Almost 10 years on!
Updated: Aug 11
It’s pretty hard to believe that we’re coming up on 10 years.
What started as a fairly simple plan to avoid spending all winter tying flies for my summer guiding has somehow morphed into something much bigger than we ever imagined.
Our first shipment of flies arrived with no warehouse, no fancy systems and certainly no grand plan for where it might all lead. The flies were stored in shoeboxes on the hallway floor, and in those early days we were ordering patterns in lots of 10 or 20 dozen at a time.
Fast-forward almost 10 years and things look a little different. We now have a full-blown warehouse, a much bigger range and quantities that would have seemed completely ridiculous when we started. These days, we’re ordering some patterns, like our 101s, by the thousand dozen at a time—which is still pretty hard for us to get our heads around!
There have definitely been plenty of lessons along the way. We’ve made mistakes, got things wrong, dealt with unexpected challenges and had to figure plenty of things out as we went. But that’s all been part of the journey. We continue to learn, adapt and, hopefully, keep getting better at what we do.
And there’s always another curveball around the corner.
Our current one is tungsten. The price has gone up around 500%, which, for a fly company with a big focus on tungsten-beaded nymphs, is a fairly major issue! Like every challenge we’ve faced over the years, we’ll work our way through it while doing everything we can to maintain the quality and value that our customers expect from us.
One thing that hasn’t changed from those early days is our commitment to producing the best quality flies and service. We’ve always wanted to supply flies that we’re proud to fish ourselves and back them up with the sort of service we’d want to receive as customers.
Looking back from a few shoeboxes on the hallway floor to where we are today is pretty humbling.
None of it would have happened without the people who have supported us along the way—whether you’ve been with us from the beginning, placed your first order last week, recommended our flies to a mate, or simply followed what we’ve been doing.
Without your support over the last 10 years, we simply wouldn’t be here.
A huge thank you to everyone who has been part of the journey so far. We genuinely appreciate it.
Here’s to the next 10 years—and whatever curveballs they throw at us!
