April 15, 2025
By Fly Fisherman Staff
In episode three, editor/publisher Ross Purnell chats with longtime Fly Fisherman magazine contributor Blane Chocklett about how he got started in fly fishing, his early influencers Harrison Steeves and Steve Hiner, how he created the Game Changer, new patterns that will be revealed this summer, his new role as a fly-tying entrepreneur, and his decades-long relationship with Lefty Kreh. Blane is also an ambassador for the American Saltwater Guides Association. We dig into their efforts to fund baseline research on false albacore and jack crevalle, and their upcoming Lefty’s Tie Fest in Vero Beach, Florida.
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Truncated transcript:
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00:00:03.460 --> 00:00:44.560: Hi, I'm Ross Purnell, editor and publisher of Fly Fisherman magazine. Welcome to the Loop to Loop podcast, where we make deeper connections with the people behind the magazine. We are sponsored today by G. Loomis, American-made fly rods manufactured in Woodland, Washington. We are also sponsored by our friends at Patagonia. Check out their new line of Swift Current Waders, the Traverse and Expedition. They are PFAS free to keep our waterways clear of forever chemicals.
00:00:44.560 --> 00:01:06.800: Our guest today is Blane Chocklett. Welcome. Blane is frequent contributor to Fly Fisherman magazine, book author and an extraordinary fly tire and conservationist who's involved in a lot of important saltwater conservation. Welcome, Blane.
00:01:06.800 --> 00:01:46.640: Thanks for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. Fly Fisherman headquarters. Yeah. Welcome to our studio. It's great. You did a good job on this. So one of the goals of this podcast is to--we know what you write in Fly Fisherman, all your great fly tying instructional stuff. But one of the things we want to do is get to know you a little better, get into the background of things that people might not know. So one of the places I'd like to start is how you got involved in fly fishing. Where was the start of Blane Chocklett's fly-fishing career?
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00:01:46.640 --> 00:02:17.440: Well, as you know, I grew up in Virginia. And grew up in the mountains, a little town called Blue Ridge. And I live very close to there now. It's called Troutville, which is fitting for a fly fisherman. And my grandfather and my dad used to take me fly fishing when I was eight, or fishing in general when I was eight. We used to have opening day back then. And the following winter, I got a fly rod and a fly-tying kit and all that kind of stuff. So when I was nine, I started fly fishing.
00:02:17.440 --> 00:02:49.120: They always use fly rods, but they use bait and whatever. And basically, it was like Euro-nymphing. So I learned how to get drag free drifts at a very early age. And then opening day, my grandfather and my dad would take me. It was a very special time because we would leave before daylight. And we would drive across the Blue Ridge Parkway, and then drop down in these fire trails basically, and head down to these trout streams, which was North Creek. And Jennings Creek.
00:02:49.120 --> 00:03:18.960: And we would spend the morning catching our limits and whatever. Knowing that I had a fly and fly rod, my grandfather after lunch would take me up into the special rag waters for brook trout. And I caught my first brook trout that day on a fly that I had tied. And it kind of was one of those things that wasn't very big. It's probably six inches long. But it meant a lot more to me than those stocked trout did. And that just started a passion…
