, ready to go.

Marvin: So, yeah, it's funny. I can remember, gosh, it was, might've been the last fly

Marvin: tying symposium before COVID.

Marvin: Um, people were like, for whatever reason, someone had told me a story before

Marvin: how they like, they didn't have any bobbin threaders and they didn't like to

Marvin: suck the thread into their bobbins.

Marvin: And so I went on Amazon and, you know, bought like 5,000 of them for like five

Marvin: bucks before covid and was just passing out like you know 25 and 50 packs of

Marvin: uh threaders i was like dude if you lose it you got 49 more so.

Adam: Yeah honestly you

Adam: know that's a huge one that people don't think about i like having that bottom

Adam: and threader especially with the with the norvice setup just because it makes

Adam: it easier like i i don't mind doing it that way with you know getting it up

Adam: with the mouth but you know it's very it's just so convenient to have that little threader.

Marvin: Yeah. I would say though, you know, once you start playing around with,

Marvin: let's just say kind of either really fine or kind of non-traditional threads,

Marvin: that little trick, I mean, you pretty much have to have a threader, right?

Adam: I agree. Yeah. Like with your nano silks and GP, uh, GPS, GSP and whatnot.

Adam: Yeah. You gotta have it. It makes life way easier.

Marvin: Here. You start doing crazy stuff like weaving bodies and you're splitting embroidery

Marvin: thread, stuff like that.

Adam: Exactly.

Marvin: So, so, uh, you know, you know, if you're not crazy enough, you start,

Marvin: you know, fly fishing in 2018, you take up tying in 2020, 2022,

Marvin: you say, I want to be a production fly tire.

Marvin: And, you know, now the, uh, the, the bitten off, you know, organizing the Rhode

Marvin: Island fly bash, uh, which is going to happen, I guess, middle of July.

Marvin: And, you know, what on earth made you say, well, Hey, you know,

Marvin: why don't I create a tying event in new England in the summertime?

Adam: Yeah, I got a lot of weird looks, to be honest. A lot of Mayfair's at first.

Adam: Most of them are on board now. But I wanted to combine a lot of my passion, which is music.

Adam: I played drums in punk band and I wanted to do that.

Adam: And then at the venue we're going to

Adam: be at my band played and i was sitting there

Adam: and you can see newport from the from the venue like when

Adam: you're playing the show like i'm on the drum kit you can

Adam: see newport in the background and i'm thinking imagine if

Adam: you're on this thing giving a presentation about fly tying

Adam: as you can see the bay in front of you like

Adam: how much better is that and of course there's already booze on site and that

Adam: just makes things a little more more interesting um stories get a little more

Adam: elaborated you know the fun began so to speak so i think it's just a great combination

Adam: of what we love you know in one way or the other yeah.

Marvin: And so you know let's do you know you know you want to share some of the tires

Marvin: that have committed to the event already.

Adam: Sure i won't go down the full list but

Adam: um i'll go i'll name some of the we got tim tim flagler's

Adam: the main guy um he's going to do a presentation on

Adam: what i don't know yet but you know it's i'm sure he'll have something cool for

Adam: you and then uh the second uh fella doing a presentation is joe cordero with

Adam: the flat wing um he's a rhode island staple new england staple in my opinion

Adam: um he'll have his books and some you know obviously he's going to bring all

Adam: the chicken feathers for you um and then,

Adam: a few other names um my buddy

Adam: rob will be there who i mentioned the guy who i really look up to in

Adam: time and i don't have

Adam: a full list on me right now but yeah i'll send you the list and

Adam: you can put it on here but um a lot of great tires that you would see at the

Adam: fly fishing shows normally as well so a lot of jersey guys a lot of guys from

Adam: new england uh sergeant bass fisher is coming um so that'll be the deer hair

Adam: guy and we kind of have all the bases covered trout uh salt water,

Adam: and warm water for you know it's not just a one-stop shop um it's more than

Adam: that it's you're going to learn everything it's it's it's not just salt water

Adam: it's not just trout it's well-rounded tires yeah.

Marvin: And it's interesting too because i think the great thing about these kind of

Marvin: smaller or tying events is that

Marvin: you know you get to really spend a lot of one-on-one time with the tires.

Adam: Yeah that's that's a huge piece i wanted to include

Adam: so i've been i kind of just made the decision about two hours ago i'm gonna

Adam: do it in um like a bench format you know as you would see it some of the where

Adam: people can sit down in front of you versus just stand there awkwardly um so

Adam: they can just sit down with you and you know you can run them through a pattern

Adam: like kind of like the salvo show in Arkansas,

Adam: but like where you can actually spend 25 minutes with someone's here.

Adam: And I'm just standing there gawking over them.

Adam: You can sit down, have a conversation, sip your beer or water,

Adam: whatever you're into. And, um,

Adam: you know, have that discussion with them, you know, and everyone will be there

Adam: available, you know, to tie.

Adam: I forgot to mention Bart Lombardo is also going to be there with his buddy, Lou and a panfish guy.

