I first became aware of Mike Schmidt of Anglers Choice Flies (www.anglerschoiceflies.com) a couple of years ago, through the shadow world of social media. Since then I've become a huge fan of his tying. I have this streamer addiction that must be fed, and Mike's streamers are the stuff of legend.
When I think of Mike, it's easier for me to picture him donning a Viking helmet and pillaging English villages than tying flies - he's a tall guy with red hair and beard that just says "let's burn this place". But once you get to know him, he's the nicest guy on earth. It's like talking to an old college chum, and he is particularly good at making people feel welcome at his table at the Expo. Some tyers are reticent and reclusive, Mike is gregarious and friendly.
I asked Mike the hard questions about being a tyer. You be the judge. I should add that the first four questions I asked were deliberately lame questions I asked him as a joke and he still gave great answers.
Enter to win a half dozen of his streamers and a fly box by filling out the form at the bottom of this post.
FR: Mike- so what’s your favorite fly?
MS: That is a broad
question- I think my favorite fly this last year has probably been a Red
Rocket, just because it has such great movement. It’s a nice pattern that kind of covers a lot
of different species. That and a new one
called a Slap Pig, it’s a big ….
FR: I like the sound of that…
Mike: Yeah it’s the one that’s swimming in the back of the
tank, so you can read about it… (laughs)
It’s very similar to the back end of a Conrad Sculpin and the front end
is very similar to a Deceiver style fly, and you have a bit of an epoxy head
over the front, so it gets really cool movement, it’s easy to cast, it sheds
water right away, and it’s very durable.
FR: What’s your
favorite river?
MS: Uh, my favorite river is still the Au Sable. I love the Au Sable. If I had to narrow it down, to one area I’d
probably- if you twist my arm I’d say the South Branch because there’s nothing
on it. I love the Au Sable, but if I was
going to go up north, then I might go up to the Fox, fish the Fox.
FR: Yeah, I love that river.
What’s your favorite color?
MS: Maize and blue.
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Yeah- Maize and Blue |
FR: Marry, boff, kill… (Mike laughs loudly) Not really Mike-
those were all my joke questions- I owe you better questions than that. So what are the keys to a really great
streamer pattern?
MS: Movement- absolutely movement. Eyes are very important as far as I’m
concerned, especially for a trout fly because I believe that they are an apex
predator that is going to key in on that eye, but the number one thing across
the board is going to be movement. When
I design a fly I’m designing it with different materials that have different
properties in the water so that we have a fly in either a faster short strip,
or a dead drift and still have movement on its own without me doing anything to
it.
FR: Streamer patterns
range from being realistic to pretty outrageous- why do the more outrageous
patterns work?
MS: People have
confidence in them you know? (laughs).
FR: So it’s a confidence thing?
MS: It’s all confidence.
You see some of that crazy stuff, and it’s out to catch people, not to
catch fish. But I think it gets back to
movement, some trigger. If you strip the
fly back to you real fast so that the back of it kind of folds up on itself
like an injured bait fish, let it flutter for a second like an injured fish-
that is a heavy trigger. You’re looking
for those triggers, whether it’s eyes, or a certain movement, or sounds in some
cases. Those are all very important
pieces.
FR: I tie for myself
and I get bored with it sometimes. How
do you keep tying on a commercial basis?
MS: I try not to
think about it.
FR: Do you get a few Wings games in there?
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Pavel keeps tying fresh |
MS: Yes, a lot of sports, a lot of sports. I’m very ADD, so I...
FR: And you’re a tyer? (incredulous)
MS: Yeah. I have to
force myself into just focusing on one thing and I just don’t think about
it. That’s why , while I’m tying I have
to have on the TV and a DVD on my computer of music so that my mind is pulled
in a bunch of different directions and I’m just zoned out, tying away. I get into a groove. I also have a
very addictive personality, and I keep doing it. It keeps me out of trouble and it keeps me
busy.
FR: It keeps you engaged in fly fishing as well?
