sportsMar 4, 202624:46

S8, Ep 14: Crafting Connections: Blane Chocklett on Fly Design and Conservation at Tie Fest

About this episode

Episode Overview

In this Chocklett Factory episode of The Articulate Fly fly fishing podcast, host Marvin Cash sits down with legendary fly designer and guide Blane Chocklett for a wide-ranging conversation covering two central topics: the mechanics and design philosophy behind Chocklett's support disc and spreader dam system, and the upcoming Lefty Kreh's Tie Fest conservation event in Vero Beach, Florida. Blane explains how his support discs — available in round and oval profiles ranging from 6mm to over 20mm — create the water diversion that drives the serpentine, side-to-side swimming action that defines Game Changer articulated flies. Rather than relying solely on fiber tips to generate movement, the supports actively redirect water flow around the body of the fly, producing a realistic fish-like swimming motion that passive designs cannot replicate. Blane also walks through the practical tying advantages: faster construction, easier material distribution, built-in profile tapering and greater fly longevity. The second half of the conversation turns to Lefty Kreh's Tie Fest, a conservation-focused event benefiting the American Saltwater Guides Association (ASGA), set for March 21 in Vero Beach at Carter Andrews's property. Blane shares the vision behind the event — honoring legends like Lefty Kreh and Bob Popovics while cultivating the next generation of anglers — and previews an intimate lineup that includes Andy Mill, Rob Fordyce, Hillary Hutcheson, Carter Andrews, Chase Smith and Fletcher Sams, among others.

Key Takeaways

How water diversion around the body of an articulated fly — not just fiber-tip movement — produces a true serpentine swimming action that triggers more strikes.
Why Chocklett support discs in graduated sizes (6mm through 20mm+) allow tiers to build precise, tapered profiles for different baitfish silhouettes without excess material.
How to choose between round disc supports (cylindrical/sucker profiles) and oval supports (taller, narrower bunker or shad profiles) to match specific forage.
Why the Lefty Kreh's Tie Fest model — small, intimate, conservation-focused — delivers meaningful angler access to fly fishing legends that larger industry shows cannot replicate.
How supporting ASGA through events like Tie Fest funds the fisheries science that policymakers need to protect saltwater species populations long term.

Techniques & Gear Covered

The core technical discussion centers on Chocklett's support disc and spreader dam system as a mechanism for achieving active water diversion and realistic swimming action in articulated flies. Blane explains that while Bobby Popovics' reverse-tie bucktail approach relied on fiber tips for passive movement, inserting support discs into the body of a Beast-style or Game Changer fly forces water to divert around the structure, initiating true left-to-right serpentine motion. The system uses two disc geometries — round supports for cylindrical profiles (suckers) and oval supports for taller, narrower silhouettes (bunker, shad) — in graduated sizes from 6mm to over 20mm, allowing tiers to stair-step profile width from tail to shoulder for a natural taper. Practically, the supports eliminate the need to reverse-tie bucktail and guess fiber length, dramatically simplifying the tying process while also extending fly longevity by preventing bucktail collapsing and thinning out over time. Materials referenced include bucktail, synthetic fibers and TFO rods (Blane is a TFO brand ambassador).

Locations & Species

The episode's fishing-specific travel content focuses on the Alabama Gulf Coast, which Blane describes as a highly underrated saltwater destination where clear Florida-influenced water meets the nutrient influence of the Mississippi Delta. He fished this area out of FlyWay Charters with guide Sam (based near the Community Fly Supply shop), targeting redfish, black drum, tripletail, jack crevalle and sheepshead. The Lefty Kreh's Tie Fest event at Vero Beach, Florida, adds another saltwater context — the Indian River Lagoon and Treasure Coast area known for tarpon, snook and permit, ecosystems that ASGA's conservation work is specifically designed to protect. The episode's conservation framing extends to the broader health of saltwater species populations across coastal fisheries, with Blane connecting healthy fisheries to the long-term viability of saltwater fly fishing as both a sport and a guiding profession.

FAQ / Key Questions Answered

How do Chocklett support discs create a serpentine swimming action in articulated flies?

When a support disc is placed inside the body of an articulated fly, it forces water to divert around the structure rather than flowing straight through the fibers. That diversion initiates a side-to-side, serpentine movement that mimics the natural swimming motion of a baitfish — something fiber-tip movement alone cannot produce. The key mechanism is active water redirection, not passive fiber flutter.

