Latest / The Long Haul with The Articulate Fly / S6, Ep 91: Predator Flies and Sparkle Boats: Steve Maldonado's Journey - The Articulate Fly

Transcript

S6, Ep 91: Predator Flies and Sparkle Boats: Steve Maldonado's Journey - The Articulate Fly · The Long Haul with The Articulate Fly

• 0:03
  Intro: Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of The Articulate Fly.
• 0:07
  Intro: On this episode, I'm joined by my friend and tire, Steve Maldonado.
• 0:11
  Intro: You may know him by one of his aliases, Skeeter or Johnny Lunchmeat.
• 0:16
  Intro: Steve and I discuss his sparkle boat days and his ascent down the slippery slope
• 0:19
  Intro: of fly fishing, and we take a deep dive into tying predator flies.
• 0:23
  Intro: I think you're going to enjoy this one, but before we get to the interview,
• 0:26
  Intro: just a couple of housekeeping items. If you like the podcast,
• 0:29
  Intro: please tell a friend and please subscribe and leave us a rating review in the
• 0:33
  Intro: podcatcher of your choice. It really helps us out.
• 0:36
  Intro: And a shout out to our sponsor, Trout Routes. I've known Zach and the team at
• 0:41
  Intro: Trout Routes almost before Zach had a team at Trout Routes.
• 0:44
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• 1:17
  Intro: Now, on to our interview.
• 1:20
  Marvin: Well, Steve, welcome to The Articulate Fly.
• 1:23
  Steve: Thank you, Marvin. Glad to be here.
• 1:25
  Marvin: Yeah, I'm super looking forward to our conversation, and we like to start all
• 1:28
  Marvin: of our interviews by asking our guests to share their earliest fishing memory.
• 1:33
  Steve: Oh, my earliest fishing memory. Well, I grew up in the valley here in southeastern
• 1:37
  Steve: Colorado, probably about a mile from the Arkansas River.
• 1:42
  Steve: My mom still lives in the same house that I grew up in, which is where I'm sitting right now.
• 1:47
  Steve: And, uh, earliest I can remember is, uh, my dad, uh, and I going out to,
• 1:51
  Steve: uh, John Martin reservoir.
• 1:54
  Steve: Uh, I was probably six or seven years old.
• 1:57
  Steve: Uh, nothing fancy spinning rods, worms. We dug up from around my dad's horse corrals.
• 2:03
  Steve: He did a lot of cowboying and, uh, I've been obsessed with it ever since,
• 2:08
  Steve: uh, just fishing and hunting with my dad.
• 2:10
  Steve: Uh, he was hardcore at it and never fly fish, just, uh, fish them worms and
• 2:15
  Steve: a spinning rod but he'd catch a bunch of fish.
• 2:18
  Marvin: Yeah, and so I have to ask you, since you're with your mom, what's for dinner tonight?
• 2:24
  Steve: Probably green chili and homemade tortillas and Mexican rice and the stuff I grew up eating.
• 2:31
  Marvin: Wish I was there. That sounds horrible.
• 2:35
  Marvin: But, you know, one of the things I know, like I know a lot of people know that you were a Marine.
• 2:39
  Marvin: A lot of people know that you're a mechanic for Southwest. And I think even
• 2:43
  Marvin: a lot of people know that you're, you know, you were a high school wrestler,
• 2:46
  Marvin: but I bet a lot of people don't know that before they found you in the fly fishing
• 2:50
  Marvin: world, you were a sparkle boat guy.
• 2:53
  Steve: I was, I was, I was, uh, I was hardcore on the tournament trail.
• 2:57
  Marvin: Yeah. So that was, I guess you started out with Southwest in Texas.
• 3:01
  Marvin: Is that kind of when you were fishing competitively for bass?
• 3:04
  Steve: Yeah. And it actually all started, uh, that got me into the bass deal was when
• 3:10
  Steve: I was in the Marine Corps, uh, was North Carolina station there.
• 3:13
  Steve: And I met, which ended up being my best friend. And I, as a matter of fact,
• 3:16
  Steve: when he retired, I got him hired at Southwest and his dad was a,
• 3:20
  Steve: a tournament bass fisherman back in the, the Bill Dance and Roland Martin days.
• 3:25
  Steve: And he was from, uh, uh, Port St. Lucy, Florida fished. I mean, as a pro on the St.
• 3:30
  Steve: John's river and all that. So Sean, you know, had a dad that was actually,
• 3:34
  Steve: you know, on the bass tour and he's, you know, he showed me everything that,
• 3:38
  Steve: uh, I needed to know in North Carolina.
• 3:40
  Steve: We were there for three years bought a john boat together and rented
• 3:44
  Steve: a motor on base and and we just fished all
• 3:47
  Steve: over have lock and all the rivers there and and uh
• 3:50
  Steve: got out went to texas and
• 3:53
  Steve: and uh started fishing a lot and and uh
• 3:57
  Steve: started winning some tournaments and got you
• 4:00
  Steve: know got picked up i was fishing uh uh team
• 4:02
  Steve: tournaments on you know bass champs bud light trail uh
• 4:06
  Steve: in texas for a well a bunch of
• 4:09
  Steve: years i was there for 20 something years uh you know
• 4:11
  Steve: i lived uh you know probably 15 minutes
• 4:15
  Steve: from lake world famous lake fork it's uh if anybody knows about you know anything
• 4:19
  Steve: about bass fishing uh out of the top 50 bats ever caught the united states i
• 4:24
  Steve: think like 38 of them come from this lake um and uh i was you know ended up
• 4:31
  Steve: fishing these tournaments and did really well and And, and.
• 4:35
  Steve: Uh, my partner, Sean Burris was an amazing angler and, and, uh,
• 4:39
  Steve: you know, we were runner up for Angler of the Year several times.
• 4:42
  Steve: And, you know, I ended up getting sponsored by Denali Rods and,
• 4:45
  Steve: and, uh, P-Line and Shimano.
• 4:48
  Steve: And, you know, it was, uh, uh, ended up running the boat for RH Landing.
• 4:54
  Steve: They got me the boat. All I had to do was fish out of it. I had a 21-foot Legend
• 4:58
  Steve: 211 Alpha, 250 Mercury Pro XS, and power poles, and HDS touchscreens, and anything I wanted.
• 5:06
  Steve: I just asked for it, but I was doing well enough where I could do it.
• 5:11
  Marvin: Yeah, that makes it a whole lot easier to buy the truck to pull the boat, right?
• 5:16
  Steve: Exactly. And, you know, it all ended when I moved to Colorado,
• 5:21
  Steve: and it was kind of a – it was like almost a meant-to-be deal because I was kind
• 5:26
  Steve: of looking into what was going on in Colorado. I'm living in Denver,
• 5:30
  Steve: you know, working at DIA.
• 5:31
  Steve: I would have to drive to Pueblo, which is lengthy, which, you know,
• 5:34
  Steve: when you're a bachelor, it really don't matter.
• 5:36
  Steve: But kind of, you know, they have some different rules here, like no wake legs
• 5:41
  Steve: and stuff like that. Well, you know, you got a 250 on there.
• 5:45
  Steve: You're waking before you get it on plane, and it's almost –,
• 5:51
  Steve: It kind of meant to be because when I got rid of all that stuff before I came
• 5:55
  Steve: up here, I told Phil right off the bat, I said, had I not done that,
• 5:59
  Steve: I said, I would never met you.
• 6:01
  Steve: I mean, you probably wouldn't be talking right now because I said I would never have been fly fishing.
• 6:06
  Marvin: Yeah, that's neat. And so for folks that don't know, that is Phil Ratstinkawani.
• 6:13
  Marvin: So that means you get to officially keep Skeeter if we ever get that project off the ground.
• 6:18
  Steve: Yeah.
• 6:19
  Marvin: So how did you kind of get into fly fishing? You know, I guess,
• 6:23
  Marvin: you know, you move, you're not going to competitively bass angle anymore.
• 6:26
  Marvin: You know, when did you get the itch?
• 6:29
  Steve: Well, actually, I was still working for Southwest, living in East Texas.
• 6:33
  Steve: And one of my great friends down there, J.B. Jarvis, we were running buddies down there.
• 6:37
  Steve: And he said, hey, man, let's go to Beaver's Band and let's go try some fly fishing.
