Big predator flies are built for explosive strikes, brutal fights, and anglers who live for the hunt.
From striped bass on Long Island to peacock bass in the Amazon, Max Rivetta has spent years tying flies for predator fish. As the in-house fly tyer and host of Moccasin Fly Club, he shares the techniques, materials, and lessons he’s learned along the way.
We cover Bob Popovics’ influence on modern fly design, choosing high-quality bucktail, preparing for destination trips, and why connecting with other fly tyers is one of the fastest ways to improve your skills.
Max Rivetta has been tying flies for just over two years, but he’s already making a name for himself with big predator patterns inspired by Bob Popovics’ techniques. We talk about his rapid progression as a fly tier, his work with Moccasin Fly Club, destination fishing around the world, and why simple materials like quality bucktail can make all the difference.
(01:26) Max Rivetta’s journey into fly tying started just over two years ago with a desire to become more connected to the fish he was chasing. What started with YouTube videos, books, and countless hours at the vise quickly grew into a passion for creating large predator flies designed for aggressive fish.
Max ties big streamers for species like pike, musky, striped bass, and other hard-fighting predators. He shares how Bob Popovics influenced his tying style, the lessons he has learned from building large patterns, and why understanding materials is essential to creating flies that truly perform on the water.
From his journey with Moccasin Fly Club to becoming the club’s in-house fly tyer, Max shares the experiences that shaped his approach to fly tying. He talks about how an Alaska trip connected him with John, along with unforgettable adventures chasing species like giant trevally and other saltwater predators.
(05:59) Brazil quickly became one of Max’s favorite fishing destinations. After his first trip, he knew he wanted to return, and he credits Moccasin Fly Club for making the experience seamless with great guides, accommodations, and organization.
On one October trip, eight anglers landed around 1,500 fish in five days. Max and his partner even had a 101-fish day, including catching 75 peacock bass in just 45 minutes.
The Amazon offered more than peacock bass. Max also encountered piranha, bicuda, apapá, and arapaima. One unforgettable moment came when a 5½-foot arapaima surfaced beside the boat, giving him a close-up view of a fish he had only seen on River Monsters.
Max explains why peacock bass are such exciting game fish. They strike flies aggressively, fight well above their size, and often dive straight into flooded timber. Fish over 65 centimeters are considered trophies, and Max’s largest measured 70 centimeters.
(15:22) Max says one of the biggest surprises in Brazil was the mothership. Instead of roughing it in the jungle, anglers stay aboard a 125-foot, three-story boat that feels more like a floating hotel. Each room includes two beds, a private bathroom, and air conditioning, while the boat also features a dining area, an outdoor bar, chef-prepared meals, laundry service, and daily housekeeping.
A typical day begins with breakfast before heading out around 6:00 a.m. Guides provide packed lunches on the water, and anglers return in the afternoon for cocktails, snacks, and dinner. Max also says the trip is hassle-free, with airport pickup in Manaus and seamless logistics from start to finish. He also shares details about his upcoming hosted Brazil trip, scheduled for November 28–December 5, 2028. The trip is limited to 8–10 anglers and costs $5,500 per person, including lodging, meals, guided fishing, mothership accommodations, laundry service, and airport transportation.
(17:26) Bob Popovics’ fly designs have had a major influence on Max’s fly tying. Many of the patterns he relies on are based on Bob’s techniques, including the Hollow Fly, Semper Fly, and Beast Fly. Bob Popovics’ techniques and fly designs are featured in Fleye Design by Bob Popovics and Jay Nichols.
The white-and-red Semper Fly was Max’s top producer in Brazil, landing his personal-best peacock bass along with several other trophy fish. Hollow Flies tied in juvenile peacock colors and Wonderbread patterns also produced consistently throughout the trip.
Max explains that peacock bass respond more to a fly’s profile and movement than to imitating a specific baitfish. Because they are aggressive predators that even feed on their own young, juvenile peacock patterns can be especially effective.
Max also shares why Bob Popovics’ designs continue to influence modern predator fly tying. By combining hollow tying, reverse bulkheads, and bucktail, Bob created large baitfish profiles that remain lightweight and easy to cast. Built with simple materials like bucktail, feathers, and flash, these flies continue to catch everything from striped bass and pike to giant trevally and Amazon peacock bass.
(21:15) Max shares what’s ahead with Moccasin Fly Club and how he prepares flies for the different fisheries he visits. When hosting trips, he brings a variety of patterns so anglers are prepared for changing conditions and different target species.
For the Mexico tournament, Max explains how he and his teammate Levi divide their fly-tying duties. Levi will focus on crab and shrimp patterns for permit and bonefish, while Max prepares predator flies for tarpon and jack crevalle, including tarpon toads, worms, Feather Bugs, Hollow Flies, and Semper Flies. He shares how successful destination fishing starts with choosing the right patterns for the fishery, conditions, and species being targeted.
The only fish missing was northern pike. June brought excellent fishing conditions, and one of Max’s biggest surprises was the endless daylight. Walking outside at 11 p.m. and still seeing the sun meant more time on the water.
Back on Long Island, Max enjoys fishing both saltwater and freshwater. One of his most memorable catches was a rare sea-run brook trout that the local hatchery said was the first they had seen in about 15 years.
Looking ahead, Max hopes to make a trip to Canada to swing flies for Atlantic salmon, an adventure he and his friends have been planning for a while.
(39:48) Max shares how connecting with other fly tyers helped him improve his skills and become a better tier. When he first started, he learned through YouTube videos, books, and plenty of practice, but his biggest growth came from reaching out to experienced tyers and learning from the fly fishing community.
At first, Max was hesitant because he didn’t want to bother people or feel like he was only asking for free advice. He soon realized that many people in the tying community are eager to share their knowledge and help others improve.
Through those connections, Max built friendships with tyers he admired, including Matt Bailey, Andre from South Africa, Bucktail Flies, and August on the Fly. Their advice, techniques, and resources helped shape his approach to fly tying.
Max’s advice for new fly tyers is simple: ask questions, reach out, and connect with others in the community. He also recommends studying the work of influential designers like Bob Popovics to better understand fly design and tying techniques.
(42:19) Even after becoming the in-house fly tyer at Moccasin Fly Club, Max still considers himself a student. He believes fly tying is a craft you’ll never fully master because every fly, material, and technique offers something new to learn.
Max explained that even small changes to a fly can affect how it swims, making experimentation one of the most rewarding parts of tying. He also shared his go-to saltwater patterns, the Hollow Fleye and the Semper Fleye, and encouraged fly tyers to be selective when choosing bucktail. Instead of relying on trial and error, he recommends watching a few videos on bucktail grading and doing a little research before buying materials to save both money and frustration.