What is the difference between round and oval Chocklett support discs?

Round supports create a cylindrical cross-section ideal for sucker or cigar-shaped baitfish profiles. Oval supports produce a taller, narrower shape suited to bunker, shad or other laterally-flattened forage. By selecting the appropriate geometry and stepping up through graduated sizes from tail to shoulder, tiers can build a precise taper that matches the specific baitfish they are trying to imitate.

How do support discs improve fly durability and ease of tying?

Traditional reverse-tie bucktail construction tends to collapse and thin out over time, degrading fly performance. Support discs maintain the shape and fiber position for the life of the fly. They also eliminate the need to reverse-tie and guess at fiber length, making even distribution around the hook much easier and faster — a meaningful benefit for tiers who don't spend hours at the bench every week.

What is Lefty Kreh's Tie Fest and why does it matter for fly fishing conservation?

Lefty Kreh's Tie Fest is an annual event — revived after Lefty Kreh's passing — held at Carter Andrews's property in Vero Beach, Florida, that combines a day-long outdoor festival with a benefit dinner. Proceeds support the American Saltwater Guides Association (ASGA), which funds fisheries science and advocacy needed to influence policy protecting saltwater species. Blane frames it as both a celebration of the sport's legends and an investment in its future.

What makes the Alabama Gulf Coast a worthwhile saltwater fly fishing destination?

The Alabama coastline sits at a confluence of clear, Florida-influenced water and the productive, nutrient-rich influence of the Mississippi Delta, producing diverse species opportunities in a relatively uncrowded setting. Target species include redfish, black drum, tripletail, jack crevalle and sheepshead across multiple seasons. Blane characterizes it as highly overlooked and a strong destination for anglers seeking variety outside of better-known Gulf and Atlantic coastal fisheries.

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The Articulate Fly — S8, Ep 14: Crafting Connections: Blane Chocklett on Fly Design and Conservation at Tie Fest. Machine-transcribed; use the interactive transcript above to jump the player to any line.

Hey, folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate flying, we're back with another chocolate factory with the man himself, Blaine Chocolate. Blaine, how are you doing this morning? I'm good, buddy. How are you doing? And just trying to stay out of trouble, I think both of us have been kind of running around like chickens with our heads cut off. You've gotten home and you're turning right back around and you're going to travel a little bit and then you're going to ultimately end up kind of towards the end of this month down at Tyfest. Yeah, man, it's grass is not growing under my feet. Just like always, I've already been on the road five weeks this year and it's been great. It's part of what I do and spreading that chocolate factory love and educating people and we've got a lot of things we're working on. But yeah, part of being on the road is kind of sharing what we're doing and bringing it to the communities of our dealers and stuff like that and getting them on board of what

I'm doing. So they have a great understanding of our products and design so they can educate their clientele and another big part of it is me seeing other parts of the world and different fish and fisheries and applying what I've seen in different areas and bringing it to those waters and seeing how fish react because a redfish in one part of the world is not the same as it is in other parts. So it's important for one for me to be able to see that because not looking through keyholes and seeing the broad picture could be clarity of water, pressure of fish, you name it and just seeing how fish react to my patterns in different parts of the world is very important to me and I usually will take what I see in those areas and apply it and with new designs or tweaks or whatever that may be and you know another big part of that too is you know being being on the road so much and trying to keep the family together

and not missing my son's life you know it's important to me to bring them along with me when I came and the opportunity presented itself lately here when we just got back from Alabama and you know it's been a long winter cold winter I've been able to get Tyler out so he was excited to be able to get out in the water a couple days and it was great you know Alabama coastline is highly overlooked and got a buddy down there same glass it flowery charters that I met last year when I was doing some of the jack project stuff and the migration patterns and tagging jacks with Marcus at Mississippi State and got to meet Sam we hit it off and this happens to be from lunchburg which shows you how small this world is and you know we hit it off he's got a little lodge where he hosts people that come in and it's perfect place for us to stay while we were there when we were visiting community fly and supply

down down on the coast down there Alabama fairly new shop but you know they have an online presence they've had for a little while with space coast flies and great great bunch of people and you know did a little bit of a casting demonstration and then then did the normal fly time demos and class and stuff like that so it's just a great area great fishery beautiful water you know you get that influence of Florida clear water and a little bit of that influence from that Mississippi Delta area so it's kind of an area where things kind of merge and get a little bit of everything there and highly recommended for people that are looking for different areas to fish you know it's you know great fishery for redfish black drum different times a year triple tail obviously jack Ravel and sheep's head so it's a it's a great place lava down there the a place that would be

