The Art of Custom Fly Baits
By: Zach Wharton
Hey Small Water Sportsman community! We have the pleasure of highlighting the work of a fellow fisherman passionate of small waters. If you’re a fan of fly fishing I’m sure you’ve taken a trip to the outdoor store in search of the perfect fly. You go through the lines of gear and find yourself lost in the multitude of brands, colors and shapes of each pack of flies. It might be hard to determine what makes a quality fly bait. Today we would like to shed some light and share with you the work of a talented artist Erik Clymore.
Never living more than an hour from the water, Erik has been a lifelong fly fisherman. The fly fishing experience has always fascinated Erik, from throwing the perfect cast to creating the ideal fly. We asked him to share why he is so infatuated with this type of angling.
He shared with us,
“It’s just all of it. It’s more than fishing for me. It’s the art of casting. It’s the effectiveness of the competition style fishing. It's history. It’s the process of tying my own flies whether streamside or 100 miles away from the river on my couch. It’s a cult like following.
I’ve fished my whole life but it wasn’t until I picked up a fly rod that I became truly obsessed.”
Once he started crafting custom flies he realized that he was creating far too many for himself to ever use. Thankfully he decided to share his talent with the rest of the fly fishing community. He created his website Small Batch Baits to sell his wide array of flies, and with rapid success he became a full time fly tyer.
What goes into designing a fly?
When designing his flies, Erik focuses on the utility of the product. He creates his fly with versatility in mind, aiming for them to succeed in a number of environments. As any fly fisherman will tell you, it is not an exact science. A fisherman will need to adapt their strategy and fly depending on the location and conditions. Certain locations will require different patterning, colors and weights to accurately mimic the different bugs or marine life found there. To accommodate customers Erik offers a wide array of flies and even customized orders on request that will suit any fisherman’s needs. Although he will create sets based on big trends in the fly fishing community, his focus is on the basic wet and dry baits that have ensured beautiful catches for generations of fly fisherman.
Why buy custom flies versus a standard store bought set?
Erik does not dismiss all big brand name baits as trash.
When asked, Erik responded
“I don’t want to discredit all store bought flies as cheaply tied generic imitations because that’s not always the case”
Although some store bought baits can have their use, the quality control is lacking and you never know when you’ll find one in your package that is bent or poorly tied. Nothing is more frustrating to a fisherman than losing your catch because of malfunctioning equipment. Erik’s baits are more reliable, have more consistent appearance and can be customized to suit the needed weight, color and size. On top of that the prices are comparable to store bought flies, and you have the added benefit of knowing your bait was created by someone who shares your passion of fly fishing. In Eriks words he “eat, sleeps and breaths fly fishing”
We hope you enjoyed the read on custom fly baits and getting to know a little about Erik and what he does. We look forward to showing you more of Erik and other incredible members of our Small Water Sportsman Community. If you’d like to take a look at Erik’s collection of baits for sale you can find them on https://smallbatchbugs.com/.
Keep your eyes out on our blog and social media accounts for more interesting content from and for those with a passion for the small waters.
For custom or bulk orders, contact Erik at Clymore.Erik@yahoo.com