(47:37) For Max, destination fishing begins long before boarding a plane. The excitement starts the day he books the trip, followed by months of tying flies, organizing gear, and counting down until departure.
About Max Rivetta Max Rivetta is a fly tyer, destination angler, and trip host with Moccasin Fly Club. Based on Long Island, New York, he specializes in tying large predator flies for species like striped bass, peacock bass, pike, musky, giant trevally, and bluefish.
Inspired by Bob Popovics’ hollow-fly techniques, Max has quickly developed a reputation for creating effective flies and helping anglers prepare for destination fishing adventures. He also hosts and supports Moccasin Fly Club trips to Brazil, Louisiana, and Patagonia, where he enjoys sharing knowledge, building confidence, and helping others succeed both at the vise and on the water.
Episode Transcript
WFS 963 Transcript 00:00:00 Dave: Today we’re talking with a fly tire whose entire world revolves around big predators, big flies, and the destinations that put them to the test. From striped bass on Long Island to peacock bass in the Amazon, Max Rivera has built his fly, tying around fish that hit hard and don’t give second chances. Max is the in-house fly tyer and host with Max and Fly Club, and today he’s sharing the flies he trusts most and the trips he’s most excited about this year. Plus, we’re gonna find out why reaching out to other Fly Tyers is your best shot at leveling up your game. This is the Wet Fly Swing podcast, where we 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. Today, Max is going to get into his fly design and why Bob Popovics is still a huge influence to him and tires around the world. We’re gonna find out about Bucktail, why and how to find great Bucktail and why. This really makes a big difference in tying these saltwater flies. We’re also going to get some tips in how Max prepares for destination trips and packing all the way down to fly selection. If you ever wanted to tie bigger flies, chase bigger fish, or start planning that destination trip you’ve been thinking about for years, you’re going to enjoy this conversation. You can find Max on Instagram at Predator Prey Flies, and you can also check in with him at Moccasin Flight club dot com. All right, let’s get into it. Here he is. Max Rivera. How you doing, Max? 00:01:24 Max: Hey, how’s it going, Dave? All’s good on my end. How about you? 00:01:26 Dave: Great, great. Yeah, yeah, I’m excited to talk about some predator flies. We’re. We’re actually heading up for a trip here this summer to fish for Pike. And, you know, I’m not sure if that’s a species that you tie for, but you tie a lot of flies specifically, and especially for Max and Fly Club. We’ve been working with John, put some stuff together, so we’re going to talk about that. Some of the flies you tie, we’re going to talk about some of the travel that you’re going on. I know you’ve got a trip to Brazil and some other things going on around the world, so we’re going to talk about that today, but maybe take us back into fly tying. I’d love to hear it. Sounds like you’re tying. That’s a big part of what you do. Uh, how’d you, uh, how’d you get into this? Have you been doing this a while, or is this newer for you? 00:02:04 Max: So with the fly tying specifically. I’m pretty green in the grand scheme of things. I’ve only been tying for just a little bit over two years. And how that kind of came through is that obviously, you know, us as fly fishermen specifically, we tend to find ourselves very much, um, in contact with the fish that we’re chasing. Um, and to me, the next best thing to get me even closer to the fish was to tie the flies myself. Um, and that kind of led to a spiral of, uh, YouTube videos, books, and, uh, a lot of late nights. And, uh, now we tie flies. 00:02:41 Dave: There you go. There you go. No, I think it’s awesome. I think the that’s always the cool thing. It depends on how much effort you want to put into it. You know, I think that, you know, if you want to go all in and do like you’re doing, you know, you can kind of level up pretty quick, right? Do it. And do you focus on, uh, you know, specific types of patterns or do you kind of tie everything? 00:03:01 Max: Um, so I mean, I will tie everything, but my main jam is definitely going to be bigger streamer stuff for more predatory fish. Hence kind of where the name predator prey flies comes from. So I do mainly focus on like big streamers and stuff around that, uh, parameter, you know, anything I would say the smallest thing I’m tying is usually like, uh, three, four inches long all the way up to twelve fifteen inches, you know, for even for some of those, um, species that you’re going to chase, you know, like the, um, uh, the, what would you say the pike or pike? Pike. Yeah. Even some big pike flies, big musky flies, Buford’s, you know, a lot of bucktail work, big stuff. 00:03:42 Dave: Yeah. So basically the predator predator flies are your kind of, uh, go to what are the top, you know, if you say like main species that you’re tying for, for predators, what does that look like? 00:03:54 Max: Uh, the main species that I’m tying for would probably be a lot of. Here in the northeast there’s a lot of striper fishermen, bluefish, fishermen. So we’re tying a lot of flies for that. Obviously, we have Bob Popovics, you know, from the northeast, which is a huge influence on what I do and on the tying community. So a lot of what I tie is Bob’s patterns. Um, and those are mainly used for striped bass here in the northeast. Again, bluefish, um, a lot of guys using them for pike and muskie. And I do a ton of orders for G.T. flies. 00:04:27 Dave: And GT’s for people going for specifically, what is the main GT trip do you think people are hitting? 00:04:33 Max: I think a lot of people are hitting the Seychelles, Christmas Island, stuff like that. You know, you got Oman now, um, which is something that we’re offering through Moccasin Fly Club. So, you know, we’re, uh, we’re reaching out and touching those areas too now. And yeah, I mean, that’s a big, uh, bad predator fish that a lot of people are interested in. And, uh, they will smoke you through a few flies. 00:04:55 Dave: So nice. Um, how did you. So moccasin is, uh, you know, John is doing some good stuff out there. How did you first connect with Moccasin Fight Club? 00:05:05 Max: So I connected with John via a mutual friend that I met over in Alaska. Um, which was my first kind of, uh, destination fly fishing trip. 00:05:15 Dave: Mhm. 00:05:16 Max: Um, me and, uh, this mutual friend Joel happened to be sitting on a dock, getting ready to take one of the, uh, little bush planes out to go fishing. And he was talking to somebody about GT fishing, and I was talking to somebody else about GT fishing, and our conversations kind of intertwined. Me and him became very good friends. He introduced me to John. I made my way down to Brazil. And, uh, from there it evolved into me, uh, being the in-house tire for moccasin and being a host and getting to, uh, kind of enjoy these international trips with new people and show them all of these awesome places and awesome species that we’re able to go and, and fish for. 00:05:59 Dave: Amazing. And what was the so you did the Brazil trip. Maybe we can start on that one a little bit. And we’re going to kind of bounce back and forth on the tying. But what was the maybe describe that Brazil. Was that your first time down there and what was that trip like? 00:06:11 Max: It was my first time down there and um, I’m going down two more times already. So nice. It’s amazing down there. It’s an awesome program that moccasin has put together. The accommodations, the fishing, the people that were with down there. Um, there’s really nothing bad to say about it from start to finish from when you get to Brazil, uh, getting to the river, getting on the mothership that we’re going to be staying on, meeting the people, working the mothership. It’s all very, very seamless, beautiful experience. The fishing down there is absolutely insane. Um, we were down there in October of twenty five eight anglers, fifteen hundred fish over the course of five days of fishing. 