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.

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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.