• 6:42
  Steve: I said, where's that at? and uh we went
• 6:45
  Steve: up there and got some uh from the
• 6:48
  Steve: bargain cave if everybody remembers that at cabela's we went and
• 6:51
  Steve: got some old junk stuff over there i don't even know what kind of
• 6:53
  Steve: rods or reels we had we got uh tried
• 6:57
  Steve: tying our own flies and and uh went up there well it's a bunch of stalkers and
• 7:02
  Steve: uh then you just i mean you throw a cigarette butt out there and they'll eat
• 7:06
  Steve: it but uh we were throwing these ugly flies that we were tying and man we thought
• 7:09
  Steve: we were the catch now and uh that That was around 2009,
• 7:14
  Steve: and we went up there once, and we were hooked on it.
• 7:17
  Steve: We had no clue what we were doing at all, but these stalker fish were eating,
• 7:22
  Steve: and we kept going back more and more.
• 7:25
  Steve: It's just kind of what started it. Like I said, I had no clue what I was doing.
• 7:30
  Marvin: Yeah, that's neat, and of course, it's lucky for you. I think the Denver metro
• 7:35
  Marvin: area is one of the trout fishiest places in the country in terms of the resource
• 7:40
  Marvin: and the shops and all that sort of stuff.
• 7:42
  Steve: Right it is it is it's it's phenomenal it's just absolutely phenomenal the there's
• 7:47
  Steve: so many options uh you never even have to you know i mean you kind of have to
• 7:52
  Steve: uh plan where you're gonna go because it just it just gets in your head and
• 7:55
  Steve: you're like wow so many places i could go yeah.
• 7:58
  Marvin: And and so you know that i guess that's about 15 years ago you know who are
• 8:02
  Marvin: some of the folks that have uh mentored you on your fly fishing journey and
• 8:06
  Marvin: what have they taught you.
• 8:07
  Steve: Without a doubt phil,
• 8:11
  Steve: uh filani is uh number one on the list uh uh that was a kind of a meant to be deal too i mean uh,
• 8:20
  Steve: moved up here with southwest uh and i seen a
• 8:23
  Steve: big billboard going back home where i was staying before i actually sold my
• 8:27
  Steve: house in texas and uh said fly fishing show and i'm thinking oh wow i have to
• 8:31
  Steve: check that out and it was at the denver mart didn't know nothing about it uh
• 8:37
  Steve: I went there on a Saturday, and there was a jillion people.
• 8:43
  Steve: And I got my ticket, and I walked around, and I'm just looking around, and this place is huge.
• 8:50
  Steve: And Tammy, my wife, says it was meant to be. I said, because I could have went
• 8:54
  Steve: straight, I could have walked left, and I ended up going right.
• 8:58
  Steve: I seen a wall with people sitting against the wall, and I was like,
• 9:02
  Steve: man, these guys are kind of flies.
• 9:03
  Steve: Eyes and i walked around the
• 9:06
  Steve: corner and uh there was one guy that
• 9:09
  Steve: had just a bubble of people around you can't even see the
• 9:11
  Steve: guy and i was kind of standing up you know kind of short like the
• 9:14
  Steve: hobbit and i was trying to see who this guy was
• 9:17
  Steve: and i'm thinking there's no way i'm going to get up there so
• 9:20
  Steve: i i walked to the end and for
• 9:22
  Steve: some reason instead of just keep on going i turned around and
• 9:25
  Steve: a little uh bubble of people was dispersing i'm
• 9:28
  Steve: like i'm gonna walk back here because obviously this guy's somebody because
• 9:31
  Steve: there's a ton of people around this guy and i
• 9:34
  Steve: walked by and i kind of peeked at him and uh
• 9:37
  Steve: he does the same thing uh like jimmy
• 9:40
  Steve: houston told people he wanted you know something that
• 9:43
  Steve: catches more fish goes hey he goes you want me to show you a fly little catch
• 9:46
  Steve: a bunch of fish and i'm like sure and uh we've been best friends ever since
• 9:52
  Steve: he uh asked me where i worked and i told him i just moved here did you know
• 9:56
  Steve: do you fly fish and And I remember him saying, well, do you eat a tie?
• 10:00
  Steve: And I said, not like that.
• 10:03
  Steve: And I said, I'm pretty horrible at it. And he's probably, you know, one of my...
• 10:11
  Steve: Biggest mentors that showed me everything about nymphing and the small flies
• 10:15
  Steve: and the mending and the you know everything that's the streamer game for me
• 10:20
  Steve: came later that was kind of my own deals um another one is rick takahashi uh
• 10:25
  Steve: rick taught me so much about tying making stuff perfect uh,
• 10:31
  Steve: and he's such a humble guy and that humbleness is really roughed up on me uh
• 10:36
  Steve: you know as a as a bass Bass guy, he could really be kind of a smarty pants.
• 10:42
  Steve: And that's way different than any of the guys that I know now.
• 10:47
  Steve: But there's a whole array of them. Scott Stisser, he's probably one of the best
• 10:51
  Steve: tires I've ever been around.
• 10:53
  Steve: He taught me so much about just making flies perfect.
• 10:57
  Steve: He does Atlantic salmon flies and just watching him and him explaining how he
• 11:04
  Steve: does stuff and kind of taking me under his wing and explaining just how perfect
• 11:09
  Steve: you have to make these things.
• 11:11
  Steve: And it's over time and talking to these guys, it's kind of cool when I could
• 11:18
  Steve: tie 20 flies and I can have three guys that can, you know, really tie in front of me or watching me.
• 11:23
  Steve: And I can throw those 20 flies up in the air and let them hit the table and
• 11:26
  Steve: they won't know which one I tied first and which one I tied last because they look exactly the same.
• 11:31
  Steve: That's to me is what these guys have done for me.
• 11:34
  Marvin: Yeah, that's super neat. And so how long ago was it that you met Phil?
• 11:40
  Steve: This will be the 11th year that I met Phil.
• 11:44
  Steve: I've been here at DIA for 11 years. So yeah, it's been just that 11 years.
• 11:49
  Marvin: Yeah, it's interesting. I can remember going to the Denver Fly Fishing Show,
• 11:55
  Marvin: you know, gosh, it was probably, I don't know, three or four years before COVID
• 12:00
  Marvin: when it was still at the Mart. And that was a neat place.
• 12:03
  Marvin: And I was always super impressed because you could get a Bloody Mary first thing
• 12:07
  Marvin: in the morning and walk the show.
• 12:09
  Steve: Oh, they were so good.
• 12:11
  Marvin: I will say Robert at the Gaylord makes great Bloody Marys, too.
• 12:15
  Marvin: So, folks, if you're at the Denver Fly Fishing Show this coming year,
• 12:18
  Marvin: look for Robert and tell him Marvin said to make a Bloody Mary for you and he'll hook you up.
• 12:25
  Marvin: So, it's interesting to you, right? So, you know, you've got this kind of,
• 12:28
  Marvin: you know, conventional background, come back to Colorado, but I know you chase
• 12:32
  Marvin: a lot of stuff on the fly now.
• 12:34
  Marvin: And so, I was kind of curious, you know, what's your favorite species to chase on the fly? Yeah.
• 12:40
  Steve: Uh, like on the fly period.
• 12:43
  Marvin: Uh, yeah, on the fly period. And if you need to, I'll give you two cause I feel generous this evening.
• 12:48
  Steve: Uh, my number one is tarpon. Hands down is my number one is, is fishing for tarpon.
• 12:54
  Steve: Uh, of course the next would be, you know, hard to beat, you know,
• 12:58
  Steve: just some big old Browns.
• 13:00
  Steve: It's, uh, you know, and they're right up there with carp, carp to me.
• 13:03
  Steve: I just soap on, but, but yeah, it's, uh, I'm obsessed with the tarpon fishing.
• 13:07
  Steve: And i i go quite a bit every june with a friend of mine that the guys down there
• 13:12
  Steve: and it's just uh that's got me uh i don't know it's got me whack over them yeah.
• 13:19
  Marvin: It's kind of crazy it's kind of i would say that's probably one of the apex
• 13:24
  Marvin: site uh fishing experiences you can have because i can't think of a bigger fish
• 13:28
  Marvin: that uh you know people are pursuing on the fly that you get to watch you eat like that, right?
• 13:33
  Steve: Oh, yeah, yeah. And I think this June I jumped, well, I got some to the boat,
• 13:38
  Steve: but it was 24 that I got in a week period. It was insane.