00:06:59 Dave: Wow. 00:07:00 Max: Um, so it’s a lot. You know, we had me and my buddy who came down with me. We had a one hundred and one fish day. 00:07:07 Dave: Right. And these are all peacock bass. 00:07:09 Max: All peacock bass. I mean, there’s some bycatch. You know, there’s a couple guys caught piranhas. Oh, wow. A few different. Yeah. There’s a few different species down there that you can catch. So the bycatch would be piranhas, which is kind of like the best way that I could describe that is almost like an Amazon Barracuda. Okay. It’s a long slender tapered nose fish. Um, they have this other fish that’s called an A Papa, which is kind of like an arowana, but it’s blind. 00:07:35 Dave: Wow. Blind. Completely blind. 00:07:37 Max: Yeah. Completely blind. Yeah. Um, you pull it out of the water and its eyes just look like. 00:07:42 Dave: How does it how does it find your fly? 00:07:44 Max: I think it’s a sensory thing. Yeah. From, you know, I’m not the best Portuguese speaker, but from what I was gathering, uh, with my Spanish and the Portuguese from the guides there. It’s a sensory thing because you pull the fish out of the water and its eyes look like crystal balls. You know, there’s like, like voids, you know? 00:08:02 Dave: Dang. What’s that one called? That’s the barracuda looking fish. 00:08:05 Max: No, that one’s called, so I. And it’s weird. I have not been able to find the English version of the name. What they call it in, uh, in Brazil is, uh. Papa. 00:08:16 Dave: Papa. Oh, yeah. Yeah. 00:08:18 Max: It’s. And again, it kind of looks like an arowana would be like the closest thing that I could compare it to, but it doesn’t have that, um, that weird jaw that like an arowana has. 00:08:30 Dave: Yeah. Gotcha. 00:08:31 Max: But it’s a really cool species. Really cool species. 00:08:35 Dave: Amazing. 00:08:35 Max: And of course, there’s, there’s the chance to catch an arapaima down there if. 00:08:40 Dave: Oh, and. 00:08:41 Max: Yeah, if you happen to cross paths with one, um, don’t choke like I did because I did cross paths with one and froze up. 00:08:50 Dave: You did. What was that? So the timer, the giant fish, right? 00:08:54 Max: Yeah, the arapaima, the giant, giant fish. So they actually come up to the surface of the water to breathe air. Yeah. And then they go back down. Uh, once they go back down, it’s almost impossible to see them or target them specifically just because of how deep the water is there and how, um, intricate the underwater system is over there. But if they happen to come up and roll to get air and you can make a shot at them and, you know, get them in the right mood, they will hit. And, uh, that’s my dream fish. Ever since I saw Jeremy Wade catch one when I was a little kid. 00:09:29 Dave: Right. 00:09:30 Max: And, uh, we were sitting on the tracker boat just putting to a new spot and like, uh, five and a half foot arapaima came up and rolled at the side of the boat. And I looked at the guide and I was like, they call it in Brazil a pirarucu, which means red tail, because they have that nice design on the red tail. So I turned to the guide and I said, look, a pirarucu. And he turned to me and he’s like, cast at it. 00:09:51 Dave: Yeah. Wow. 00:09:53 Max: By the time I fumbled with my gear, he had went back down too late. But yeah, too late. But they’re there. You know, it’s a possibility. Wow. 00:10:01 Dave: So yeah. So you could probably target maybe just go out for the day, could you for arapaima. 00:10:06 Max: Only if you depending on what the water levels are and stuff like that. If you talk to the guide about it, you could entice them to go specifically for the Arapaima. The main reason why they don’t offer it as a specific target species is just because of how hard it is to actually locate and find them. Yeah. Um, you know, the peacock bass, um, Tucumcari, what they call them down in Brazil, which is friend of the tree. Um, the peacock bass is much more all over the place. It’s way less elusive, you know what I mean? That the waters are so filled with them at so many different sizes. I mean, the day that we had the one hundred and one fish bag. We caught seventy five of those fish in forty five minutes. 00:10:53 Dave: Oh, wow. 00:10:54 Max: It was just a crazy blitz of all juvenile size fish. The guide put the boat at the tip of a point and set the trolling motor and just drag the boat down the whole point. And it was every cast immediately in the water. Fish was coming up and smacking. And they’re aggressive. You know, they’re aggressive even at small sizes. They’re aggressive. They’re jumping out of the water. They’re flipping around pulling drag. So they’re it’s a fun fish at any size. If you get the opportunity to catch one, that’s a trophy size, which down there, the guides will say anything over sixty five centimetres, um, is going to be a trophy size. 00:11:31 Dave: How many inches is that? 00:11:33 Max: Sixty five centimeters is like, uh, twenty two, twenty three inches, I believe. 00:11:39 Dave: Okay. Yeah. So anything over twenty three? 00:11:42 Max: Yeah, something in that range, I don’t know exactly. I know that my biggest down there was Seventy centimetres and that was twenty seven point nine inches. So anything you know, five centimeters is two inches. So yeah, twenty five inches I would say is where your yeah, your trophy size is at. And that’s a whole nother game. You know, it goes from one type of fighting style to another type of fighting style. And they’re, they’re bulldogs, man. They’re very fast. They are gonna drag you back into the trees. That’s why they call them the Tucumcari, the friend of the tree, because they immediately go to the trees. It’s a fun fight, but the guides are great down there, man. If you get a fish and he gets tangled in the trees, they will jump into that river and swim into the trees and pull your fish out of there. 00:12:29 Dave: They will. Wow. 00:12:30 Max: They will. Yeah. 00:12:31 Dave: That’s great. What’s the what’s the flies? Your tie in for the peacocks? 00:12:35 Max: Uh, so it was a lot of hollow flies. Bob Popovics hollow flies. We did like, um, a juvenile peacock colorway and then like a Wonderbread colorway. Um, they were loving those. And then the best fly for the whole week down there was again another Bob Popovics pattern, the Semper Fi in, uh, white and red. That was the, um, the money maker for the week. That’s what I call my PB on. That’s what I was using the day we had the, the big bag. Um, and a lot of other people caught some pretty big trophy sized fish on that, uh, that fly. But you know, Semper flies, uh, hollow flies. We threw a couple beasts down there. Um, you know, anything that’s looking like a small bait fish that’s got good movement, um, they’re going to hit it because they’re hungry and they’re aggressive. 