Tying Atlantic Salmon Flies and the Grainger Collection with Marvin Nolte (Traveled #42)
Wet Fly Swing Fly Fishing Podcast
Dave Stewart
4.7 • 530 Ratings
🗓️ 17 April 2026
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
#912 Show Notes: https://wetflyswing.com/912
Presented by: Yellowstone Teton Territory - Visit Idaho
In this episode on classic salmon fly tying, I sat down with Marvin Nolte, a guy who's been at the vise since the 1970s and has tied over 2,000 classic Atlantic salmon flies. We get into what it really takes to tie these patterns, why most people don't stick with it, and how a random Christmas gift turned into a decades-long obsession.
We also dig into one of the wildest stories in fly tying, the massive Granger collection, and what it says about craftsmanship, patience, and going deep into the details.
Show Notes: https://wetflyswing.com/912
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Jackson Hole Fly Company is proud to celebrate six years of crafting premium fly fishing gear. |
| 0:07.6 | To thank you, they're hosting their biggest sale of the year. |
| 0:10.6 | From April 15th to the 30th, enjoy 25% off most of the store and up to 33% off combo kits. |
| 0:18.1 | Whether you're a season angler or new to the sport, now's the time to invest |
| 0:21.3 | in gear designed for performance and built to last. Visit jacksonholefly company.com to shop |
| 0:26.5 | the sixth anniversary sale. Exclusions apply. When you sit down with someone who spent decades |
| 0:33.7 | at the vice, one thing stands out fast it's all about control control of materials proportions |
| 0:39.3 | control of every step today we're talking to someone who's been tying flies since the 1970s who's |
| 0:45.4 | tied over 2,000 classic Atlantic salmon flies some of the best out there and even built one of the |
| 0:51.8 | largest frame collections of salmon flies than anywhere in the |
| 0:55.5 | world. This is the travel podcast series where we bring you to the best places to fish in the |
| 1:00.8 | west, the best anglers, the best fly tires, and the stories of how this region became what it is |
| 1:07.1 | today. Our guest is Marvin Nolte, and he's here and he's going to take us into |
| 1:11.3 | everything from how it all got started with this random Christmas present in the 1970s and how |
| 1:16.8 | this turned into an obsession with classic salmon flies. What it really takes to tie these flies, |
| 1:22.0 | repetition, why most fly tires don't stick with it. We're going to talk about the reality |
| 1:26.3 | of rare material substitution, and we're going to get Marvin's take on this and how this all connected to the story of the feather thief. We're going to talk about that again today. And we're going to get a look inside the tight-knit culture of classic fly-tying, shows, mentors, decades of relationships behind the craft. This is a good one. We're excited for it. This episode is |
| 1:45.4 | presented by Visit Idaho's Yellowstone Teton Territory, home to some of the most diverse and |
| 1:50.5 | wild trout water in the West. Okay, here we go. Let's get into it. Here he is Marvin Nolte. |
| 1:58.9 | How you doing, Marvin? I am extra fine. Thank you, Dave. Great. It's great to have you on here. |
| 2:04.8 | I think I really love whenever, you know, classic salmon flies and tying comes up because it's |
| 2:11.1 | something that I've tried a little bit, but, you know, I know it's, it takes a lot of skill to get |
... |
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