• 13:43
  Marvin: Yeah, that's good clean living, Steve.
• 13:45
  Steve: Oh, yeah.
• 13:47
  Marvin: So, and in terms of, like, trout places in Colorado, do you have a favorite river you like to fish?
• 13:53
  Steve: The Eagle. It's my favorite.
• 13:56
  Marvin: And what makes it special for you?
• 13:59
  Steve: It's just... Uh, well, it's, it's, it's kind of special because Rim Chong goes there.
• 14:05
  Steve: Me and Phil and Rim go fish there a lot. And, uh, uh, that's another guy that's
• 14:10
  Steve: just one of my favorite guys to be around.
• 14:13
  Steve: He's so humble and he's so patient. He's taught me just patience and he's, he's so funny.
• 14:19
  Steve: Him and Phil get after it. Like, uh, oh, like Grumpy Old Man.
• 14:23
  Steve: That's like the odd couple, Walter Matthau and Jack Lim.
• 14:26
  Steve: And it's so funny the way they tease each other. But I go to the Eagle because of that.
• 14:32
  Steve: They like to fish a lot, and it just turned into be one of my favorite rivers.
• 14:36
  Steve: There's so many good places to fish there.
• 14:40
  Steve: You don't have to drive. You look very far. There's a lot of fish in that river.
• 14:45
  Marvin: Very, very neat. And, you know, it sounded like you kind of were bitten by the
• 14:49
  Marvin: fly tying bug at the same time you started, became fly fishing curious.
• 14:52
  Marvin: But was it really, you know, meeting Phil, say, 10, 11 years ago that kind of
• 14:57
  Marvin: made you decide that you really wanted to get serious about it?
• 15:01
  Steve: It was. It was, you know, like I said, I started it, you know,
• 15:04
  Steve: in 09 with my buddy JB when we started going to Oklahoma.
• 15:07
  Steve: But honestly, it's, you know, when I met Phil, that's when my life changed forever.
• 15:14
  Steve: It was, it was special.
• 15:15
  Marvin: Yeah, that's pretty neat. And
• 15:17
  Marvin: so do you remember the, your first vice and the first fly you tied on it?
• 15:22
  Steve: Oh yeah. It's, uh, uh, an HMH. You got it out at, uh, the bargain cave once again in Texas.
• 15:28
  Steve: And, uh, my first fly was a really ugly hair's ear.
• 15:32
  Steve: And a matter of fact, I still have that original fly, uh, you know,
• 15:36
  Steve: and a couple of other originals because Tammy said, you know, keep your fly.
• 15:39
  Steve: She goes, you might get better at this. She goes, that one's kind of ugly.
• 15:41
  Steve: She goes, but you'll always be able to look at your first fly.
• 15:44
  Steve: And now it's, I have that one in a shadow box. And then some of my uncle flies, I'm like, wow.
• 15:51
  Marvin: Yeah, which is, I mean, it's a pretty cool process to kind of get there in 10 years.
• 15:55
  Marvin: I mean, a lot of people, you know, quote, tie their entire lives and never,
• 15:58
  Marvin: you know, really make a lot of progress, right?
• 16:01
  Steve: Mm-hmm.
• 16:02
  Marvin: And so what do you tie on today?
• 16:04
  Steve: Day uh you know as i got better uh i was uh don talked to me from uh regal at
• 16:11
  Steve: one of the shows and uh i got picked up by regal and and don's been good to
• 16:16
  Steve: me and that's that's probably been,
• 16:18
  Steve: oh maybe eight years uh that i've been on a regal and and uh he's such a great
• 16:23
  Steve: guy that old that old regal family is uh is awesome and and you know the streamers
• 16:29
  Steve: that i tie uh you know it's it's uh I'll never change vices.
• 16:33
  Steve: I'll never even look at nothing.
• 16:34
  Steve: And I've been, you know, approached by all the big guns and Renzettis and all them.
• 16:42
  Steve: And I tell them, no, just I'm not even interested.
• 16:45
  Steve: It's, you know, Don's real good to me. And I really like the Regal for my style of tying.
• 16:52
  Marvin: Yeah. And is it basically the jaw mechanism and how tightly it clamps those
• 16:57
  Marvin: big hooks? Is that kind of what you like about the Regal?
• 17:00
  Steve: Yeah. It's just a pull the handle, let it go. And the, the, the hooks in there,
• 17:04
  Steve: there's no knob adjust in or no, you know, none of the stuff it's,
• 17:08
  Steve: uh, um, and you know, and I tie big flies and, you know, if I need some 24s,
• 17:13
  Steve: uh, I'll just get them from Phil.
• 17:16
  Marvin: He'll have that little, uh, that little drug dealer Ziploc bag that he carries with him.
• 17:20
  Steve: Yeah.
• 17:23
  Marvin: Um, and, uh, he'll, he'll set you up, uh, for sure.
• 17:28
  Marvin: Or the, um, that's funny. And so, you know, I know you mentioned Scott Stisser
• 17:32
  Marvin: and Rick Takahashi and Phil, but, you know, you know, I, those guys are,
• 17:38
  Marvin: you know, to me, they're kind of, I mean, Scott, not, not really.
• 17:41
  Marvin: Cause he does a salmon fly thing, but like, you know, Rick and Phil are to me
• 17:44
  Marvin: are like, you know, mountain West fly tires.
• 17:46
  Marvin: Right. But, but you're, you know, when I think of you and I know you've got,
• 17:50
  Marvin: you know, trout, you know, buggy trout patterns with thumb quote,
• 17:53
  Marvin: but I think of you as a predator dude, right?
• 17:55
  Marvin: Yeah. And so, you know, who are some of the tires that you kind of follow,
• 17:59
  Marvin: you know, on that predator fly front?
• 18:03
  Steve: Oh, I mean, that's such an easy list for me. It's, of course,
• 18:06
  Steve: one of my friends, Kelly Gallop, Blaine Chocolate, of course.
• 18:09
  Steve: But that whole group, Russ Madden, Strolis, you know, Alex Lofka, Chad Johnson, Schmidt.
• 18:18
  Steve: On that end, and, you know, I tie with all those guys at the Streamer Love Test.
• 18:23
  Steve: Steve Daly's another one.
• 18:25
  Steve: Just how can you not follow these guys? I mean, it's just meet,
• 18:28
  Steve: you know, meet greatness is what I call them.
• 18:33
  Marvin: Yeah dude it's uh it's kind of all those guys are kind of crazy it's kind of
• 18:36
  Marvin: funny as you're kind of ticking through the names i was lucky you know some
• 18:39
  Marvin: of the guys that travel more i i've been able to kind of spend time with but
• 18:43
  Marvin: i mean a ton of those guys were up at schultz's event at bob in the hood yeah.
• 18:48
  Steve: Yeah it's uh i was on the back burner for that i'm hoping i get in this year
• 18:53
  Steve: i was i was late getting uh when i was uh um just they were waiting for somebody
• 18:59
  Steve: to drop out and i I would have got in. Hopefully I get in there this year.
• 19:02
  Marvin: Well, fingers crossed. It's a fun time. And, dude, that is, you know,
• 19:06
  Marvin: folks, if you are about Predator streamers, that is an insanely awesome event.
• 19:12
  Marvin: It's, you know, it's not huge. You get to spend time with everybody.
• 19:15
  Marvin: It's a lot of fun. The culture at Schultz Outfitters is a great culture.
• 19:20
  Marvin: And, you know, they, you know, it's not just fly. They do gear, too.
• 19:24
  Marvin: And just a super, super great kind of old school way a fly shop should run.
• 19:28
  Marvin: And, you know, Steve, one of the things I'm always interested about,
• 19:32
  Marvin: you know, when you get, you know, fly designers as opposed to fly tires,
• 19:35
  Marvin: right, is, you know, tell me a little bit about kind of your design philosophy,
• 19:40
  Marvin: you know, for Predator flies and kind of what you think it takes to make an
• 19:45
  Marvin: effective Predator fly. Okay.
• 19:47
  Steve: Uh, my, my philosophy on that, I mean, it really, uh, uh, about like my whole
• 19:54
  Steve: thing with, with my tying style now, I mean, uh, my predator stuff goes back
• 19:58
  Steve: to my, you know, fishing the bass days.