00:13:23 Dave: Wow. So that’s the Brazil trip and you’re doing that sounds like you’re going to be doing another one of those, uh, or at least a couple more of those coming up here. What’s the timing? Uh, when are you going on those trips? 00:13:33 Max: Uh, so we are leaving December twenty sixth of. Oh, no. Sorry. Uh, November twenty, uh, November thirtieth of twenty twenty seven to December seventh. That trip is fully booked with ten people already. Um, but we’re repeating that same trip in twenty twenty eight, and that’s going to be November twenty eighth to December fifth, twenty twenty eight. Um, that trip runs five thousand five hundred dollars per angler. Uh, we can host up to ten minimum of eight. Um, that price includes your lodging for the week, your fishing, your food. Mhm. A laundry service, a cleaning service because we are on a mothership transfer. Yeah. Transportation from the airport to the river, uh, and back. So basically, aside from your flight to Brazil and your gear, that five thousand five hundred dollars gets you squared away for the whole trip. 00:14:28 Dave: It does. And what airport are you flying into? 00:14:30 Max: Um, we flying to Manaus. 00:14:32 Dave: Manaus. Okay. That’s and that’s just in Brazil. 00:14:35 Max: That’s like. So Manaus is the capital of Amazonia in Brazil. So yeah, we’ll fly into Manaus airport and then a brand new. They just finished building it last year. A brand new kind of touring bus will come and pick us up from the airport that same night, all of us. And then it’s about, uh, four or five hour bus ride right to the river. And the mothership meets us right at the river. And then we’re on the boat for the next five days, six days, depending on what day we land, because it’s a Tuesday to Tuesday trip. Um, so sometimes we stay a half day on the river on the sixth day. Sometimes we don’t. But then that boat will come back to the same spot where the bus dropped us off. Bus will pick us up again and bring us right to the airport. And, uh, off you go. 00:15:22 Dave: There you go. What’s it like? Uh, what’s the mothership like? Uh, kind of living on the mothership. 00:15:27 Max: The mothership is awesome. It’s like a five star hotel in the middle of the Amazon jungle. Honestly, um, you got two. The setup is, uh, two people per room. Each room has two beds and a private bathroom. Air conditioning unit. Um, the whole boat is air conditioned inside, but each bedroom has its own air conditioning. So you got your bunk up with a mate. You have a personal bathroom in there? Uh, that’s on the we’ll call it the main level of the boat. Then you have two upper levels. 00:15:56 Dave: Oh, wow. So this is like a three story, three story. 00:15:58 Max: It’s a three story. I think it’s one hundred and twenty five foot long boat, if I remember. 00:16:02 Dave: Where would you see? Where would you see? Could you see a photo of what this looks like? 00:16:06 Max: Oh yeah. Absolutely. If you go on uh, the Moccasin Fly Club Instagram or my Instagram, we both have pictures of the ship up there. 00:16:13 Dave: Oh you do? Okay. 00:16:14 Max: Yeah, yeah. So you got the first floor with all the beds in it. The second floor is going to be they have like a TV gaming room and an outdoor bar. Um, and then the third floor is a, you know, open to the sky. That’s where we’ll do dinner, um, one or two nights a week. Um, and then again, you have a full chef staff on the boat twenty four over seven. Um, they make you three meals a day, wake up, call the manager of the boat will come and knock on everybody’s door, wake you up, go down for breakfast, get you a packed lunch for the day and six o’clock. You’re on the water until five o’clock, usually like four or five o’clock in the afternoon. You get back to the boat. The crew’s waiting there with cocktails for you and snacks you get on, have a cocktail, have a snack, wash up, dinner served. So it’s a very, very seamless and organized process that they have going on there. That makes it very easy to just focus on the fishing and not have to worry about what am I eating? Um, is my, are my clothes gonna be clean? I need to make my bed. I need to clean my room. They take care of all that for you. You’re there to fish and to enjoy the Amazon. 00:17:25 Dave: That’s awesome. 00:17:26 Max: Essentially. 00:17:26 Dave: Yeah. That’s sweet. What is it about, uh, Bob Popovics flies that are so, uh, you know what I mean? It seems like he’s got something going there. I mean, I know there’s a lot of other types of flyers, other tires out there, but what is it unique about his style? 00:17:41 Max: I think what is super unique about his style and what kind of drives a lot of people to try those, is that he’s, you know, what he was able to do was achieve such a big, broad profile of a baitfish and still maintain the castability and the ease of fishing in that profile without sacrificing one or the other. The way that he was able to, um, incorporate these various time techniques of hollow tying and reverse bulkheads and whatnot to build profile and taper with just bucktail, which is a very light material that’s easy to cast and wicks water. Well. And so it’s, it’s, it’s a culmination of a few different things. You have the, the good material selection that he had, the good tying style, the profile that he was able to create. And that kind of just led to a very large platform of innovation that everybody has been able to base off of or, or tweak off of. 00:18:45 Dave: Is the basic style. It’s basically bucktail. And then just and then the technique is just, I mean, yeah, it’s a unique looking fly, but it starts with Bucktail. Most of his flies have Bucktail. 00:18:55 Max: It starts with Bucktail. Yeah. Everything. Pretty much everything starts with Bucktail. The main patterns that I tie of his are again, the Hollow, the beast and the Semper Fly. And they all start with Bucktail. Um, the hollow and the Semper are very similar. Um, I mean, sorry, the hollow and the beast are very similar. I would say the main difference between the two is that one has the long mono extension off of the hook, which is the beast to get that really long, really tall profile. Um, and the hollow doesn’t have that mono extension, but you can still achieve a very long, uh, big profile, um, on that platform, all based off of the hollow tie with the bucktail. Um, so you get a couple bucktails, you get a couple chicken feathers. 00:19:41 Dave: You’re good. 00:19:41 Max: To go. 00:19:42 Dave: Some little. 00:19:42 Max: Flashy stuff. Yeah. And you’re good to go. Yeah. 00:19:45 Dave: What? What is the species wise? Are there just a ton of, uh, minnow species that you’re imitating down there, or do you have a specific one for Brazil? 