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Tying Flies with Natural Shade Tapered Brushes

An influx of innovative synthetic materials opened the door to design imaginative and effective streamer patterns to tempt the most aggressive fish in the system.

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When the first run of the day produces two smallmouth bass over 18 inches, you know you’re in for something special. Conditions were perfect, driving an army of happy (and hungry) pre-spawn smallmouth into the tailouts of one Lake Erie tributary where dropping flows, overcast skies, and stained water convinced the fish to drop their guard and strap on the feedbag. Eager fish lurked in just about every run, poised to strike anything that moved, including our flies–three-and-a-half-inch Game Changers, served up on intermediate-tip lines. The smallies were certainly fired up and so were we, knowing how fickle the lake-run smallmouth chase can be. We stopped counting as fish after fish hit the net.

Midway through this epic session, while stripping my fly through the current seam of a particularly juicy run, I spotted a flash of silver and felt lightning strike my 8-weight, almost ripping it from my hands. A fresh steelhead of about 28 inches had launched from the gloom and annihilated the fly right at the rod tip in one of those moments that make time stop and the heart skip a beat. The fish proceeded to make a long and acrobatic run before we horsed it back in, and I thought to myself, “This is what it's all about.” For my money, the sheer thrill of watching your fly get deleted right before your eyes and feeling it tear away from you is unparalleled.

A fly angler kneeling in a stream holding a smallmouth bass just above the water.
Modern fly tiers currently have more tools at their disposal than ever before, ushering in new and innovative patterns built to meet the unique needs of streamer anglers. Incorporating high-quality synthetic products like Natural Shade Tapered Brushes can improve both our tying and fishing experience. (Matt Redmond photo)

This is what streamer fishing can elicit. These heart-stopping encounters of visceral, predatory strikes easily outweigh all the inconveniences and effort that go into properly presenting streamers to fish in moving water. This gangbusters day, and others like it, have only served to reinforce my penchant for stripping streamers–an ever-increasing sentiment shared by many anglers around the world.

The streamer game is indeed booming, having thrust its way from the fringes into the mainstream across an extensive community of anglers around the globe. Modern anglers, more so than ever before, are inclined to trade quantity (sometimes) for quality in the form of big fish and aggressive eats. It’s well documented that this surge in meat-slinging enthusiasts has prompted the rapid development of cutting-edge fly rods and lines to meet the distinct needs of streamer anglers. What’s not as widely discussed, however, are the unprecedented changes in the needs of the fly tier in this age of big, complex flies. Larger, wide-gap hooks, stronger thread, bigger vises, and an influx of innovative synthetic materials have opened the door for tiers to design and create highly imaginative and effective streamer patterns to tempt the most aggressive fish in each system.

New Age Streamers

A Game Changer fly tied with Natural Shade Tapered Brushes on a wood table.
Palmered brushes work exceedingly well in the creation of these segments and have thus exploded in popularity in recent years for their ability to incorporate hair, fur, and synthetic materials in wide ranges of lengths, colors, densities, buoyancies, and now–taper. (Matt Redmond photo)

Modern streamers are awesome, and many anglers are tying them these days. They’re bigger than ever, lighter than ever, and they typically incorporate a variety of triggers, making them irresistible to predatory species like smallmouth, trout, pike, and musky. Renzetti LLC, a well-established player in the fly-tying industry since the 1970s for their legendary vises and tools, is also among those at the forefront of this seismic shift toward streamers. In 2012, R Distribution, a division of Renzetti, secured the distribution rights for Just Add H2O, a South African-based producer of high-quality synthetic brushes and materials.

“After nearly a decade of observing the exceptional quality and versatility of the materials, particularly the Steve Farrar Blend, we seized the opportunity to obtain the U.S. distributorship, which has allowed us to introduce over 20 categories of synthetic materials to customers across the United States and Canada,” says Renzetti’s President and General Manager, Lily Renzetti. “Streamers have introduced a refreshing dimension to the existing fly-fishing industry,” she says, “revitalizing it and transforming fly tying into a lasting trend rather than a passing fad.”

