Today's guest traded trout strains for silk thread vintage hooks and the history pack world of classic flight time and never look back.

From his first salmon fly at age 12 to becoming a leading voice in preserving old school craftsmanship,

Tony Smith has spent decades chasing the perfect thread wrap.

By the end of this episode, you'll know what really defines a classic salmon fly,

why wax silk and antique hooks still matter and how tying flies helped Tony navigate OCD,

social anxiety, and came out on the other side.

This is the Webfly Swing podcast where I show you the best places to travel to for fly fishing,

how to find the best resources and tools to prepare for that big trip and what you can do to give back

the fish species we all love. Tony Smith is here to share what it's really like inside the quirky

and passionate world of classic salmon fly tying what the feather thief story got right and wrong

and why sometimes keeping it simple is still the most beautiful

thing you can do at the vice plus we're going to find out why reaching out to your flight tying heroes

might be the smartest thing that you do all year here we go here he is tony smith you can find him

at feathers and freud on instagram How you doing, Tony?

So far so good, yourself?

Not too bad. Not too bad. I think we're going to have a good chat today about fly

tying a topic that I think, you know, a lot of people are interested in in fly fishing.

We've done a number of episodes, you know, in recent months here talking about some crazy stuff

with the feather thief. You know, we had the author of that. You know, in recent months here talking about some crazy stuff with the feather thief.

You know, we had the author of that.

You know, Kirk was here.

We had Spencer talked a little about it.

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