00:19:53 Max: Um, for Brazil? No, there isn’t a specific one when it comes to the hollows. I think we found that the juvenile peacock colorway worked the best. So like, you know, a green kind of like a darker green color with hints of yellow and red. Um, being that they are such an aggressive fish and they are a cichlid. You know, that’s one thing that I don’t know. 00:20:16 Dave: Oh yeah. 00:20:16 Max: They’re a knowledge or or what, but you know, it’s peacock bass, but it is a cichlid. It’s not. 00:20:21 Dave: A bass. It’s not in the same. 00:20:22 Max: It’s not a bass. Yeah. And they are cannibalistic fish. So they will eat their fry. They will eat their young. Um, so having a fly that looks like a baby version of itself and making, you know, fishing it in the right way that you’re making it look wounded or weak. They’re going to hit on that. They’re very, um, opportunistic fish. And then again the red Semper Fly. So I don’t I’m gonna be honest, I don’t think that color is a huge determining factor down there. I think that given the fact that it’s not pressured waters, that plays huge into it. Obviously, right off the bat, they haven’t seen a lot of stuff. So they’re gonna hit a lot of stuff. But the sole aggressivity of the fish, if you got that profile right and you got the size right, they’re gonna hit it. I don’t think color is something that they’re too concerned about. 00:21:15 Dave: Yeah, that makes sense. Wow. This is cool. So so you got the so the trip coming up here, uh, is on the Brazil. Talk about some of the other trips you got going with moccasin. You’ve got and you’re tying maybe, and you’re pretty much tying for all the trips that you’re going on here. 00:21:29 Max: Yeah. So any trip that I host, I will be tying for. Um, so if you happen to come on a trip that I’m hosting and you don’t know what to bring, or you don’t have the right stuff, or you’re concerned about what you have. Rest assured that I’ll probably have one hundred flies with me, that you’re more than welcome to use. Yeah. Um, right. But as of right now, I. My next trip is, um, the double hole tournament in Mexico. I’m not hosting that. I’m actually, uh, participating in the tournament that’s this September. Um, and that’s something that moccasin, I believe this is either the second or third year that we’re doing this. 00:22:08 Dave: Yeah, we’ve heard about that. This is a cool trip. I, and I know we just got off of an Atlantic salmon trip and, uh, and Mike, uh, shout out to Mike. He was one of the guests who was on the trip. I think he’s going to be on the double haul and, and Mike’s awesome. He’s down out of, uh, Texas. But yeah, talk about that a little bit. I know John described that a little bit, but this is kind of a fun event, right? Where there’s like a kind of like a contest, a fun contest. 00:22:31 Max: Yeah, yeah. So it’s a cool, you know, it’s a cool tournament that John put together. Um, it’s five days of fishing, two days of quote unquote practice to get you locked in with your guide that you’re given for the week. And then you got three days of tournament fishing. The tournament fishing is it’s, it’s a moccasin tournament. Yeah. Um, so, you know, it’s something that John is putting together. Um, there’s going to be trophies for biggest fish, most points, species specific and whatnot. So it gives a little bit of that. Um, it adds that competitive edge into the fishing, which I think a lot of us as fishermen already have in ourselves. Um, so when you put tournament on something, it kind of gets us all excited. I mean, it gets me excited. Yeah. So it’s a cool program and you know, the price is really, really good. Um, you know, for what you’re getting, it’s three thousand four hundred dollars down there for five days of fishing, lodging. So it’s a really good program. Um, you know, the people down there, this will be my first time down there, but I mean. 00:23:33 Dave: Where is this at? Where’s the location? 00:23:35 Speaker 4: Ish. Galak. 00:23:35 Dave: Yeah. That’s right. 00:23:37 Speaker 4: Ish. 00:23:37 Max: Yep. So I haven’t been. But I’ve met a couple of the guys from down there, the owner of the lodge that we stay at and some of the guides, and they’re all awesome people from, from the experiences that I’ve had with them and from what John has told me. Yeah. So I’m very much looking forward to that. And this is a yearly trip. Um, I believe there’s talks about doing a, another version of this possibly over in um Oman. 00:24:01 Dave: Oman. 00:24:01 Max: Um, yes. So the species target is tarpon and permit. So I think over there it would be permit and gt. 00:24:08 Dave: Oh cool. 00:24:09 Max: Don’t quote me on that. I think it’s happening. 00:24:12 Dave: That’s awesome. So Tarpon and permit that which is great about that is that you know, when you talk about two species that are not the easiest fish to catch, you know, these are two of them. What are your thoughts there? Have you have you had a chance at either of those species? 00:24:25 Max: So I have not had a chance at either of those species. Um I have this will be my second time doing the, uh, bow front sight casting style of saltwater fly fishing. The first time I did it was down in Louisiana. Oh yeah, for redfish. And it kind of, um, it’s kind of like drugs, if I gotta be honest with you. You know, it’s it’s it was very new to me because it was the first time that I had done it. And it got me, no pun intended, hook, line and sinker. Yeah. It is the adrenaline rush of that team dynamic with your guide, um, where you could be having a normal conversation about football and then, you know, all of a sudden out of nowhere, the guides like, you know, eleven o’clock, thirty feet out, the adrenaline comes. And even if you fumble the fish, it’s just the whole process of it is very, um, very adrenaline fueled. And I, I love that. So I’m only assuming that Mexico is gonna be even more intense than that because the fish are harder to target than the redfish. Right. Um, so I’m very, very, very much looking forward to that. You got down there in Mexico. We’re going to have the the tarpon, the permit bonefish, Jack Cavalli, um, which I know a lot of people aren’t big fans of, but I am. 00:25:44 Dave: Yeah of course. I think we’re you know, the way I see it is that I think a lot of the podcast listeners are like this. It’s like all the species are great, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, everything. I don’t care what it is. It’s just because you’re catching a diversity. I mean, you know what I mean? How can you not enjoy catching some new fish? 00:26:01 Max: Absolutely, absolutely. And especially when you’re talking about big fish, big rods, big flies. You know, it’s again, that adrenaline starts churning and you just get very in tune to what’s happening. And, um, it’s awesome man. It’s going to be a great time. It’s awesome that, you know, John and Moccasin are able to put these things together. Yeah, it’s an honor that I’m able to be involved in the process and part of the team and get to experience these things and go to all of these awesome places. Um, so yeah, I’m very much looking forward to it. 00:26:32 Dave: That’s cool. So that’s a double haul. And then the double haul. What are you going to be. What flies are you going to be tying for that trip? 00:26:37 Max: Uh double haul is going to be a little bit different for me, you know, because the fish are eating not fifteen inch flies. Um, so my partner that I’m going to be fishing with, uh, shout out to Levi. Um, he is going to be taking care of all of the shrimp and crab style flies for the boat race and the permit. And I am gonna be tying all of the flies for the tarpon and the jack. Um, you know, tarpon flies. I’m going to be doing some tarpon toads, a couple weird ideas that I came up with myself. We’ll see how they come up with. But for the tarpon, it’s going to be primarily the main stuff that they’re throwing tarpon, toads, worms, you know, little feather bugs, maybe some smaller Semper flies. You know, we might try and put together a couple, four or five inch hollows just in case they’re running on mullet. And you know, we can get into that. Um, but yeah, for the permit and bones, it’s obviously going to be the crab stuff floating crab, sinking crab, shrimp patterns and stuff like that. 00:27:35 Dave: Awesome. So double haul. So you’ve got that coming. And then talk about some other things that you got in the horizon, some other trips that you’re going to be tying for. 00:27:43 Max: I have another trip that I’ll be hosting in February of, uh, this, this coming February. February eleventh to February fourteenth. That is in Louisiana for the redfish. 