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getting close to 100 dozen of something |
MS: Absolutely, it
(does). You hear some of the seemingly ridiculous
quotes from some of the guys like A.K. (Best)- A.K. likes to say “you don’t know how
to tie a fly until you’ve tied a hundred dozen of them”, which on its face seems
ridiculous. But there are a lot of flies
that I’ve tied hundreds of dozens of and I still learn, something will click
every now and then that I didn’t even realize I was doing until I think about
it and actually doing these shows does a lot of that for me because while I’m
tying flies someone will ask me “Why did you do that?” and I’ll say “What do you mean?”
“Why did you spin your thread there?” or “Why did you put
your finger there?” or “Why did you twist your wrist just a little bit
differently there?” -- a lot of that I
do without even thinking about it. So I
still… the more you do it the more you learn if you’re paying attention. It drives me to continue, it doesn’t
matter how many times I’ve tied a pattern.
I’ve tied a hundred thousand Meal Tickets, and I still learn tricks
every time I tie a big batch of them; I
still figure something else out to make it easier as a tie.
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it's pretty |
FR: I really like
your winged wets- why do you still tie those?
MS: Why do I still
tie them?
FR: Yes. I’ve never fished winged wets, but why…
MS: They’re pretty.
FR: They’re pretty?
MS: Yes. You know, my
majors were both in visual communication.
I was an animation and illustration double major. I’m a database jockey for a telecom company
now. I needed that artistic outlet, that
was why I originally got into tying flies, was that it was an artistic,
outdoorsy thing to do…
FR: That’s why I got
into blogging.
MS: There you go, something to keep you involved. Once I started tying commercially, I wasn’t
tying so many of the pretty flies, though a lot of them are gorgeous, and
others are just utilitarian. I try to
tie something artistic at the end of each night, so I started tying one winged
wet fly at the end of each night, so that I just have something artistic as an
outlet, and something else to push a skill I wouldn’t get anywhere else. Thread control is probably most important
with winged wet flies. You get that
thread control down you can use that across everything else. It made me a better tyer across the
board. I don’t fish them that often to
be perfectly honest. I do still fish
them in the spring. There’s a couple of
patterns I think fish very well in the spring when the bugs are starting to get
a little more active and move around.
I’ll tie them down to size tens and twelves, and dead drift or swing
them just like soft hackles. Most of the
winged wets now wouldn’t be as effective the way they’re tied now versus the
way they used to be tied. The way
they’re tied now everyone tries to imitate, and I do the same thing, to sell
them, and for display purposes, I tie them with a very clean throat underneath,
when in fact the original versions were almost certainly tied in palmer, with
the hackle circling all the way around.
Almost as if you were tying a soft hackle over the top of a wing. The ones that I fish are very natural
colors. Olives, tans, blacks, and I do
palmer; instead of doing a throat I do a
full collar for fishing. They fish
really well that way. I do fish
them, a little bit, but I still tie them
because, it teaches you thread control, you’re using a very fine thread, having to compress everything into a short
amount of space to do it right.
FR: What do you say
to a heathen like me who ties everything with Gel Spun Poly?
MS: I hate Gel Spun
Poly.
FR: Really?
the axis of evil |
MS: Ugghhh… I can’t do it.
I use UTC 140 for just about every streamer I tie. 210 is acceptable, there’s certainly nothing
wrong with it. I love to have that
stretch. I use that stretch to my
advantage. If you’re tying under maximum
pressure and you happen to break your thread, if you’re using UTC, the thread
will constrict on itself on the hook and most of the time it won’t come
completely undone. You don’t lose that
whole fly. That stretch also gives you a little bit of extra leeway. You can tie under maximum pressure with it,
and it is still going to get even tighter because it’s always trying to return
back to its resting state. I think it
makes a better constructed fly overall. The
biggest problem I have with the gel spun is not the breaking strength of it, I
think that’s fantastic, that you can really ream down. I wish they could make a gel spun that
stretched. To me I think that stretch is
really important in the thread that constructs a lot of these streamers.