• 20:00
  Steve: And, and when I really started to, to think about doing this,
• 20:04
  Steve: uh, I was thinking if I can make a fly mimic a fluke or a jerk bait,
• 20:08
  Steve: which is my style of retrieving, uh, I would have something.
• 20:12
  Steve: And so, I mean, that was my whole process, you know, when I sit at the bench, uh,
• 20:16
  Steve: um, and I mean, you know, the head, the tail and the, the, the articulation,
• 20:21
  Steve: uh, um, all that to me plays, I mean, it plays a lot into the, into the fly.
• 20:28
  Steve: Uh but you know being on the bass tour i mean it's uh i mean if i threw a fluke
• 20:33
  Steve: out there and i just reeled it in i wouldn't get nothing it's it's it to me
• 20:38
  Steve: it's all about the retrieve.
• 20:39
  Steve: It's it's really getting that fly to to make it do stuff um um it's kind of
• 20:47
  Steve: hard to explain for guys that don't gear fish i mean it's uh um it's real funny
• 20:52
  Steve: because people look at me when i'm when when I'm a streamer fishing,
• 20:55
  Steve: cause it's just a whole different thing.
• 20:58
  Steve: It's the people that do the, and I mean, no offense with the way people do stuff,
• 21:03
  Steve: but I mean the strip, strip, stop, stop, strip, strip, strip.
• 21:07
  Steve: Yeah. That's not even in my vocabulary.
• 21:09
  Steve: It's, it's all like fishing a jerk bait. You want to make that fly move with
• 21:14
  Steve: your rod, not with your line. All you're doing with your line is just taking up slack.
• 21:19
  Steve: If you can pop that fly and make it move with your rod tip, up.
• 21:23
  Steve: And not even mess with the line then you're gonna
• 21:26
  Steve: you're gonna you're gonna start catching a bunch of fish and that's when you you
• 21:29
  Steve: know make fish bite uh that really don't
• 21:33
  Steve: want to bite uh but i put all that in my my
• 21:36
  Steve: you know my predator fly kind of deal so to me it's just
• 21:39
  Steve: uh it always reflects to my best days and
• 21:41
  Steve: how my patterns are going to react you know with my style of you
• 21:45
  Steve: know uh retrieving you know whether it's in
• 21:47
  Steve: a you know current slack water which i love to fish uh
• 21:50
  Steve: slack water for big trout with a lot of people in
• 21:54
  Steve: the drift boat will just zip right by it and uh zip right
• 21:57
  Steve: by some of the biggest fish they're around um so i put a lot of hours of testing
• 22:02
  Steve: into into these flies just uh to see if they'll retrieve like i want them to
• 22:07
  Steve: look and i do a lot of on the you know whatever you call it on the bank tuning
• 22:11
  Steve: and the drift boat tuning i mean sometimes i'll hack them down to nothing yeah.
• 22:17
  Marvin: I mean and so so for people that know like if they've watched,
• 22:20
  Marvin: you know, conventional guys fish, I mean, I can see you basically retrieving
• 22:24
  Marvin: line and pumping the rod tip, right?
• 22:26
  Steve: Yes. Yes. And, and, and, uh, really it's, uh, that's all you're doing.
• 22:29
  Steve: I'm, I'm just holding that rod tip down and I'm pumping that rod tip.
• 22:32
  Steve: And if you see my hand coming back, it has nothing to do with moving that fly.
• 22:36
  Steve: It's just getting the slack out of the way.
• 22:38
  Steve: So I can keep that line tight to the fly. And, and, you know,
• 22:41
  Steve: I go back to, you know, um,
• 22:44
  Steve: one of the quotes in Kelly Gallop, you know, uh, like I said,
• 22:47
  Steve: to me it goes to the retrieve but you know ellie always said you know fish aren't
• 22:51
  Steve: looking to see how many things are wrong with your fly they're looking to see
• 22:54
  Steve: how many things are right with your fly but in the end it's the retrieve is
• 22:58
  Steve: what makes it effective yeah.
• 22:59
  Marvin: And so with that pump you're basically what you're getting is you're getting
• 23:02
  Marvin: a left right darting but you're also getting kind of that kill where kind of
• 23:06
  Marvin: the tail kind of crumples over the head.
• 23:07
  Steve: Yeah exactly so i'm i'm basically trying to walk the dog under water and i'll
• 23:13
  Steve: pop pop pop and i'll kill it and then pop pop pop and I'll kill it.
• 23:16
  Steve: And then usually it'll, that fish will come and you'll see them come and you'll
• 23:21
  Steve: pop, pop, pop. And they're interested.
• 23:23
  Steve: And it's not like a tarpon. When you miss it, you miss a strip, they're gone.
• 23:26
  Steve: Uh, they'll see that thing start fluttering like it's wounded.
• 23:29
  Steve: And as soon as you give it another pop pop, they, they can't stop.
• 23:32
  Steve: They just eat it. It's a, it's pretty incredible.
• 23:35
  Marvin: It's like Doritos.
• 23:37
  Steve: Yeah.
• 23:39
  Marvin: But it's interesting. So, you know, if you're, you are not, uh,
• 23:43
  Marvin: animating the fly by stripping, does that mean that you're, does you're getting
• 23:48
  Marvin: that, the swim action that you want, probably not with a lot of articulations
• 23:52
  Marvin: and probably with more of a waiting and kind of head design in the fly?
• 23:56
  Steve: Yeah, it's, it's really the, the head design, uh, to me that makes a, a huge difference.
• 24:02
  Steve: Uh, when I do the heads, uh, and I've told people this when I do all my,
• 24:06
  Steve: my time demos and, and, and just in general, um, if you watch my videos, is when I put the eyes on a,
• 24:15
  Steve: I want them eyes just sticking out where they're almost goofy looking when you
• 24:20
  Steve: look at the fly from the front.
• 24:22
  Steve: The worst thing you could do to me, I mean, that I've noticed is people put
• 24:25
  Steve: eyes on, they squeeze them together, and it just kills the action of the fly.
• 24:31
  Steve: The way I put my eyes on makes my jungle junkie.
• 24:35
  Steve: I mean, you can tie one that's white where you can do it clear water and just
• 24:38
  Steve: pop it, pop it, pop it, and it's basically just zigzagging back and forth underwater
• 24:43
  Steve: like a zero spook on top. but it's doing it under the water.
• 24:47
  Steve: And I've tried it all kinds of different ways here in this, you know,
• 24:50
  Steve: evergreen lake that's clear as a bell.
• 24:52
  Steve: And I've squeezed the eyes a little bit, squeezed down a little bit more and
• 24:55
  Steve: you get to a point where that thing just goes sideways.
• 24:58
  Steve: And I mean, it's just, it's, you know, it'll sell the fishermen,
• 25:03
  Steve: but it won't catch no fish.
• 25:06
  Marvin: Yeah. So it sounds like you like a wedge head, right?
• 25:09
  Steve: Yeah. Kind of like a wedge head.
• 25:11
  Marvin: Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's super neat. because it's always interesting it's
• 25:15
  Marvin: like you know some people love articulation some people are tying you know swim
• 25:19
  Marvin: flies and it's the weight right uh and.
• 25:21
  Steve: You know.
• 25:22
  Marvin: They're they're wrapping the the hooks with lead wire to kind of get the get
• 25:26
  Marvin: that kind of kill that they want but you know you mentioned the jungle junkie
• 25:30
  Marvin: and i know that's kind of the pattern i know there's the jungle junkie junior as well um.
• 25:34
  Steve: Yeah but.
• 25:35
  Marvin: Uh tell me a little bit about the fishing problems you were were trying to solve
• 25:39
  Marvin: when you designed that fly.