00:27:55 Dave: Oh, cool. So you’re going back for redfish. 00:27:57 Max: Yep. Going back for redfish. We have I got five openings available on that trip. That’s a two thousand seven hundred dollars trip for three days of fishing three nights of lodging. Um, and that’s an awesome program. Louisiana’s great redfish are awesome, you know, um, so that’s the next one after the double haul. Then from there we go into Brazil. Um, and then I have the end of twenty twenty seven. I have a trip that I’m going to be hosting from December sixth to January first in Argentina. Um, for the dragonfly hatch down in Patagonia. 00:28:33 Dave: Oh, yeah. 00:28:34 Max: So that is, uh, that’ll be my, um, my last trip that I have that I’m hosting as of now in the, in the lineup. Um, and kind of a different direction than what I’m on now. You know, that’s obviously trout. Um, but I’m in beautiful Argentinian Patagonia. You know, I mean, I don’t think it really gets much better than that when it comes to trout fishing. 00:28:56 Dave: No it doesn’t. No. I think that’s like top of the list for sure. There’s a bunch of places. But yeah. 00:29:02 Max: And I’ve been to Alaska and Alaska is beautiful, but Patagonia sounds a lot nicer than Alaska, right? 00:29:08 Dave: Right. Yeah. In Alaska. What part of Alaska did you go to? 00:29:12 Max: I was on the Kenai Peninsula. 00:29:14 Dave: Oh, Kenai. 00:29:15 Max: Soldotna, I believe, is the town that we were in. Yeah, yeah. That was. I went there with, um, Alaska outdoors. 00:29:22 Dave: Oh, cool. What were you guys fishing for? 00:29:24 Max: Uh, so I tried to do this, uh, thing that they call the June Slam. So it’s seven species on the fly and June down there. Um, I got six of the seven. No kidding, but it’s, uh, Dolly Varden. Let me see if I can remember them all. 00:29:40 Dave: Yeah. Let’s see if you can remember him, Dolly. Let’s see. Well, let’s see, let’s see, let’s see if we can. We’ll let the let the listeners think about this for a second, because we’ve been talking Alaska quite a bit. So you got six. So June, what you’re going to get in June is potentially Chinook, although I think Chinook, were they open during that time because the Kenai has been having some struggles right. With Chinook. 00:29:57 Max: They were. But it was a very small period because it was very low run when I was there a few years ago. 00:30:04 Dave: Yeah. 00:30:05 Max: So you got the Dolly Varden, you got Arctic char, you got lake trout, you have grayling, you have rainbow trout. That’s five. Then you got the Chinook. That’s six. And then the seventh one is what? 00:30:23 Dave: The seventh one. That’s a mystery. I’m trying to think rainbow. No no other salmon would be running in June. Right. Well, you might get some. 00:30:29 Max: It was just one salmon species. 00:30:31 Dave: Yeah. Just the one Chinook. 00:30:33 Max: And I caught the seventh fish because the one that I didn’t catch was. Oh no. Sorry. The seventh is, uh. Pike. 00:30:40 Dave: Oh, and Pike, you got northern pike? 00:30:42 Max: Yeah. Yeah. So that was the one that I didn’t catch. 00:30:44 Dave: Oh, you didn’t get a pike? 00:30:46 Max: Yep, yep. I got all the rest of them, but no pike. 00:30:48 Dave: So you got Doll and Dolly’s Arctic char Lake trout and then Grayling, Grayling, rainbow rainbow and. 00:30:56 Max: Wow. Yep. 00:30:56 Dave: Good work. And that was in June. Uh, what was. 00:30:59 Max: It like, June? 00:31:00 Dave: What was it like down there in June? Pretty good weather. 00:31:02 Max: Oh yeah. It was decent. You know, it wasn’t terrible. A lot of overcast. But, you know, that’s not really when you’re fishing, you’re not really complaining about overcast. 00:31:10 Dave: No. Overcast is good, right? Yeah. 00:31:12 Max: No rain really. Um. 00:31:15 Dave: Good rivers. Good conditions. 00:31:16 Max: Good rivers. Yeah. Good conditions. I think the biggest thing for there is, which is kind of shell shocking if you’re not like programmed with it in your head is going to be the the light versus dark. You know, I, I knew about it, you know, I’ve known about it my whole life, but when I got there, I didn’t think about it. And then I walked out of my room at eleven o’clock at night to run to my car. And it was still sunny out. And I got really confused as to what was happening. And then I remembered. Right. But, um, yeah, that was really the only thing that I would say if, if you’re not walking into it, like conscious that that’s going to happen, it might shock you a little bit. Um, because we had pretty much, I think like twenty, twenty something hours of light a day. It’s not like it’s beating sun. No, it’s weird looking out the window at two o’clock in the morning and the sun is still up, you know, but it is cool. 00:32:08 Dave: Yeah, yeah. For somebody like me or others, you know, where you’re like, oh man, you kind of want to like, just stay up all night, you know, and fish or do whatever, right? 00:32:17 Max: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, we definitely stayed out. You know, they had like little gazebo areas over there and we stayed out. Yeah. Shooting Please. You know, wait until the night just because. Why not? You know, you got this opportunity, you might as well. 00:32:31 Dave: Exactly. Well, and you’re on the east coast. What town are you in? Out there on the east. 00:32:35 Max: Uh, so I’m on Long Island. I live in a town called Manorville. Okay. Long Island, New York. It’s, uh, on the east end of Long Island. And this is. I’ve been here my whole life. Not in Manorville, but I’ve been on Long Island my whole life, and, uh, it’s the East Coast, baby. Exactly. 00:32:51 Dave: Yeah. What do you. What’s it cool? For those that haven’t been to Long Island, we’ve actually did at least one episode on Long Island. I know there’s some good opportunities. What do you really love about living out there on Long Island? 00:33:01 Max: Um, I would say the diversity of, of people is really awesome down here. Um, I think that the proximity to saltwater fishing is awesome. Um, and, you know, also very close to here, just upstate, you know, you have some of the most famous and old and tried and true trout fishing rivers. Yeah. 00:33:23 Dave: That’s the thing we haven’t even talked about. I mean, we just had Rachel Finn on the podcast and she was talking about, you know, fish is up on the Ausable. I mean, that for the Adirondacks is like six million acres. It’s massive. 00:33:33 Max: It’s crazy, it’s crazy. And it’s a whole nother, you know, upstate New York, especially like up in the Adirondacks and stuff like that. It is a whole nother world than where I am. You know, it’s like you wouldn’t even believe that you’re in the same state. I mean, Long Island is a very suburban, congested area. It is, you know, you know, you get up into upstate New York and the Adirondacks and you’re you’re back in the woods, you know, you’re back with nature. Um, which is awesome. It’s awesome. 