J&M Flies A Look Back

Well people it has been a little over a year since the wife and I started J&M Flies.  On March 26 of 2011, I walked in to the local Orvis store to buy some supplies.  I had taken some flies with me to match the materials I needed.  Upon showing the flies to the owner in my quest for a certain material, the first thing he asked was "Where did you buy these flies?"  I explained that I made them and thus began a discussion that would eventually lead to the creation of J&M Flies.

In the past year we have done several orders for the local Orvis store, we are currently working on another, a number of orders for fellow bloggers, partnered with J Stockard Fly Fishing and Texas River Bum, sold flies as gifts, sent flies around the world, and made special flies upon request.  In an effort to track what we are selling so we can see what the most popular fly is and what materials we need to buy (anything to buy more tying supplies or to justify my spending to the wife) we created a spreadsheet to track our orders.  So in the past year, we have sold  hundreds of flies.

While that may not seem like a lot, please don't forget that we hand paint all of our poppers.  It takes more than a week to make one popper.  Of course this isn't a week of continuous painting and tying.  Our process takes a while because we seal the bodies to ensure they float well with several coats of pre-sealer and then let the bodies cure.  We then do at least three coats of the base coat and let the bodies cure.  Next it is time to stipple.  After the stippling is done, we do four coats of gloss varnish to ensure that the poppers have a high gloss finish combined with durability to withstand the warm water fish.  Again, we let the bodies cure.   Then it is time to tie them up with the calf tail, hackle and rubber legs.  So as you can see, it does take a while to make these poppers but it is well worth it.  Well I think so and I would hope that those who have gotten flies from us before would also agree.

As we move forward and begin our second year, we are both happy, excited and nervous about what the future may hold.  Here is hoping for a profit.....