thinking about heading down more often for sure and you know it for me it's important for areas that aren't quite as familiar with my products to to go visit you know it's it's kind of why you know I was up in the northeast because you know being Bobby's territory up there in the beast flies and you know all that tradition you know if it's me it's for me it's important because I fished these fisheries right and I fished them all over and you know you see what the products and designs that I've created do but you know it's sometimes it's hard to beat that tradition you know and people by nature are reluctant to change but for me it's important to kind of not beat beat it in their heads but to really show them why you know why this is different why this is an advancement why this is whatever it may be and that kind of goes into their spreader dams which I'm showing a lot of new people that don't understand that you

know where the difference in reverse tying and how great that is and what a great design that was from Bobby right but the reason years ago with the T-bone design and you know the resilience of Bucktail collapsing over time and skinning out and you spend so much time on a fly that where these spreaders or these dams that I created the supports really help aid and the longevity of those flies right and I know that you had some questions about that and you know for me it's a big part of what I'm trying to do is is really educate people because what I do find out in my travels is you know I put these products out and then people don't really know what to do with them after that yeah it's interesting I mean because I've been lucky enough to you know work with you on all the stuff we did during COVID and you know we fished together and hang out and all that sort of stuff and when I saw the dams come out you know I was always thinking about you know the conversation you and I have about you know water flowing around and through the fly right and one of the big

differences right obviously if you put a piece of plastic with a spreader dam in the body of a fly you're getting zero water flow through and so I was kind of curious if you know that was a problem where there were times you wanted some water going through or if your goal was to absolutely block water going through the body of the fly absolutely so you know with Bobby's design he was trying to get the illusion of mass with castability right and he was relying on the tips of the bucktails to get that tickling flow of movement right um so that was a huge advancement and fly design um and what I picked up you know with the game changer concept in the tea bones years ago but when you start diverting water from the center of the fly not only are you getting the fibers to move but you're also with that diversion of water you're starting to get that you're starting to get more of a realistic swimming action that a fish really makes so without the diversion

of water and water flowing through it you're not you're not going to get that serpentine swimming action because you're not blocking water flow and so as soon as you start diverting water from the middle of the fly that's that's what starts that process of that left to right side to side serpentine action right and um the things that I've learned over the years is through trial and error basically it's mess around and find out um it started put you know putting those pieces of the puzzle together for me and it really adds into Bobby's design it it really you know whether you want to do like a beast style with a diversion of water in the middle that's going to give you more of that serpentine action but if you take that design and then you you kind of go more into the like the bucktail style game changer or even into synthetics you're able to get that bigger profile

silhouette with realism right you can mimic that exact profile of the fish with the tail you know with that you know fish coming up underneath it and seeing that perfect profile and silhouette and that's where I am with it you know and um the thing I have noticed and and have been educated by dealers and um people that have taken the class or classes with me is like you know things that come naturally to me because I designed it it's kind of left on the table for people where they don't really know what to do with it or and or how to stair step a fly from you know a thinner profile in the tail section and gradually building you know body as you go forward towards the head and shoulders right so think of it this way so we have the support discs we have support oval shapes so you can get a taller profile silhouette a little narrower um facing right so more of that

bunker or shad profile but so we have some the round supports where you're able to create more of that cylindrical shape more like a sucker profile or um or you know more of uh any cigar shape type of bait right so we have designs for all types of profiles and silhouettes so you know the whole supports start like it at six millimeter uh and that six millimeters from top to bottom right so the opening of the back so if you think of a cone and you put a bucktail over a cone at six millimeters tall you know and that's so it's going to be a narrower profile right so building forward your building blocks would be you can jump up so if you want a little taller or a bigger profile instead of going to a seven millimeter uh support you might jump up to an eight or non millimeter so you're you're gradually getting that taper that you want when you're building

a B style fly or a game changer style fly without adding a lot of material but you're still diverting water and that's a whole concept behind it and they go on up into the 20 some millimeters so when you get up towards the shoulders and head you're gonna have more of a rise right all the way you know from top to bottom side to side depending if it's a support round disc or an oval shape right so you know i've basically taken um the supports to where you can gradually taper it up right and keep them small like small sizes like you know flies that are under seven inches you would go seven mill nine mill eleven mill twelve mill right so you can build it that way um or you can just gradually taper up you know in consecutive way where you get that you know perfect graduation of size and shape that you're looking for right so um for me you know part of the thing is its castability on flies but for me also is profile silhouette and realistic