00:34:04 Dave: But you have fishing on Long Island, right? Do you do anything out there on your, you know, when you’re around around town there. 00:34:09 Max: So we have, um. 00:34:11 Dave: I mean, I guess. 00:34:12 Max: It’s like. 00:34:13 Dave: What is it more not as much trout, but kind of warm water fishing out there. 00:34:16 Max: Yeah. So there’s a lot of, you know, like, um, ditch pickle fishing, largemouth bass fishing, bluegill fishing. um. Carp fishing and stuff like that. We have a lot of, uh, small ponds and lakes throughout the island. We have two hatchery rivers here, um, that they raise, fry and release the fish into the river. Um, we did have many, many years ago, a pretty good native brook trout population that has since depleted. There are still some, um, but they’re few and far between. I do fish the hatchery rivers. If I need to, uh, scratch an itch and go catch some trout. Um, one thing that is cool about the hatchery river here, um, is that they do run out into the bay. So you have the opportunity to get some quote unquote hatchery sea run fish. 00:35:08 Dave: No kidding. So these are rainbow trout. 00:35:10 Max: So they stock it with rainbow trout and brook trout. Um, so you could get this hatchery steelhead if it happens really. 00:35:19 Dave: So these hatchery fish will migrate out to the Long Island Sound out there and then come back in. 00:35:24 Max: Yeah. They go out into the great South Bay. So on the south side of the island. Um. 00:35:29 Dave: Yeah. 00:35:30 Max: The river runs right into Patchogue Bay here. And they go right out there. So many, many years ago, many years ago, back in like the eighties, you know, a lot of the old time bass fishermen, striped bass fisherman, they used to know this and they would hang out at the opening of these, of this river going into the bay, because the striped bass used to feed on them, because they would come out through that, through that little canal out into the bay. And the bass used to just hang out and feed on them. So back then it was a very big, uh, one of those unknown secrets that and the fact that, um, we used to have a large run of Caron brook trout because the brook trout, excuse me, would go out of the river and go in the bay. I don’t know if they made it all the way into the ocean or if they were just in the bay, but they would hang out in the bay for a while and then come back up the river. And there’s actually a book called Brook trout. Um, and there’s a small excerpt about them talking about that, you know, here in Long Island in the book. And it doesn’t happen as often. Um, from what I’ve heard and the people that I’ve talked to, I luckily wound up catching one of these sea run brook trout. You know, it looks like an Arctic char. It doesn’t really look like a brook trout anymore. Um, and the I went when I caught it, I went and spoke to the people at the hatchery and everything, and they said that it was the first one that they had seen in fifteen years. No kidding. Yeah. So it hasn’t been, I believe that there still are. It’s probably few and far between, right. 00:36:59 Dave: There’s still. 00:37:00 Max: A few. Um, yeah, but, uh, but that’s cool. You know, it’s a cool thing that you can say that, uh, not something that you cross paths with often. Um, so yeah, definitely. Cool. 00:37:10 Dave: Great. Yeah. And you’re not too far. Like you’re saying, we were just up there. I flew across the country, actually flew into Toronto, then into Nova Scotia, to Halifax, and then up to Newfoundland to fish for Atlantic salmon. You’re not too far from there, right from New York. You could probably. In fact, Lee Wolfe, I think back in the day, used to fly his plane from somewhere out there in the States up. 00:37:29 Max: Yeah. No, it’s not far at all. I mean, we last year, a couple of buddies and I went up to Pulaski for the salmon Run, which is. 00:37:38 Dave: The salmon. Is that the salmon River? 00:37:40 Max: Uh, yeah. Yeah. Yup. Yeah. And that’s you’re basically in Canada at that point. 00:37:45 Dave: Oh you are that’s way up there, right? 00:37:47 Max: Yeah. And that’s like an eight hour run from my house. 00:37:50 Dave: Oh, wow. So it’s eight hours from your place to to up to Pulaski. 00:37:54 Max: Up to Pulaski. Yeah. So I mean, give or take another hour. You’re in Canada, another two hours, you’re in Canada. 00:37:59 Dave: Montreal’s not too far from there. Yeah. 00:38:01 Max: Yeah, you can get up there. I mean, it’s definitely if you got like a long weekend, it’s for sure possible. And it’s something that me and my friends have talked about because I, um, I haven’t had the chance to yet to do any swinging. Uh, but I really want to swing some flies and I really want to swing for some Atlantic salmon. Yeah. So that conversation of, uh, weekend backpacking for Atlantic salmon in Canada is always going. 00:38:24 Dave: Right. 00:38:24 Max: There. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:38:26 Dave: Well, that’s something I think you’re gonna have to talk to John Moccasin about. Get put together. Absolutely. Atlantic salmon because I know that’s one that, you know, it’s definitely obviously numbers haven’t been great around the world, but I think, you know, that part of Canada and I and I’ve heard that, you know, out in, I think Quebec, some of those rivers are having pretty good runs, you know, this year. So I think it sounds like something good’s going on out there. 00:38:47 Max: And they got a lot of, uh, you know, up in Nova Scotia now they have a massive striped bass population. 00:38:54 Dave: Oh they do. Oh that’s right. 00:38:55 Max: Yeah yeah yeah. 00:38:57 Dave: Stripers. Yeah. That’s the other one where you’re at. I think where you’re at. I mean probably that is the species. That’s the, the, the you hear the stories about the people are so crazed with, with striped bass. Right. 00:39:08 Max: Striped bass that is the Long Island species. I mean. Yeah, not even just Long Island. That is Montauk. You know, that’s what kind of what I think when it comes to fishing. I think that if you ask anybody about Long Island, the first thing they’re going to say is Montauk. And the second thing they’re going to say is striped bass, striped bass. And that is the truth. That is what, uh, what the fishing here is based off of. That is what ninety percent of fishermen here want. I mean, yes, we still have we still have fluke. We still have summer flounder. We have Blackfish. Um, you know, we do have tuna, we have mahi mahi, but striped bass is always the number one fish that people are here targeting. 00:39:48 Dave: Yeah, exactly. That’s awesome. Well, let’s start to take it out of here with our kind of tips, tools and takeaways segment. This today is presented. We mentioned it here Moxon Fly Club. Um, all the great stuff we’ve we’ve highlighted some of those trips today. I wanted to get a few tips out as we’re thinking about, you know, kind of fly tying. We’ve been on that a little bit, maybe talk about that if somebody’s going to be tying flies, getting ready for a trip, maybe some saltwater trip, what’s a couple of tips you tell folks and maybe you can even bring it back to, you know, how you got into fly tying? Was this something where you watched a bunch of YouTube videos or, you know, how was it getting started? 