Adam: And he's something special. I love that guy.

Marvin: Yeah. Very neat. And so, you know, in terms of kind of a run of the day,

Marvin: you know, you're going to have two presentations and then just kind of open time.

Marvin: Have you got kind of anything else going on you want to share with folks?

Adam: Sure. Yeah. We got, um, we have, um, a couple of vendors, Squint Tape,

Adam: which is David Nelson and his wife Steph's company.

Adam: We're going to have tons of raffles.

Adam: Another company called High Guys Fly Co.

Adam: They're going to be selling materials, bucktail, chicken, all sorts of stuff.

Adam: So we'll have two or three vendors there, raffles from TFO Rod,

Adam: Nod, Oros Bobbers, or Strike Indicators, sorry.

Adam: Angler's Coffee, all sorts of goodies. EP kicked in huge with a massive amount

Adam: of materials for everybody.

Adam: Yeah, it's going to be nice. We've got tons of raffles, and all the proceeds

Adam: from the raffle are going to Project Healing Waters.

Marvin: Very, very neat. And so if someone wanted to either attend the event or,

Marvin: you know, if you've got an open tying slot, grab one of those.

Marvin: Where can folks go to get more information?

Adam: Sure. You can go to the RI fly dash page on Instagram, or you can just email

Adam: me and I'll, um, I'll send the, I'll send you the email for that.

Adam: You can tag it on with this, but, um, yeah, it's, it's going to be huge.

Adam: It's going on July 13th. Um, uh, it's 10 to five and it's a, it's a one day thing.

Adam: So it's, and there's a food truck on site, so you can't be there.

Adam: It's, you can hang out all day for all your fishing needs. Yeah.

Marvin: And your, uh, your craft beer needs to, right?

Adam: Exactly. Yeah. Awesome brewery. Yeah.

Marvin: And so, you know, uh, I will drop that link, uh, in the show notes for you,

Marvin: but then also too, I know you're kind of scaling back, but I'm sure people can

Marvin: go to the tying flies for them.

Marvin: Um, if someone has a, if someone has a burning desire to give you money for

Marvin: flies, where should they go?

Adam: Yeah just hit me up on instagram and in my um in

Adam: my bio i have my website which is um anchor flytackle.com and you can you know

Adam: i limited the amount of flies are on there but there's plenty of options and

Adam: hit me up i'll tell you whatever you want to i don't i don't mind doing custom

Adam: orders still i just you know from now until july it might be a little delayed

Adam: but i'm happy to do it yeah.

Marvin: Or it may cost a premium right.

Adam: No no i'll get it done i just just just beware i'm a little distracted at the moment.

Marvin: Yeah. And so, you know, is there anything else before I let you go this evening,

Marvin: Adam, that you want to share with our listeners?

Adam: Oh no, just, just, um, have an open mind. Um, don't have a huge ego and really

Adam: try to embrace any knowledge that anyone's willing to, you know,

Adam: gift you, you know, from,

Adam: from a nobody to important people at shows, you know, just, just be willing

Adam: and always be willing to learn, you know, that's huge in my books is why I'm doing the show.

Marvin: Yeah. And it's an amazing thing too. I mean, I think these kind of smaller time

Marvin: events are great because it's so hard, you know, if you can't make a Sunday

Marvin: morning at one of the fly fishing shows to kind of get that one-on-one time

Marvin: with the tires, it's, it's, it's, yeah,

Marvin: it's one of the reasons why I like the fly tying symposium so much.

Adam: Yeah, no, it's, that's good. That's why I like, that's why I wanted to do it

Adam: is because you could just, you can get that one-on-one that you,

Adam: that you want, you know, it's, it's how do you learn that pattern?

Adam: What did you do? You know, where'd that thread go?

Adam: Okay. Show me that again. You know, technique is more or less what I want people

Adam: to get down when they get to come and hang out with these people.

Marvin: Yeah, got it. And so, you know, Adam, what's the best way for folks to follow

Marvin: your adventures at the vice and on the water?

Adam: Sure. Yeah, just Instagram, adam.hortonberry. That's the main spot.

Adam: Facebook too, just my name.

Adam: Yeah, hit me up on there and have a conversation. Let's have fun.

Marvin: Yeah, and you've got everything in that link tree on your Instagram profile

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

Adam: Oh, thank you very much.

Marvin: Yeah.

Adam: Appreciate it.

Marvin: Well, listen, I probably won't see you before your event, but I wish you all

Marvin: the success in the world.

Marvin: And hopefully I will see you in 2025 or maybe like right before Thanksgiving

Marvin: in 2024 at the Fly Tying Symposium.

Adam: Oh, you'll definitely see me there. Appreciate it.

Marvin: Yeah. Well, listen, it's been a blast. Take care.

Adam: All right. Thank you. Thanks, Marvin.

Intro: Well, folks, I hope you enjoyed that as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you.

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Intro: a safe and happy fourth of july tight lines everybody.