Category: Not Fishing

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Premium T-Shirts

Here at The Fly Trout we believe in quality and delivering the best product to our customers. Up to now most of our t-shirts have been printed on a soft, comfortable Anvil t-shirt. A very nice feeling and high-quality shirt that fit nicely and looked great with our designs. We are very happy with that shirt, but have decided go a step up and switch our t-shirt blanks to American Apparel. American Apparel shirts are among the top in quality and they are produced here in the United States, 100% sweat-shop free. Being an American company ourselves, we pride ourselves in creating our products here and are excited to use American-made materials. It will take some time to transition all of our t-shirts to American Apparel and eliminate our previous stock. So in the meantime we will be offering some of our designs in both brands of blanks.

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Baby it’s Cold Outside

What do you do when it’s too cold to fish? You’re probably thinking “It’s never to cold to fish!” And while technically you’re correct, high temperatures in the single digits or lower keep me at home. I’ll wait until we get up into the twenties or thirties to get back out there. Anyway, what is an angler to do when stuck at home? Here’s a list of things I like to do, all fly fishing related of course.

Create new shirts – I mean this is a fly fishing apparel site and what better way to spend time than to come up with some new creations! Check out our newest shirt Fly Names.

Tie flies – I like to go through my fly box and see what flies I may need for my next trip out. I also like to look at new patterns that I might not even use until the summer. If you have never tied before now is the time to learn a new skill. The internet is full of good resources on getting started. Also check out your local fly shop. They can get you set up with the basic tools to tie your own flies.

Read fly fishing blogs – When you aren’t able to be on the water it’s always fun to read about other peoples fly fishing experiences. Besides blogs there are tons of cool Facebook pages related to fly fishing and if I just want to look at pictures, I’ll just hop on Instagram on my phone.

Organize my gear – Now is the perfect time to go through my gear and be reminded that I ran out of tippet or that my leader needs to be replaced. I also like to get my bag organized so I am ready to go the next time I am on the water.

Build a rod – Now this is a first for me. I just order a couple blanks from Blue Halo Gear and I will be attempting to build my own fiberglass fly rod. I will be taking some pictures and will post about my rod building experience.

So instead of sitting around and watching Christmas moves I like to try and stay busy with anything to do with my favorite hobby. Stay warm and Stay Fly.

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New Shirts: Beards and ‘Staches

Bearded Bluegill

Troutstache 2

Whether you call it Novembeard or No Shave November or Movember, this is the time of the year to let those mustaches and beards grow. To get in on the fun we have created two new shirts that fall in line with all the facial hair madness. For you beard guys check out the new Bearded Bluegill t-shirt. And for you mustache men we have the Troutstache 2: Return of the Wax t-shirt. We also have the original Troutstache shirt. So grab a shirt, grow some man hair and Stay Fly.

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Valentine’s Day

Last year on Valentine’s Day I wrote about how I love trout. While that remains true, I would like to expand my love for trout to other fish and fly fishing in general. I decided to come with a shirt design to show my love for fly fishing to be ready for this special day of love. At first I tried to create one that was similar to the “I Heart NY” style, but instead of the heart it was the Fly Trout logo and instead of NY it said fly fishing. The completed design read “I The Fly Trout Fly Fishing.” I went through all the steps creating the film, burning the screen and then printing a sample. And after all was said and done I didn’t like it. So back to the drawing board.

I thought long and hard about what people do when they love something and the light bulb went off. They get tattoos! Now to come up with a cool tattoo style design. I decided on a traditional “Mom” style tattoo. You know, the kind with the word MOM on top of a heart and sometimes other cool stuff around the heart. I mean that is “the” tattoo to get when you want to show your love for your mom, so it’s the way I wanted to show my love for fly fishing! Below you can see the finished product. Stay Fly.

Fly Fishing Love Print

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What’s the Happs?

It’s been a bit since the last post so here’s a little update. I have not fished since last month because of several factors holidays, work, bitter cold, ect. I know excuses, excuses. I do plan to get out there on the weekend. The last time I did go I got skunked so here’s hoping I make it out and actually catch something besides a cold.

I have though in my spare time been working on making a bow. A buddy of my let me try out one of his long bows and after doing a bunch of research I found out that regular people like you and me can build them! I am not quite finished, but when I do finish I hope to do some turkey hunting and maybe snag a bird for a great meal and a ton of feathers for fly tying. Here are a couple pictures of how it’s coming along. I’ll post some more when I’m finished.

Initial Shape

Bow Carved Out

First Sanding

Also, I have been working on some more t-shirt designs that should be showing up in the shop starting next week. In addition to the new shirts we will be offering beanies with the Fly Trout Colorado logo on them. Hopefully those will be out next week also. Here is a prototype of the beanies.

Beanie Prototype

Lots of new stuff in the works, so stay posted and Stay Fly.

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100% All Natural Christmas Tree

I haven’t had a real live Christmas tree since I was a kid. Since being married with children we have been putting up the fake ones. Don’t get me wrong they look nice and all, but nothing beats a real, piney-fresh tree inside your house. Last weekend I decided, with the approval of the boss (my wife), that we were going to get a real tree this year. And to take it up a notch, we were going to cut it down ourselves in the National Forest!!

After getting our $10 permit, we started up the road into the forest where the tree cutting was allowed. I kept noticing that the trees people had on the top of their cars were kind of crappy looking. My wife and I agreed that those people didn’t take their time and that we would be able to find something better. We found a nice place to park and the hunt was on.

After just a few minutes of searching we understood why the trees we saw others driving away with didn’t look so great. The natural trees that grow in the forest are not quite what you would find at a tree lot in the city, to say the least. We did hike around for an hour or so searching for the hidden gem, but the cold and wind began to hamper they boys’ tree-hunting spirit. So we picked the best Charlie Brown Christmas tree we could find and chopped that bad boy down. It may not be the most beautiful or full Christmas tree, but it is our tree and we couldn’t be any happier with it! Merry Christmas and Stay Fly.

Christmas Tree Shadows
Gen Sawing
Tree Opening Up
Decorated Tree
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Fly Fish Art

For months and months I have been following Shawn Bichsel on Twitter, Instagram, and his blog Lines in the Dirt. And for months and months I have admired Shawn’s work. Shawn is a fly fisherman and he is an artist. He creates some of the coolest and most interesting pieces of fly fishing art that I have seen. He will use a pencil or a sharpie or an iPad app to craft some amazing flies and fish. He has even made an awesome dry fly out of wood!

Ever since I started following Shawn and watch him do his thing I thought, “he needs to put this stuff up for sale.” Finally, in August he started an Etsy shop to start selling his work. And just few weeks ago he finished up “Trout, Line and Fly.” Being the trout-lover that I am, I just had to have it.

Trout Art 1
Trout Art 2

To see more of Shawn’s artistic masterpieces check out Lines in the Dirt. And if you love the art as much as I do, you can purchase some at his Etsy shop.

Stay Fly.

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Sticker Picture – Free T-Shirt Contest

Would you like a chance at winning a free t-shirt? Have we sent you one of our free or premium stickers? If your answer is yes to both, then just one more step and you could win! Send us a picture of where you stuck one of our fly stickers and we’ll enter you into a drawing for our soon-to-be-released shirt. Email your picture to joe@theflytrout.com and you’re entered in the giveaway.