• 25:40
  Steve: Uh well i mean
• 25:43
  Steve: yeah that it was uh it was
• 25:46
  Steve: basically just uh what i was wanting to
• 25:50
  Steve: do is is get a fly that i could uh pretty much
• 25:54
  Steve: walk the dog uh underwater uh and just
• 25:56
  Steve: make it do the jerking motions that a
• 25:59
  Steve: fluke does uh almost kind of like you
• 26:02
  Steve: know some of blaine's you know stuff when when the t-bone you
• 26:05
  Steve: know when you jerk that that thing just go sideways um and
• 26:09
  Steve: i wanted something like that that i could work fast under
• 26:12
  Steve: the water just pop pop pop pop pop and and uh and one
• 26:15
  Steve: that i could do it every time uh you know that wouldn't roll over on its side
• 26:19
  Steve: sometimes and you know you have to dry it out and then you know you'd fish it
• 26:24
  Steve: and it'd come be it you'd be okay that's it and i'll send it roll over on its
• 26:27
  Steve: side it took a lot of a lot of uh trial and error and getting like to get the
• 26:32
  Steve: head right and the amount of material
• 26:34
  Steve: uh to get that thing right um and and like i said it's a it's a fish catching
• 26:40
  Steve: machine i mean landon's wore it out in argentina and i've had it in brazil with pat dorsey and,
• 26:45
  Steve: and uh uh nick from lamson took it to argentina i said it's the best you know
• 26:50
  Steve: i had a bunch of magazines but it's uh you got to do your part uh with the with
• 26:56
  Steve: uh you know and i had told these guys about the retrieve it's uh it's a cool
• 27:00
  Steve: fly but if you do the strip strip stop uh it probably going to be one of your worst enemies.
• 27:06
  Marvin: Yeah. And mentioning that, does that then mean that you like to fish a rod that's
• 27:10
  Marvin: probably more like a bass rod that's stiffer in the tip?
• 27:14
  Steve: Not necessarily, because Loomis has that NRX, that 8-foot by 6-inch,
• 27:20
  Steve: and it's built for fishing off the boat where you can hold your rod down and
• 27:24
  Steve: pop it like a jerkbait rod.
• 27:27
  Steve: But it's got some flex in it, and it has to have a soft tip somewhat so you can work that fly.
• 27:37
  Steve: Eye if it's if it's uh if it's too stiff um it'll just uh it'll it'll pretty
• 27:43
  Steve: much just start scooting towards you and it doesn't give it the chance to really
• 27:46
  Steve: go to the side by side uh when they came out with that rod it was like yeah
• 27:51
  Steve: i gotta have it it's uh it's phenomenal yeah.
• 27:53
  Marvin: It's interesting because i think about like how you know a lot of the rod companies
• 27:56
  Marvin: have these like you know medium fast to the fast side of the action and the.
• 28:01
  Steve: Those tips.
• 28:02
  Marvin: Tend to be like particularly like of a troutier ride they tend to be softer like nothing wrong with.
• 28:06
  Steve: Them it's just not.
• 28:07
  Marvin: The right tool right for that job um.
• 28:10
  Steve: Exactly but.
• 28:11
  Marvin: You know back to the to the design on the jungle junkie so you know what was
• 28:15
  Marvin: the secret sauce in the head was it the shape or the material or kind of a combination of the two i.
• 28:21
  Steve: Think it was the street it's a it's uh and that fly is just strictly a
• 28:26
  Steve: little bit of a tail and uh american tide flies aaron letero makes this uh magnum
• 28:32
  Steve: dub and uh it's it's just longer than the short the seniors won't do it uh i
• 28:39
  Steve: mean there's nothing wrong with the laser dub uh i don't ever use it it's too
• 28:42
  Steve: short for for streamers for big streamers it's just uh,
• 28:46
  Steve: It doesn't do right, and, you know, you could pile it on and pile it on,
• 28:50
  Steve: and then, you know, you're really in a mess because your flies don't work right.
• 28:54
  Steve: But it's all about the head that makes this thing and the way you put the eyes on.
• 29:01
  Steve: If you squeeze the eyes whatsoever, it just doesn't work.
• 29:06
  Steve: And, you know, I got a lot of pics of my flies facing you, and the eyes are
• 29:10
  Steve: really flared out sideways.
• 29:11
  Steve: Ways and and uh it's just the way the hydraulic works and
• 29:15
  Steve: the water push uh it's uh
• 29:18
  Steve: it's pretty phenomenal uh the way the hydraulic uh uh push affects the way that
• 29:24
  Steve: fly just pops from side to side and it does it repeatedly and it never tilts
• 29:28
  Steve: to one side or the other it just stays uh it just stays straight and and and
• 29:34
  Steve: uh and uh man they come and they sure come and get it yeah.
• 29:37
  Marvin: It sounds like You need a new sticker when you're tying next show season in
• 29:41
  Marvin: 2025 that says, don't squeeze the eyes.
• 29:44
  Steve: Yeah.
• 29:47
  Steve: I've had people come over there when I put it on my little clip and set it there.
• 29:51
  Steve: First thing they do is they pick it up and they squeeze the eyes.
• 29:54
  Steve: And I tell them, I said, you can have that.
• 29:56
  Steve: Really? And I'm like, well, yeah. And then they walk up and I go,
• 29:58
  Steve: well, that ain't going to work.
• 30:02
  Marvin: So was the Jungle Junkie the first pattern that Umqua Feather Merchants picked up from you?
• 30:08
  Steve: It was it was the first one uh uh that
• 30:11
  Steve: they picked up and it was uh yeah and
• 30:14
  Steve: it was a different name i designed it for
• 30:17
  Steve: a pike fly because you know i do love to pike fish and you know i do it here
• 30:21
  Steve: i do it and my wife from michigan i pike fish a lot and uh it was a pike fly
• 30:26
  Steve: hands down i mean that was no uh no you know joking around uh and when i went
• 30:32
  Steve: there to umpqua to turn it in uh that's That's when the late Dave Student was there.
• 30:36
  Steve: And, man, was he tough. It was...
• 30:41
  Steve: He looked at it and uh he liked it immediately i mean usually they yeah would
• 30:45
  Steve: do the waiting period and the whole thing i mean they didn't just pick it up
• 30:47
  Steve: like it made instantly but,
• 30:50
  Steve: when he uh when i found out that the committee picked
• 30:52
  Steve: it up uh he called me and uh i went in there to see him and and i had so much
• 30:57
  Steve: respect for him it just uh it was just he just seemed like the guy you didn't
• 31:01
  Steve: want to play with and he said stevie goes we're gonna you know pick up your
• 31:05
  Steve: flag goes uh but uh i want to change the name on it i said i don't care what
• 31:09
  Steve: you call it you put it in your catalog, you can call it whatever you want.
• 31:12
  Steve: And he said, we're going to try it as a South America fly. He goes, I think it'll be great.
• 31:18
  Steve: He goes, and sure enough, he goes, how about we call it the Jungle Junkie?
• 31:22
  Steve: And I said, that's awesome.
• 31:23
  Steve: So I can't tell people that I named it. It was Dave that changed the name on
• 31:27
  Steve: it. And man, it's just been a wildfire fly.
• 31:32
  Steve: You know, Yellow Dog says it's one of their top South America flies that they sell.
• 31:38
  Marvin: That's super cool. So what was, you know, kind of stepping back a little bit,
• 31:41
  Marvin: kind of what's that normal kind of UMQA selection process for, uh, what's it like?
• 31:48
  Steve: It's tough. I mean, it is, uh, it is tough.
• 31:53
  Steve: Um, it just, it's, yeah, it's so tough to say the least.
• 31:57
  Steve: I mean, the best hires in the country on this thing and, and it's,
• 32:00
  Steve: uh, and actually the guys that pushed me towards this was Rick and Phil.
• 32:04
  Steve: They were, Rick was probably the biggest pusher of it.
• 32:09
  Steve: One of the fly tying shows and I had this, that very fly.
• 32:14
  Steve: And when I showed it to him, he goes, what? He goes, you gotta admit,
• 32:18
  Steve: nobody ties flies like this around here. He goes, it's all tiny stuff.
• 32:21
  Steve: And I said, he goes, you need to go find Dave and show him that fly. And I said, who?
• 32:29
  Steve: And, you know, I went to meet him and then went through the process.
• 32:31
  Steve: But, I mean, it's just, you know, me and Phil always joke about,
• 32:37
  Steve: you know, getting through Dave's student, you know, going through the gauntlet.
• 32:41
  Steve: We called it going through the gauntlet. You made it through him, and the fly was perfect.
• 32:45
  Steve: I mean, it's not that they're not now, but, I mean, he was tough.
• 32:47
  Steve: And then you got the whole process of the committee. Most are on the,
• 32:50
  Steve: you know, U.S. fly fishing team, Josh Graff and Russ Miller.
• 32:53
  Steve: And there's just a bunch more. It's just really tough, you know.
• 32:58
  Steve: And what people don't realize is just because you have a fly in the catalog
• 33:01
  Steve: doesn't mean you're a shoo-in.