movement and this just builds on to what Bobby created years ago um and not only are you getting uh a support that's gonna make the fibers that you use stay like that for the longevity of the fly as long as you don't lose it right so um that was very important to me right so and once we got the ability to be able to do that without using you know the reverse tying of the uh the body tubing that i had forever um this was just a quicker way of doing it and um it's simplifying the tying process you don't have to reverse the bucktail and try to guess what your shape and your lengths of your fibers should be um so now all you have to do is just tie that bucktail in and and spend the bucktail around the supports and you can tell what your tips lengths should be so you can create that tape or much easier and you don't have to use as much materials you can i mean it gives you

the freedom of it it's it's a kind of a prosthetic for fly tires you know we don't have people have busy lives and they don't have a lot of time to to set on the tie and they can get rusty and you know one of the things that's always been difficult with a lot of people with reverse tying is getting everything tied in equal right so you know once out of your bucktail maybe sticking out too far and not not i guess uh behaving with your thread wraps right so not only is this make it faster in a process but it makes it so much easier as well yeah i mean it's none of that you know to your point stuff's not behaving you got to put some resin on it whack it with the light you know it's like you know once you get the length of like the bucktail or the synthetic you want it's really about just getting even distribution around the hook and that's a way easier task than what it used to be right oh it's much easier much quicker much easier and you're you're adding to the swimming action you're not just relying on the tips of the bucktail

so just kind of flutter in the currents or whatever now you're getting a literal swimming action of a serpentine side to side swimming action that a fish makes yeah so all of it's a win-win it's just a matter of educating people and going forward i'm doing i'm in the process and putting videos together on how you do these things and and uh you know that's a big part of what i'm building to is education because education's everything and that's when i'm finding out and more i can educate the people on on on the process and the products that i've designed you know one they're going to understand it better and and apply it to something that they want to create but also it obviously it helps me as a as a as a distributor and as a a retailer to be able to sell more products and be able to create new things and get stuff that you know that's in the hopper to come out later on you know it helps helps me it helps the dealers and helps the consumers

yeah absolutely if we fast forward a little bit you know if folks want to you know one had the opportunity to talk to you about all this stuff and see it all in action you know you're going to be down i guess what is going to be Saturday uh march the 21st down in Barrow Beach at car Andrews place for lefty craze tie fest again right oh yeah yeah that's uh that's a show that's near and dear to my heart you know we did it for years up in um Maryland uh over on the eastern shore uh where you know Tony director of ASGA would put that on um and lefty and bobby and closer and we would all come and do this event every year um with him and um in the name of conservation and you know we uh after lefty passed we kind of just didn't do it and you know as you know i've talked about it for you for a long time you know when we lost bobby it was really important that i that we bring everybody together to celebrate the people that we have

um all the people that's come before us and just get together and celebrate the sport that we love and um you know and and in the process raise money to fight fish conservation and and give ASGA the the ability to move forward and and to get the science that we need to support the policy makers that put it all together and um without that science you can't get anything done and um it's important to me as a father and as an angler and as a guy that we have healthy fisheries and healthy fish populations and that way one our sport does well and um to we have a future for our up and coming anglers like my son who just turned 10 and be able to take him to places and get to see these amazing fisheries and amazing fish and um it's very important um there are so many different aspects of lefty's tie fest you know lefty was always all about conservation and building

the sport and sharing your knowledge and this is an opportunity to give back um and donate time and and get all these amazing uh legends together where we can love on them um just cherish the times that we have because you know a lot of them are aging out and getting older and going away and um we saw that with losing flip this year or last year and you know it's just it's uh becomes more important to me as I get older too as you see these heroes of you of my youth not here anymore and um I want to spend as you know selfishly I want to spend as much time with the ones that we have left and and honor the ones that we've lost and build that future like so the whole premise of uh of of tie fest is to bring together the community and celebrate it but also bring up the up and coming right so it's really important like the chase of this or the world the flutches of the

world um these people are doing really cool stuff and get them involved in this um and have them meet all these great people and industry stuff you know we can't thank yetty enough or then patagonia and scientific angler and and a lot of these big brands that are supporting this event um and a lot helping us and allowing us to do it and of course Carter Andrews is gracious enough to let us do it again at his place and and um you know that and that just embodies what left he was all about I mean he always taught us to um share our knowledge support people that's coming up you know to make sure we have a a bright future and cultivate that right and uh just bring everybody together where we're able to um share our flawed designs or and having people like Andy Mill come in and talking about fighting big big tarpon or you know doing casting

