The Fly Project is a fly fishing community rooted in culture, creativity, and life on the water. Explore fly tying, apparel, gear, storytelling, and the people who make fly fishing more than just a sport.

born in a garage, and then there was a shed down by the river, 100% built out of a pure love for fly fishing and the wild places.

Our Story

The Fly Project started in 2018 with a group of friends who built a fly shop inside of a family farm store in Great Falls, Montana. To get enough of our best friends interested in in working in the fly shop we started The Fly Project designing and tying flies for the shop to make money to supplement the fly shop wages. It was literally a “fly project”.

Everyone on the team is a serious fly angler, that understands there is no quitting and no whining in fly fishing. We would say there is no crying in fly fishing… but… there is some… but for sure no whining.

We began selling some tees and hats on The Fly Project website with some success and realized that selling hats and tees added up quicker than $3 hand tied flies. So we decided to renovate an old shed down by the river on Sam’s property to build a space we could start building corks on our mini lathe, turning wood reel seat handles, and wrapping rod blanks.

We didn’t have any marketing money so we started a YouTube show and vlog called Project in the Wild that is still going today so anglers could discover us. We had a computer that could barely render an edit, a Sony a6300 and a GoPro. Paul wrote a poem. We decided we love gas station cheeseburgers.

Outside of our foundational trust in cheeseburgers found in gas stations we also think:

All angling is good, people should fish how they want to fish but there are levels of difficulty and that makes the sport fun.
You are a better angler if you understand all types of angling.
There is a responsibility as an angler to understand and respect the previous generations of anglers

By 2022 our rods got better, we added to our design team, our fly reels were improving.

We wanted to make fly shops the culture hub and style that are similar to your local skate or surf shop but the fly fishing industry was lacking “things” that reinforce the culture of fly. So we started making things like fish pins, mega packs of dubbing, cheeseburger warmers that are nearly exactly the same as a fly reel case, “Fishing Allowed” property signs, weird tee shirts most people are confused by, coffee mugs with whitefish on them that say “Take What the River Gives You”, we imported Norwegian wool sweaters, and shot glasses with the mermaid from the Lorelei Bar and Marina in Islamorada, FL. We want to help create a unique experience in fly shops and celebrate the culture of fly.

Our logo is 2 symbols that are called bind runes. The first one that looks oddly like an F is the bind rune that means “Good Luck” and the second bind rune which looks oddly like a P means “Safe Travels”. FP = Fly Project = “Good Luck, Safe Travels”.

Today we have a full team of illustrators, rod designers, ambassadors, friends, media creators, and clothing designers and we are really grateful if you read all the way to the bottom of this story. We are building this brand out of a love for fly fishing and the adventure of wild places.

It takes a village:

Sam Wike - Fly Designer, Product Development

Calvin Fuller - Product Development, Buyer, Fly Designer

Paul Considine - Buyer

Fred Telleen - Product Development

Rob Bolke - Product Development

Jay D’Arpini - Media Creator

Darren Wood - E-commerce, Illustrator

Will Hays - E-commerce assistant

David Powell - Illustrator

Rob Guevarra - Illustrator

Orlando Garcia - Clothing Sourcing and Design