• 33:02
  Steve: I mean, me as well as a bunch of other people, you take your Umpqua Hot Shot
• 33:07
  Steve: and you're going in there going, hey, I got another fly that's been,
• 33:09
  Steve: and they're just like, yeah, we don't like that one. And you're like, what?
• 33:13
  Steve: So it's tough.
• 33:14
  Marvin: And so, you know, for tires that aspire to have Umpqua or another shop pick
• 33:20
  Marvin: up their flies to produce, do you have any tips for them?
• 33:26
  Steve: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I mean, it's.
• 33:30
  Steve: Number one would be just.
• 33:32
  Steve: Open up your imagination and stick to your guns and sit there at the vice with
• 33:37
  Steve: the bare hook on there and just, just think about, just open up your imagination,
• 33:41
  Steve: put your imagination and put it on the hook.
• 33:44
  Steve: And, and, um, you know, that's number one. Uh, number two would be, uh, tie a lot.
• 33:50
  Steve: Tie every day if you can, even if it's just a little, a little fly,
• 33:54
  Steve: uh, um, you know, just tie a lot and refine your techniques, uh, with, uh, you know.
• 34:02
  Steve: Thing i got from kelly you know is your thread pressure
• 34:05
  Steve: your thread pressure is the number one priority to
• 34:09
  Steve: make everything perfect uh that that to
• 34:12
  Steve: me trumps everything is thread pressure you know
• 34:15
  Steve: keep my you know an eye on that
• 34:18
  Steve: uh and number three would be
• 34:20
  Steve: fish them a lot you know uh like i said do some you know some bank trimming
• 34:25
  Steve: weekend take some scissors with you uh and you know i'm talking streamers you
• 34:31
  Steve: know and fish them a lot and i mean fish a lot and sometimes you don't have
• 34:35
  Steve: to be fishing for a fish just don't you know see where you can how you retrieve that fly
• 34:38
  Steve: and if it's doing you know not kind of what you want it to do it's got to do
• 34:43
  Steve: exactly what you want it to do uh and you know that's a recommendation and i just tell people i mean,
• 34:49
  Steve: if you stop at any point and say oh man that's close enough for me it ain't
• 34:53
  Steve: good enough i'll tell you that right now it's got to be right and it's got to
• 34:57
  Steve: be exactly like you make it you want want it to be yeah.
• 35:01
  Marvin: Because they've got some serious anglers are going to go out and fish those flies right.
• 35:04
  Steve: Oh unbelievable unbelievable yeah.
• 35:07
  Marvin: And so if we come down to you know down down from mount olympus down to where
• 35:12
  Marvin: all the mere mortal fly tires live.
• 35:13
  Steve: Um i.
• 35:15
  Marvin: Always like to ask you know people like you and phil and you know people that
• 35:19
  Marvin: production tie you know if you have like three tying tips that you can share
• 35:23
  Marvin: you know again with us mere mortal tires that can kind of help us you know know,
• 35:28
  Marvin: make our life at the vice a little bit better.
• 35:32
  Steve: Um just uh i mean three tips to make you better tire yep uh,
• 35:39
  Steve: tie something every day if you possibly can i mean it's uh um and and don't get too uh,
• 35:47
  Steve: don't get too sucked in the rabbit hole uh with you know a bunch of uh you know
• 35:53
  Steve: techniques and and watching you know just you know there's there's so much stuff
• 35:59
  Steve: you can watch and so So many guys you can watch, uh,
• 36:02
  Steve: like the list that I gave out that I follow.
• 36:04
  Steve: And I mean, just get a little bit from each of them and, and, uh, make your own way.
• 36:09
  Steve: Uh, it's just, uh, you know, that's, that's another one.
• 36:13
  Steve: And, and, uh, just, uh, have confidence in what you're doing.
• 36:17
  Steve: I mean, just, uh, and don't give up and just, just, you know,
• 36:20
  Steve: get better at it and, and just, that's it.
• 36:24
  Marvin: Yeah. How, how about, um, so I know you do a lot with like, uh,
• 36:28
  Marvin: deer hair and things like that. had any tips for like handling hair um that you can give folks.
• 36:33
  Steve: Uh get good thread uh you know it's a you know just get strong thread and make
• 36:41
  Steve: sure that you clean your hair i mean it's just you can't clean it enough uh
• 36:46
  Steve: there's always an under for you know just just you can't get it completely clean.
• 36:51
  Steve: Um, and I, I don't really spin my hair at all.
• 36:56
  Steve: Um, it's, uh, I get just a gigantic clump and, uh, um, I just,
• 37:02
  Steve: I just, I stack it, kind of stack it, but I stack it around the whole hook and,
• 37:07
  Steve: and then I'll make a three wraps and I'll just, you know, pull it tight.
• 37:10
  Steve: And, uh, to me, it works a lot better. I tie a lot of mice, you know,
• 37:14
  Steve: uh, like we talked about the night fishing.
• 37:16
  Steve: I mean, I tie a lot of mice with caribou hair and, uh, that works better than
• 37:21
  Steve: spinning. It's more consistent, uh, when you do that, uh, learn how to do that.
• 37:26
  Steve: Um, and, and it's, uh, it's, it's easier and it's way more consistent.
• 37:31
  Marvin: Yeah. And then in terms of like, you know, uh, like dubbing,
• 37:35
  Marvin: are you, you know, I know you mentioned that, uh, like laser dub was too short,
• 37:39
  Marvin: right. For the jungle junkie.
• 37:40
  Marvin: Uh, are you, are you spinning noodles or are you doing dubbing loops?
• 37:46
  Steve: Uh, I do, I do dubbing loops. Yeah.
• 37:49
  Marvin: Got it. Uh, anything you want to share with folks there?
• 37:54
  Steve: Yeah. Don't make them too long. You can make a loop way too long and it just,
• 37:59
  Steve: and there again, that goes back to your thread control.
• 38:02
  Steve: Um, you can always put another one on there.
• 38:05
  Steve: Uh, so don't try to get everything on at once.
• 38:08
  Steve: Uh, if you can't handle the, you know, the, the thread pressure,
• 38:13
  Steve: where it's the same, make a short loop.
• 38:15
  Steve: And a lot of times, all you need is a short loop.
• 38:19
  Steve: And just make sure as you're wrapping around and you're preening everything back,
• 38:25
  Steve: just make sure your thread pressure stays the same all the way around there
• 38:28
  Steve: because you don't want to have a slide that's a couple of wraps of tight thread
• 38:32
  Steve: and then you got three or four of loose thread and then tight thread because
• 38:35
  Steve: a tooth will get in there and it's over.
• 38:39
  Marvin: Yeah, it'll become loose and broken thread.
• 38:42
  Steve: Absolutely. Yeah.
• 38:44
  Marvin: So, you know, doing the dubbing noodles, have you ever, I mean,
• 38:48
  Marvin: do you venture into kind of brush land or have you kind of stayed out of the brush world?
• 38:52
  Steve: No, I figure some brushes. I mean, the brushes are kind of cool.
• 38:55
  Steve: And I have the little Stompo Turbo Twister.
• 38:59
  Steve: I make a lot of my own brushes, especially for the big pike flies because I
• 39:03
  Steve: can get these things that just look nasty. And, and, uh, you can't buy it.
• 39:06
  Steve: You can't buy those kind of brushes, uh, that you can create on your own.
• 39:10
  Steve: And, uh, um, you know, that's just, uh, I really do like making my own.
• 39:16
  Marvin: Yeah. It's funny you say that. That reminds me of seeing David from squimpage
• 39:20
  Marvin: flies and Edison making brushes. And that was a pretty amazing thing to watch.
• 39:24
  Steve: Oh yeah. Yeah. Cause you look at it and you're like, man, you can't even buy
• 39:27
  Steve: nothing like that. And you can't.
• 39:30
  Marvin: Yeah. And I mean that whole, you know, to me, I think that makes me think about
• 39:33
  Marvin: Bob Popovich and, you know, him solving that size mass problem in fly fishing.
• 39:38
  Marvin: And it's just amazing, like beast flies and stuff like that.
• 39:42
  Steve: Oh, yeah, yeah. It's pretty amazing.
• 39:44
  Marvin: Yeah. So I know you're a tinkerer, right? And so I know, like,
• 39:50
  Marvin: people that tie a lot, they're always playing around.
