Podcast: Fly Tying Innovation with Flymen Fishing Co. How Does Innovation Happen‪?‬

Martin Bawden is the founder, CEO, and head product designer of Flymen Fishing Co.

Recently the "In The Seam" JP Ross Fly Rods Podcast invited Martin to be a guest on their show to tell his story, including living in four different countries and an inside look at how he came to create Flymen Fishing Co.

Through their conversation on the role of innovation in fly fishing you'll learn the backstories of several innovative Flymen products that have revolutionized fly design, such as the original Nymph-Head Bead, Fish-Skull Baitfish Head, the Fly Tester, the Articulated Fish-Spine, and the new Flymen Fly Tying Kits.

Martin Bawden, Flymen Fishing Co. CEO

A Realistic Crayfish Pattern for Targeting Bass, Trout, and Other Freshwater Fish

Everything You Need To Tie 8 Fish-Skull Crawdaddy Flies

The Guide’s Easy Go-to Suspending Fly for Targeting Predatory Fish in Saltwater and Freshwater

Everything You Need to Tie 6 Glass Minnow Flies

Designed to be quick and easy to whip up in your fly tying vise, the Glass Minnow Guide Fly is a lightweight, nearly weightless, imitation perfect for those fishing situations in which you need to suspend your fly in the water column to draw in the predatory fish you’re targeting.

This Fly Tying Kit contains everything you need to tie 6 Glass Minnow flies, including step-by-step tying instructions, to make it easy for you to get your hands on the various needed fly tying materials all in one place.

Included Colors

• Gray & Pink
• Chartreuse & Pink

Included Materials

• Fish-Skull® Fish-Masks
• Fish-Skull® Living Eyes
• Fish-Skull® Chocklett’s Body Tubing
• Kona® Universal Mid-Range Streamer (UMS) hooks
• Marabou
• Hareline® Senyo’s Laser Dub
• Not included: Thread, glue, fly tying tools

The Ultimate Go-To Trout and Bass Pattern With Irresistible Natural Movement

Learn to tie the Skulpin Bunny in today's fly tying tutorial video using the NEW Skulpin Bunny Fly Tying Kit.

This versatile fly has proven itself on rivers worldwide as a fish magnet. Designed to be fished on the river bottom, the Skulpin Bunny can be dead-drifted or slowly stripped to imitate a sculpin and swims in the hook-up position to avoid snagging.

The Skulpin Bunny swims hook up to avoid snagging on the bottom, shown here swimming in the NEW Fly Tester.

The Skulpin Bunny Fly Tying Kit contains everything you need to tie 6 Skulpin Bunny flies, including step-by-step tying instructions, to make it easy for you to get your hands on the various needed fly tying materials all in one place.

Fly Recipe

• Fish-Skull® Sculpin Helmet
• Fish-Skull® Living Eyes
• Kona® Trout Streamer 4XL (TS4) hook
• Hareline® Cross-Cut Rabbit Strips
• Hareline® Straight-Cut Rabbit Strips

Treat the fly anglers in your family and friends to some of the newest fly fishing and fly tying goods from Flymen Fishing Co. this holiday season (or treat yourself, we won't tell anyone).

If you're a last-minute gift shopper, be sure to check out the Flymen Fishing Co. digital gift card!

The Essential Tool For Every Fly Tyer’s Table

Tie → Test → Fish

If you're a fly tyer, you've almost certainly experienced the incredibly frustrating feeling of carefully tying the perfect fly for your next time on the water only to find out on your first cast that your fly doesn't swim well at all.

That's exactly what led to the idea for the Fly Tester.

I spent an entire weekend tying up two dozen of the most beautiful looking streamer flies you can imagine, but when I went fishing the next day first fly I threw in the water swam upside down!

So frustrating!

I'd essentially wasted my entire weekend tying flies that simply didn’t work very well and obviously led to a less-than-ideal day on the water.

If you think about it, we as fly anglers are real optimists; we spend an incredible amount of time designing and tying a bunch of flies, then go straight to the river, throw them in, and hope they work!

I realized that we fly tyers didn’t have any method at the time to determine if the flies we design and tie are any good and in a lightbulb moment I came up with the idea for the first Fly Tester.

In this episode, Henry Cowen returns to update us on striper fishing on Lake Lanier and to tell us about his NEW book on freshwater striper fly fishing. In the second half of the interview, Dave Whitlock joins us. Dave wrote the foreward to Henry’s book and provided several illustrations.

