Fly tying doesn't start on the vice. Fly tying is learned on the water by watching insects drift past your boots, noticing how light hits a wing, and paying special attention to what fish actually respond to.

Today's episode is about learning that way. I'm sitting down with Davy McVale, one of the most influential fly tires of our time, and a guy who

quietly shaped how thousands of anglers around the world think about materials, proportions,

and simplicity at the vice. This is the wetfly 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 to the fish species we all love. Davy McVale grew up fishing the rivers of Scotland. He started

tying flies because he couldn't buy what he needed and learned by observation. Long before his

YouTube channel blew up, he was studying insects, copying what fish actually are eating

and building patterns and teaching himself along the way.

By the end of this episode, you'll discover when traditional spiders and wet flies still

outperform modern patterns, why wax, thread control, and restraint matter more than fancy

materials, how mixing natural and synthetic materials

improves durability and confidence in flies, and what separates flies that look good from flies

that keep catching fish all day long. All right, this is a big one. You can find Davy McVail on

YouTube. Here he is, Davy McVail. How you doing,. How you doing, Dave? It's great to be here and hope you enjoy

some of the information I'll let you have. Yeah, definitely, definitely. No, we're going to try to get

some tips out of you today and talk fly tying and fly fishing and, you know, it's cool always when I do

these podcasts. It's been a few years, you know, if I've been thinking about getting this together and, you know, some of the biggest names and fly fishing and fly tying. I mean, you're definitely up there. And I remember the first time I met you was just your, I struggle a lot with flight tying, but your dry flies especially, being able to tie those the way you do it. And I remember when I first watched you. So we're going to talk about a little bit of that, of how you do it and maybe some secrets to your

success. But I want to talk about just first how you get into it. Have you been fly fishing and fly

tying most of your life? What's your first memory there? I know I started when I was 19,

tying the flies. I got married when I was 19. And the following year, I joined the local

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