• 39:52
  Marvin: Like, they've either found a material that they're experimenting with or they're
• 39:57
  Marvin: trying to figure out a new way to glue their fingers together with the latest
• 39:59
  Marvin: resin. And what are you playing around with on your time bench right now?
• 40:05
  Steve: Oh, right now it's a Semperfly came out with some new, new stuff.
• 40:09
  Steve: It's, uh, uh, just, well, they have a whole bunch of new, their,
• 40:13
  Steve: their, their stuff is so amazing.
• 40:14
  Steve: Uh, they got a bunch of new stuff they come out with for, I'm,
• 40:17
  Steve: I'm messing around with streamers, uh, um, with, uh, just some of their dubbing. That's like crazy long.
• 40:24
  Steve: And, and, uh, uh, some of their chenille, that's just the colors is just crazy.
• 40:28
  Steve: And they have so many different lengths of it.
• 40:31
  Steve: Um, so I'm, I'm, I'm messing around with that right now. And,
• 40:34
  Steve: and, uh, it's been working pretty good.
• 40:37
  Steve: It's, uh, I'm working on a new top water, uh, frog, you know,
• 40:41
  Steve: for bass, you know, uh, I can get over to Texas and, uh, you know,
• 40:45
  Steve: hit the lily pads and, uh, fish around that thick hydrilla and,
• 40:49
  Steve: uh, it's going to be weedless and it's, uh, and it's articulated.
• 40:52
  Marvin: Oh, there you go.
• 40:54
  Steve: Yeah.
• 40:55
  Marvin: Yeah. That's funny. Cause I was, uh, I was talking to some guys from,
• 40:59
  Marvin: uh, rather outdoors when we were flying back for my cast and you know they were
• 41:03
  Marvin: uh i was like the space alien right because i was a fly fisherman and and so
• 41:08
  Marvin: uh you know i was telling them that there are some instances where the fly rod
• 41:12
  Marvin: is a better tool and to me fishing lily pads is one of those oh.
• 41:17
  Steve: It's it's hands down awesome.
• 41:18
  Marvin: Yeah you know and i just like and they're like well why is that i was like well
• 41:21
  Marvin: guys because you don't have to bring everything back to the boat every time
• 41:23
  Marvin: i was like dudes when you're done just lift it and put it back yeah.
• 41:27
  Steve: Yeah it's uh you know and
• 41:30
  Steve: then with you know like i said with that with that technique i use for the
• 41:33
  Steve: streamers here for trout i mean it's the same thing you know i would do you
• 41:36
  Steve: know with the frog uh you know on a bait caster and you get that rod down and
• 41:41
  Steve: you just pop it you can zip it in between lily pads pop it on another one zip
• 41:44
  Steve: it off pop it on another one uh you know you try doing the strip strip strip
• 41:48
  Steve: that ain't gonna work i've tried it.
• 41:52
  Marvin: Yeah Yeah, you might make a salad. Yeah. So the other thing I like to ask super
• 41:57
  Marvin: avid tires is, you know, I bet you that you have some super oddball tool that
• 42:03
  Marvin: you may have even made yourself that you can't live without.
• 42:07
  Steve: I can even without a doubt tell you that's that stupid finger brush I have.
• 42:12
  Marvin: Is it a cat brush? Is that what that is?
• 42:16
  Steve: No, it's like an Enrico Poblisi. It looks like a dog brush, but it's just big
• 42:20
  Steve: enough that you can put your finger in it.
• 42:22
  Steve: And, uh, it's just for, for brushing out streamers and brushing out dubbing
• 42:27
  Steve: and care or whatever that little finger brush is just, uh, uh,
• 42:32
  Steve: yeah, I mean, it's, uh, it's funny. It's a, they ever quit making their luck with time.
• 42:38
  Marvin: Yeah, it's funny. So you're the second person probably within the last two months
• 42:44
  Marvin: that had mentioned that as their favorite tool.
• 42:47
  Marvin: Adam Hortenberry, I interviewed him to help him promote his flytine event,
• 42:52
  Marvin: the Rhode Island Fly Bash.
• 42:53
  Steve: Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 42:54
  Marvin: That's his favorite tool. And I think, you know what I think it is? I think it's a cat brush.
• 43:00
  Steve: Yeah. And it's, it looks like a cat brush. It's just, you can put,
• 43:03
  Steve: you can put it on your, you know, your finger index finger, middle finger,
• 43:06
  Steve: wherever, and just, uh, it does the best job for brushing, brushing,
• 43:09
  Steve: dubbing out. It's just ridiculous.
• 43:11
  Marvin: Oh, well, there you go, folks. And, you know, so I know you're chasing Tarpon,
• 43:16
  Marvin: you know, you've been down in South America, Central America,
• 43:19
  Marvin: you know, do you have any kind of travel or hosted trips you want to share with our listeners?
• 43:24
  Steve: Yeah, you know, it's a, I got some open spots, you know, if anybody's interested,
• 43:29
  Steve: I'm hosting a trip with, to Brazil, you know, on Rio de Lua,
• 43:34
  Steve: October 18th through the 27th with Nomadic Waters and Michael Williams.
• 43:39
  Steve: And let me tell you what, what a great organization.
• 43:42
  Steve: Michael's just top-notch. His guides are, you know, when I went over there with
• 43:47
  Steve: Pat, I mean, these guys are the best in the business for doing what they do.
• 43:52
  Steve: And Michael's operation with the cooks and the way you get treated and the equipment
• 43:57
  Steve: is, you know, talking boat stuff because, you know, you're taking your own fly.
• 44:01
  Steve: But they supply stuff if you don't have them.
• 44:04
  Steve: And for people out there that don't fly fish and say, you know,
• 44:07
  Steve: I want to give that a shot.
• 44:09
  Steve: They got spinning reels and all the hard baits and, you know,
• 44:16
  Steve: sassy shad, whatever it is they have.
• 44:18
  Steve: But it's top notch and it's unbelievable.
• 44:22
  Steve: The five days we were there, there was, I think, six of us fishing.
• 44:27
  Steve: And they keep their little baseball clicker because they get back to the main
• 44:31
  Steve: boat and they argue about who's the best guide.
• 44:32
  Steve: And it's funny. They're just like us. You just can't understand them.
• 44:35
  Steve: It's hilarious. And, uh, I think we landed over 3000 fish in, in five days.
• 44:41
  Marvin: Yeah. It's interesting too. And Michael does a great job. And I think the great
• 44:45
  Marvin: thing, you know, it starts with great people, right?
• 44:48
  Marvin: You know, Mike, it does, you know, Michael and his U S team are great.
• 44:52
  Marvin: The people he has down there are great, but I also would say,
• 44:54
  Marvin: you know, his approach makes fishing in a very inhospitable place,
• 45:00
  Marvin: very comfortable with the houseboat and kind of running off the boat.
• 45:05
  Steve: Very comfortable and and uh it's uh like i said if anybody wants to get a hold
• 45:09
  Steve: of me on that i got spots open uh we're only taking eight people on this trip
• 45:13
  Steve: i'm hosting so it's not going to be a boat full of people um i said i got a
• 45:17
  Steve: few spots if you're interested get a hold of me and uh,
• 45:20
  Steve: and grab a 10 weight and it's on there.
• 45:23
  Marvin: You go and uh you know is there anything else steve before i let you go to get
• 45:26
  Marvin: to your green chilies because i know you told me i know one thing that you should
• 45:29
  Marvin: you tell me about is your trip to Ireland, but is there anything else?
• 45:33
  Steve: Oh, yeah, well, you know, just, I mean, the basic, you know,
• 45:36
  Steve: stuff that did this, I tell,
• 45:37
  Steve: you know, people to get better, just, you know, start fishing a lot and tie
• 45:44
  Steve: more and, you know, and really go out and try to, you know, dissect your river,
• 45:50
  Steve: your lake or wherever it is you're fishing.