Changing the Game

Many contemporary patterns, however, can be rather involved in terms of both time and materials. The Game Changer, for example, is one of the most recognized fly patterns on the planet. Developed in the early 2000s by Blane Chocklett, this iconic platform has infiltrated every corner of streamer fishing for its ability to catch fish in just about any conditions, and its success has subsequently spawned a plethora of shanks and tying materials to better suit its design. In the years since its inception, tiers all over the world have adapted the Game Changer platform to fit the specific needs of their waters, utilizing a vast array of materials and components. Changers of all kinds rely on a series of shingled three-dimensional segments built on shanks and hooks to create a lifelike swimming action in the water. Palmered brushes work exceedingly well in the creation of these segments and have thus exploded in popularity in recent years for their ability to incorporate hair, fur, and synthetic materials in wide ranges of lengths, colors, densities, buoyancies, and now–taper.

Natural Shade Tapered Brushes

Three fly-tying tapered brushes laid out on a wood table.
Tapered brushes provide tremendous value to novice tiers, making intricate patterns more navigable by eliminating a great deal of the nuance that’s involved in trimming segments to proper dimensions and incorporating multiple prop and body materials in the appropriate ratios. (Matt Redmond photo)

As more anglers gravitate to these intricate (and awesome) patterns, forward thinking brands like Just Add H2O, led by owner and material operator Cliff Rochester, are developing tying materials to enhance efficiency and boost the durability of the flies they comprise. Natural Shade Tapered Brushes are one such example, providing immense value to streamer tiers on multiple fronts. These brushes, tapered from two and a half inches down to half an inch, can do the job of three separate, uniform-length brushes, creating a fully tapered body with little or no trimming required. They were specifically designed, according to Rochester, to allow tiers to create a full Game Changer with a single brush without trimming each successive segment to length. They excel in this capacity, providing perfectly tapered and ultra-simple Game Changers in multiple color schemes. They can also, however, be incorporated into any Game Changer-style flies, like the Leggy Boi or Swinging D 2.0, as prop material and capped with softer brushes like the Translucy, Polar Fiber, and Crafty Brushes for those wishing to alter the appearance or action of the fly. In either case, tapered brushes like these reduce time at the vise via the elimination of trimming and remedy the need for three or more brushes of different lengths. They also, though, provide tremendous value to novice tiers, making these intricate patterns more navigable by eliminating a great deal of the nuance that’s involved in trimming segments to proper dimensions and incorporating multiple prop and body materials in the appropriate ratios. As such, the Natural Shade Tapered Brush lineup would be a great material for tiers to use when they first begin tying changer-style patterns.


Additional Properties

A smallmouth bass held just above the water's surface.
When the first run of the day produces two smallmouth bass over 18 inches, you know you’re in for something special. (Matt Redmond photo)

Natural Shade Tapered Brushes are produced in an assortment of color combinations that incorporate contrast–a key element in fly design–into the flies they create. The inclusion of contrast can help a fly stand out against monochromatic backdrops in both clear and stained water, increasing its chances of being seen by target species. Flies with bright-colored heads and darker bodies, for instance, are exceedingly common across a variety of target species for this exact reason. These brushes are also extremely light, which is a critical attribute for tiers wishing to create oversized, predator flies. They are comprised of Steve Farrar Flash Blend fibers, which are light and readily shed water, making them easy to cast, even when the flies themselves are rather large.

Modern fly tiers currently have more tools at their disposal than ever before, ushering in new and innovative patterns built to meet the unique needs of streamer anglers. Incorporating high-quality synthetic products like Natural Shade Tapered Brushes can improve both our tying and fishing experience.


Matt Redmond is a guide, writer, and fly tier from Cleveland, Ohio. He owns and operates Northeast Ohio Angling LLC and has over a decade of experience fishing throughout the Great Lakes and their connecting waters for a variety of warm- and coldwater species.

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