FR: It’s steelhead season- what streamer patterns should I
be fishing?
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a Mike Schmidt Scandi |
FR: So are we going
to fish this year?
MS: Yeah, whenever I can.
I’m going to be in Florida the second half of May, I’ll be in Wyoming in
July.
FR: Will you be
fishing both of those locations?
MS: The wife’s family
is originally from down there, so it’s kind of like a second home for her,
that’s why we go down there every year.
We’re going to go down there, then I’m going to come back, be home for a
week, then fly out and fish with Strolis out in Connecticut, fly
out there and fish with him for four days and then I’ll fly out to Wyoming in
July to do big brown trout streamer fishing.
I guess I’ll throw some hoppers. (Mike
laughs again)
At this point some people walked up to his booth and it
seemed like a good place to end it. I want to thank Mike for letting us into the deranged mind of a tyer. Back to the bench with you!
Support a great guy and tyer, visit his website at
You can keep up with the latest at Angler's Choice Flies at his blog
http://anglerschoiceflies.blogspot.com/
http://anglerschoiceflies.blogspot.com/
Now it's your turn- Mike has put up a half dozen of his streamers and I'm putting up a large Morell fly box to put them in. Enter to win them by filling out the form below. Contest entry closes on Wednesday March 28 at midnight.
Really enjoyed this one as well. I love GSP, but I can see why you'd want something with some stretch, Mike. I mainly use it for dear hair work, and when I'm spinning up a CDC brush for some of the dries I tie.
ReplyDeleteGreat interview. Wish we had some browns down here in Texas for me to throw more of your streamers at, but I'm hung into some big 'bows and a few nice bass with them already!
Matt- come on up when the heat is killing you down there- we'll get some browns. I have bass and bows as well. Glad you enjoyed it.
DeleteI've yet to connect with the 'inner fly tyer' in myself. I like to blame it on my ADD, but after reading this I see my go-to excuse for skipping the fly tying part of my fly fishing is rather weak.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful flies, great interview.
Thanks Rebecca. Glad you entered.
DeleteMaize and Blue fly was simply amazing, possibly the most beautiful thing I've seen. Like ever! ;-) mike
ReplyDeleteUm, let me guess- Alma Mater?
DeleteNice interview. Mike seems like a happy guy that you'd love to fish with.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping I do fish with him this year. Can you believe I blew it twice last summer? I won't let that happen again. "let's burn this place"!!
DeleteMany of Mike's flies have caught my share of large trout and steelhead- especially the Grease Stain. we also share a certain affinity for packing Nutty Bars on long road trips.
ReplyDeleteTight Lines,
Koz
Ah, Nutty Bars- memories. I picked up a few of his flies for my own personal use- I'll be using them shortly.
DeleteMMMMM...NNNnnuuutttyy baarrssss........
ReplyDeleteHad a blast hanging out and doing the interview man, glad people are enjoying it. We will definitely make it happen on some fish this year!
"he's a tall guy with red hair and beard that just says "let's burn this place."
ReplyDeleteI love that metaphor. Keep up the good work.
Thanks Brent. I'll do my best. I'm having a lot of fun with these interviews.
DeleteWhile I have yet to pony up the cash, I have long admired Mike's big streamers from a far. Great interview, Mike and Jason. I have to agree that streamer fishing can be all about confidence. But, a little movement and some excellent color combinations can certainly do the trick, as well.
ReplyDeleteIvan- you are probably THE person I would want to streamer fish with. Do you even know what a dry fly is? Mike is of course my other choice. I have a streamer trip lined up with a guide in two weeks, so I'm hoping for a good day.
DeleteFunny you mention dry flies. So, skwala stoneflies are hatching on the Bitterroot right now. Often seen as one of those hatches that brings big fish up to the surface, all I can think about are all the big and bigger fish that are sitting below waiting for larger meals of protein to come their way.
DeleteSince I started mousing it's hard to get too excited about the Hex hatch. I know what you mean.
Delete