• 45:52
  Steve: Fishing and uh um you know it's just
• 45:55
  Steve: uh um you'll know when you
• 45:57
  Steve: arrive when you really start you know uh getting to the
• 46:00
  Steve: point where uh you know you're going
• 46:03
  Steve: to try to find the fish it doesn't want to be found and then you know get
• 46:06
  Steve: your ability to the point where you can catch the fish that doesn't want to
• 46:09
  Steve: be caught and that's just uh one of the things and you know one of the things
• 46:14
  Steve: i always tell people at my seminars uh when i do the tie-in at demos or you
• 46:19
  Steve: know it's out wherever i go and i get up there and and uh i tell people getting
• 46:25
  Steve: bites builds confidence,
• 46:27
  Steve: and confidence builds more bites and that's what it's
• 46:30
  Steve: all about you know find your confidence streamer settle down and fish it and
• 46:34
  Steve: every time you go to the river you're going to get a little bit better uh and
• 46:38
  Steve: don't be afraid to switch it up you know and and and barrier retrieves clear
• 46:43
  Steve: water versus dirty water high
• 46:44
  Steve: water low water you know find out what they want feed it to them and And,
• 46:48
  Steve: you know, just find yourself a simple system and make it work for you.
• 46:52
  Steve: And, you know, I always tell people at the last, you know, last part of that.
• 46:55
  Steve: And I said, don't use your line to move the fly.
• 46:58
  Marvin: Yeah, those can be fighting words in some parts. But when do you head across
• 47:02
  Marvin: the pond and go to Ireland?
• 47:03
  Marvin: You were invited to go, Ty. Was it the English Fly Time Fair?
• 47:07
  Steve: Yeah, the Irish Fly Fest, which is in Northern Ireland. And that is...
• 47:13
  Steve: The middle of november we're we're flying into dublin tammy's going with me
• 47:17
  Steve: and uh we're going to rent a car
• 47:18
  Steve: and i made sure they gave me one with the steering wheel on the right side,
• 47:21
  Steve: and which i had to pay extra for so it was i didn't
• 47:24
  Steve: care and uh uh we're gonna drive into northern ireland it's about a two and
• 47:30
  Steve: a half hour drive and uh it's not it's not just a few americans ever get invited
• 47:35
  Steve: to this and uh um i didn't think i had the you know what flies they you know
• 47:40
  Steve: i'm I'm thinking, what am I going to tie up there?
• 47:42
  Steve: Well, they want me to tie my streamers, and that's why I got invited.
• 47:46
  Marvin: Yeah, they want pike flies, right?
• 47:49
  Steve: Yep, they want some pike stuff, big stuff.
• 47:51
  Marvin: Yeah, and so have you started to kind of pencil in your 2025 show season so
• 47:56
  Marvin: people want to come and kind of hang out with you because you'll be sitting
• 47:58
  Marvin: next to Phil, and Rick will be sitting on the other side of Phil, right?
• 48:02
  Steve: Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, Denver show for sure, and we talked, I'm going to do Atlanta.
• 48:06
  Steve: Uh and uh um i can't do the uh the symposium because i think that's the same
• 48:14
  Steve: time i'll be in ireland and uh i'm gonna try to hit a bunch of them uh you know
• 48:19
  Steve: just uh i do the salvo ground up i'm gonna go i get invited every year to do
• 48:23
  Steve: the streamer love fest so that's that's a blast,
• 48:26
  Steve: uh hopefully i make it up to the boxcar this year if i get a you know get a
• 48:30
  Steve: shot for that and uh And that'll be awesome.
• 48:32
  Steve: But I'll hit just a bunch of shows. I'm going to try to hit a bunch and hook up with Landon.
• 48:40
  Steve: And I get such a deal on the rental car with my Southwest deal.
• 48:44
  Steve: And it's nice to hang around Landon. I'm going to go to Virginia again to that.
• 48:49
  Steve: And I'll go back to Texas, New Braunfels. That show was phenomenal.
• 48:52
  Steve: I'll be back down there to that.
• 48:54
  Steve: So there's quite a bit. I'll make sure I post a bunch of them on my website.
• 48:58
  Steve: But I'm going to try to hit a bunch of them.
• 48:59
  Marvin: Yeah, that sounds cool. You have to come hang out in Atlanta in the Articulate Fly Hospitality Suite.
• 49:04
  Marvin: There's always goodies and ample alcohol.
• 49:09
  Steve: Absolutely. Yeah.
• 49:10
  Marvin: And so we didn't touch on this, but you actually will tie custom fly orders
• 49:14
  Marvin: for folks. If folks want to get some flies from you, what should they do?
• 49:18
  Steve: Uh just you can contact me on instagram uh you know it's a maldo at goose killer k-i-l-l-a 67,
• 49:24
  Steve: uh facebook just get on my name send me a personal message
• 49:27
  Steve: and uh um i'll tie whatever you want um and i won't change what you want or
• 49:34
  Steve: try to explain to you something different that i like and i'll tie them exactly
• 49:37
  Steve: like you want them uh and uh just you know any colors you want any style you
• 49:43
  Steve: want uh doesn't have to be streamers
• 49:45
  Steve: or whatever it is i'll tie it for you and just get Get ahold of me.
• 49:47
  Marvin: Yeah. And just because, you know, sometimes fishermen are not great planners.
• 49:52
  Marvin: Um, what's the lead time on your custom fly orders generally?
• 49:56
  Steve: Uh, if you put in, if, if you was to what's today, Thursday. Yep.
• 50:01
  Steve: If you put in, if you put in an order today on a, on a few dozen,
• 50:04
  Steve: uh, maybe even the streamers, uh, I'll have them, I'll have them to you by next, by this coming Friday.
• 50:10
  Marvin: Well, there you go. Yeah. That's that great. You, uh, you've worked those double
• 50:13
  Marvin: shifts at the airport. So you got a bunch of days stacked off, right?
• 50:16
  Steve: Yeah. Yeah, well, you know, I take my stuff over there and I tie it there, too.
• 50:20
  Marvin: Oh, which I forgot to ask you. What's your favorite glue for gluing on door plugs on airplanes?
• 50:28
  Steve: No, it's just Elmer's.
• 50:33
  Marvin: Well, there you go.
• 50:34
  Steve: I think we have a problem with those because we're using wood glue,
• 50:36
  Steve: and I don't think the metal is attached.
• 50:38
  Marvin: Oh, you didn't do the glue joint where you put glue on both ends and let it
• 50:41
  Marvin: dry and then glued it again?
• 50:43
  Steve: No.
• 50:47
  Marvin: Oh, man. But just for the record, you guys don't have any of those airplanes in your fleet, right?
• 50:53
  Steve: We do not. No. Yeah.
• 50:54
  Marvin: I didn't think you had any Boeings, but Lord knows United does.
• 50:59
  Steve: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
• 51:00
  Marvin: Well, that's funny. And so, back to get a little bit more serious before we
• 51:05
  Marvin: go, what's the best way for folks to follow your adventures at the vice and
• 51:09
  Marvin: on the water and in the field? Because you hunt elk, right? Yeah.
• 51:13
  Steve: Oh, yeah. Yeah, I do. I mean, just follow me on Instagram. That's where I post everything.
• 51:18
  Steve: I got a lot of YouTube, but, you know, I got a lot of videos in the works.
• 51:22
  Steve: As a matter of fact, I'm editing some stuff and I'm going to plaster a whole
• 51:26
  Steve: bunch of videos coming up here in about two weeks on just techniques and just,
• 51:33
  Steve: you know, how to put the eyes on and all that stuff.
• 51:37
  Marvin: Well, there you go. And, you know, I will drop all that stuff,
• 51:41
  Marvin: Steve, for you in the show notes.
• 51:42
  Marvin: And I don't want to keep you from dinner, but I really appreciate you hanging
• 51:46
  Marvin: out with me a little bit tonight.
• 51:48
  Steve: No, thank you, Marvin. It's been a pleasure. I always enjoy talking with you,
• 51:52
  Steve: hanging out with you when I see you.
• 51:54
  Steve: And you've got a great show, and I appreciate you even asking me to be on it.
• 51:58
  Steve: I'm honored. I am. Thank you.
• 52:00
  Marvin: Oh, I'm honored to have you. When we're done with the interview,
• 52:04
  Marvin: we've got to get the Eastern-style, North Carolina-style barbecue cook-off calendared up, too.
• 52:11
  Steve: Absolutely. Absolutely. And I'll keep in touch with you.
• 52:13
  Marvin: You bet. Take care.
• 52:15
  Intro: Well, folks, we hope you enjoyed the interview as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you.
• 52:20
  Intro: Don't forget to check out Trout Routes Pro at maps.troutroutes.com.
• 52:25
  Intro: Use A-R-T-F-L-Y-2-0, all one word, Artfly20 to get 20% off your membership.
• 52:33
  Intro: Tight lines, everybody.