demonstrations or and Rob Floyd Fordis who's you know giving up his time during tarpon season to come up and uh share what his knowledge of fishing however many years he's been guiding down in the keys for tarpon snook permit you name it um all shore stuff and doing demonstrations and and what not you know it's really cool because it's it's not many places in the world where you could bring a bunch of legends together where um people that follow them or or or may have may be heroes of these you know of these people you know the where they can go and hang out and talk to them there's not many places where that happens in our our world I mean it's like we always talked about it how many how often can somebody just go and spend a couple hours hanging out with the bay brooth or Michael Jordan's of the world right and uh you know that's what it was that's what was so special having these type of events where I got to spend time with lefty and pop of vicks

and and clouds or and you name it you know all these legends that we've had over the years and it's just really important I think it means a lot to people to be able to do that and to be able to bring it to Florida and Bureau of Beteria Carter's and having all all the industry come together to support this in the name of conservation and and uh you know what's not to love about it right yeah and I think the thing too that I think you know just kind of you know the brief run of the day is it's kind of an all day thing where there's an outdoor festival followed by benefit dinner but I think to your point I think what people need to understand if that if they can make it is you know this isn't just blame chocolate being able to hang out with lefty for two hours it's a very intimate small event and so it's pretty much anyone that shows up is going to be able to you know it almost reminds me of like some of the smaller time events where you actually really get to talk to people as opposed to those massive shows where you know it's just a massive humanity and everybody's rush rush rush I mean you know if you want to talk to any mill for a half an hour about you know

casting or carpet fishing he'll be there and it's that kind of an event it is yep and that's how we wanted it we wanted it to be more of a celebration slash party slash festival where it isn't like suit I mean even though we do have special events planned throughout the day for casting demonstrations um or or whatever we have kids events uh TFOs putting together some stuff for us to be able to teach our up and coming youth if so kids want to come um kids under 14 you're able to come in with with their parents uh to be able to learn from the best and uh we're you know we're trying to make it you know more of a family event and you're right I mean it is not like the average show where it it's just so much hustle bustle where um we wanted it designed to where it was more of a hang right um which is what we love about our sport it's the people you share your the days on the water with you know and this is a great opportunity for if you've ever wanted to

meet some of these great people and and talk to them and whatever this is the event to do it um and you know and in the bodies what we feel that left we have what it want and um that's what we're trying to do so if we look you know you're a headliner car Andrews is a headliner I think I saw Jason Taylor on the website thank you Mitch mentioned you know Fletcher Sam's I know it's going to be there uh Steve Malvinado can you kind of give folks a little bit of a feel for some of the other folks I know Andy's going to be there as well yeah yeah so obviously yeah Carter a Hillary's coming back um yeah we have you know we have a pretty good lineup of people you know um some obviously you know there's things that happen where you know we weren't able to get things moving along faster or fast enough where certain people have already some legends already have things planned but um we have quite a few amazing legends that are going to be there like I said you know the Rob Ford ises Andy Mills the Carter Andrews the Hillary Hutchinson's um you know and

we have the up and coming people like Chase and Fletcher and a lot of great tires and um you know it's uh it's one of those things you know I'm still waiting on a couple of people some surprises um but I can't I can't give names to that yet because we haven't finalized some of it but um yeah and then you have brands that are going to be there right um so it's just it's just a great event um having great people and legends and up and coming and up and commerce and you know the coasters of the world and all that you know where you can see products sunglasses whatever you know fit you know to see what fits right right um talk flylines with scientific anglers you know TFO is going to be there you know talking having their rods displayed and being able to cast them you know there's areas to do all this stuff there and you know being in being in an outdoor environment um in a beautiful place with uh great people and sharing the love of the sport that we have is what it's all about absolutely and I will drop a link to the uh american saltwater

guide association typhus page where people can get up to the date info and buy tickets and all that kind of good stuff sounds good and we appreciate that bud yeah absolutely and uh you know hopefully you know my plan is to see you in about three weeks and you know folks get it on the calendar if you can't make it you know uh I guess too bad for you you should go fishing or to minimum just tie flies tight lines everybody tight lines playing you too thanks

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