We have limited SIGNED COPIES of Henry's book that you can order here.

Nick Groves' Polarceiver Fly Will Smash Smallmouth Bass and More...

Nick Groves' Polarceiver combines two of my favorite materials, Peacock Herl and Polar Chenille, into an easy-to-tie articulated streamer. 

Utilizing a Fish-Skull Fish-Spine for increased swim action and a Fish-Skull Baitfish Head to help the fly get deep and add a realistic head profile, the Polarceiver has quickly made its way to the top of my list for smallmouth bass fishing!

The popularity of fishing for striped bass in freshwater has exploded as more and more fly anglers have experienced the excitement and intense fishing action that comes with it.

In this episode of The Articulate Fly Podcast with Marvin Cash, Henry Cowen shares his experiences growing up and fishing in New York City, his striper learning curve when he moved to the South and how the gear guys have influenced his fly angling.

Henry is best known for helping to popularize chasing freshwater stripers on the fly and is releasing a new book, Fly Fishing for Freshwater Striped Bass: A Complete Guide To Tackle, Tactics, and Finding Fish.

Available through Flymen, if you pre-order one of the first 250 copies of Henry's new book you will receive a SIGNED COPY from the author! This highly anticipated book has an expected release date to you of October 15!

Not only that, 10 of these pre-orders will win a fly personally tied by Henry Cowen with a personally signed card!

Learn more about Henry's new book and reserve your copy.

If you're used to fly fishing for tarpon in the Florida Keys or other crystal clear flats, then muddy jungle rivers and blown out river mouths probably aren’t high on your list of destinations… but they should be.

The history of jungle tarpon fishing in Costa Rica goes back decades and all of the big name dudes that pioneered saltwater fly fishing experienced its glory.

While adequate scientific research hasn’t been conducted, the tarpon population that is found here is likely to be the largest concentration of adult tarpon on planet earth. Schools of hundreds if not thousands of fish packed outside the river mouth on the ocean side and often found crushing bait along the shores of the river as well.

Taking the Classic Deer Hair Diver to the Next Level

By integrating the new Fish-Skull Chocklett's Articulated Micro-Spine system into a well-established pattern, Braden Sherwood has designed a total winner – in fact, he won the recent Micro-Spine fly tying contest with this fly pattern.

The added movement and taper through the spines in this smaller diver pattern is fantastic.

Get an Inside Look on Fly Tying and Fly Fishing With Blane Chocklett

In this episode of The Articulate Fly Podcast with Marvin Cash, Blane Chocklett shares how he developed the Game Changer fly platform and the journey of writing his new book, Game Changer: Tying Flies that Look & Swim Like the Real Thing. 

Through his over twenty years in the fly fishing world, Blane has continuously pushed to innovate and improve his fly designs, resulting in the Game Changer style of fly design, which has gained a major following among fly anglers for its lifelike realism and productivity in the water.

This is his story.

If you'd like to listen on an app such as Apple Podcasts or Spotify, you can do so through The Articulate Fly.

Learn more about Blane's new book and reserve your copy.

A Good Caddis Pupa Should Be a Staple in Every Trout Angler’s Fly Box

I like Caddis Pupae that are easy to tie, have vibrant colors, and are super quick to drop to the bottom. Tradd Little's Neon Caddis covers all of these bases, and then some.

Tied with a Nymph-Head Evolution tungsten beadhead and the perfectly shaped Kona USP Scud/Pupa hook, this little Caddis Pupa will be all you need.

River Pike: A Somewhat Predictable Creature

River pike are one of my favorite fish species to target on the fly, both fishing for them and guiding clients onto them, pike always give me an extra level of excitement. Rivers, compared to stillwater are more susceptible to changes. Water levels fluctuates faster and make the pike respond in different ways. When you drift down a river it’s a forever changing landscape. Behind each bend could be your new record pike waiting in ambush.

So, what are some helpful tips you can use for targeting river pike?

It's Mousin' Time

If you want to see river monsters crush your fly on the surface and put up a good fight, give the Magic Mouse a go!

Finding the right combination of a realistic yet easy-to-tie mouse pattern is one of the hardest things to do in fly tying, but Adam Kornuth found the Holy Grail in his Magic Mouse.

With a Double Barrel slider head on a Senyos Articulated Shank for Steelhead and Salmon Flies, backed up by the ultra-sharp and durable Kona Universal Strong Streamer hook, The Magic Mouse has everything you need in a great mouse pattern while being simple to tie.