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

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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.

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Intro: Tight lines, everybody.