00:40:21 Max: So my suggestion is going to be contact people. I watched a lot of YouTube videos and I was very weary about messaging people in the beginning because I didn’t want to be that, right? 00:40:33 Dave: Like on social media or something. 00:40:34 Max: Yeah, like that annoying guy that’s like trying to get just information from people and whatever. Um, but I found that everybody, I don’t want to say everybody, ninety percent of people in the tying community are very eager to share and help out. Right. Um, so, oh, my beginning stages was based off of YouTube, but then I started reaching out to people that I, um, aspire to be like when it comes to fly tying and actually became friends with a lot of them, like Matt Bailey and Andre, who’s, uh, South African gentleman. Bucktail flies, uh, August on the fly, you know, a lot of really awesome people in the community that all it takes is just, hey, I’m struggling with this or hey, I want to learn how to do this. Can you show me? Um, and these people are very open to sharing that knowledge. 00:41:23 Dave: That’s cool. And they would show you, you ask them and then they would kind of show you on how would they show you. 00:41:28 Max: Uh, take a video of them tying it and send it over, draw pictures on paper. 00:41:32 Dave: Oh, cool. 00:41:33 Max: Point you in the direction of what YouTube video to watch. There’s also, if you’re a reader, which I unfortunately am not a big reader, even though I have a big book collection, right? Um, there’s tons of books. Bob Popovics has two books out. There’s tons of books that you can read that go over techniques. Um, you know, Flat Wing Joe has a book specifically on tying flat wings. Bob has his two books that go over all his patterns. Um, and then when it comes to, again, to the reaching out to people, if anybody listening has any questions, my Instagram is always open. I have no issues. I’ll FaceTime you, I’ll send you videos. We can go over material, we can go over whatever. There’s no gatekeeping. 00:42:14 Dave: That’s awesome. 00:42:14 Max: You know, if you want the knowledge, the knowledge is there for you. Uh, essentially. 00:42:19 Dave: So somebody getting ready for a, a big saltwater trip somewhere they can just ping you on and remind us again on your Instagram predator. What’s your handle? 00:42:27 Max: Uh, predator prey flies. 00:42:29 Dave: Yeah. So we can track you down there. And that’s good to hear because, you know, I think that everybody’s busy. But the cool thing is, is that, you know, the fly tying and all this, you know, you love it so much. You want to share what your knowledge, right. And you’re kind of at that level now you’re at the next level, right? So people are going to be hitting you up more. 00:42:45 Max: Absolutely, absolutely. And, you know, it’s one of those things that, um, it’s a never ending game. You’re never going to learn everything. There’s so much knowledge out there and there’s so much improvement. You know, I don’t even some people may say that I’m on a certain level, but I don’t even, you know, I still see myself as a beginner that has so much to learn. And I think that that’s what’s awesome about it is that it’s not just fly tying, but it’s an art. It’s a craft. 00:43:09 Dave: Exactly. 00:43:10 Max: If you’re an artistic person and you like that your craft is never ending. You’re always evolving. You’re always learning new techniques. What if I tweak this fly this way? How’s it going to. Is it going to jerk to the left in the water or is it going to dive down? Uh, how’s it going to swim? You know? So there’s so much. It’s a mad science. You can get so deep into it. It’s awesome. 00:43:29 Dave: That’s great. It’s awesome. Is there on the flies? Is there one? I’m guessing it’s maybe one of Bob’s, but one that’s just your standard, uh, saltwater fly. That would work for like all the a lot of these species we’re talking about. 00:43:40 Max: Yeah, it’s definitely going to be Bob’s flies, and it’s either going to be a hollow fly or a Semper fly. Those are my two go to’s. They’re always in my bag. Any color variation, whether it be a simple white on white or something to mimic a bunker or, you know, any species. Yeah, the hollow fly and the Semper Fly are always in my bag. And they’re the first two things I’m throwing go to’s. 00:44:03 Dave: Okay. What would be a tip on tying those flies? What’s something somebody wanted to tie up a few of those for? And would those be good potentially for even like redfish to. 00:44:12 Max: Uh, if they’re hitting on mullet. Yeah. If you tie them on a smaller size and they’re hitting on mullet, absolutely. You could throw those at redfish. Um, the tip that I would have is going to be, um, be selective about your material. Don’t just go and buy when it comes to bucktail. Don’t just go and buy any bucktail off the shelf. And I want to preface this. You can tie these patterns with any grade bucktail that’s on the market, but depending on the grade, you can make your life way harder or way easier. You want to go through the long haul of trial and error, like I did, of just buying this and buying that and buying this and buying that, that’s fine. It’s a great way to learn on your own. If you want to kind of circumvent all of that, go online. There’s tons of videos of people talking about grading Bucktail. I have a small video that I did with, um, about trout that’s on there. Yeah, it’s on their Instagram. James did a small video with me. It’s one of his guide tips. It’s on his Instagram talking about Bucktail. So if you need to see that that’s on there. 00:45:17 Dave: Yeah, we’ll put that in the show notes as well. 00:45:18 Max: Yeah, yeah. There’s tons of videos. I would say that’s going to be the main thing. If you got the time to watch a few videos or do a little research on what kind of bucktail you need for what you’re tying, you’re going to save yourself some money and some frustration for sure. 00:45:32 Dave: There you go. And bucktail and on the bucktail, the difference is, is that there’s a quality difference out there, right? But also selecting depending on what you tie, like thinner versus like, yeah, maybe describe that a little bit. Is there, is it a quality thing? 00:45:45 Max: Mostly it’s going to be a quality thing for sure. And the quality is going to be, uh, on different grades. Obviously you have length. Um, so if you’re looking to build a really, really long fly, you want really, really long bucktail, which is a lot harder to find. You need to be a lot more selective about finding, you know, bucktail that has six seven inch hairs on it when the average is going to have like three four inch hairs on it. Um, and then it’s going to be the consistency of the material. Is it super crinkly? Is it super soft. Is it stiff. Does it flop? And again, all of that is going to affect how the flies, fishes and swims. 00:46:24 Dave: Where do you go. Where do you get your bucktail from. 00:46:26 Max: I get my bucktail from anybody that has good bucktail. 00:46:30 Dave: Oh really? So you so this is like local like around the area or mostly online. 00:46:34 Max: There’s tons of guys on Instagram that are, um, processing and selling bucktail and that’s, you know, there’s, there’s a few guys, um, lateral lines fly tying is a guy that’s selling really good Bucktail. Uh, northwest Bucktail is also putting out a really good product, musky full, which is, you know, a bigger company. They also make, they make a great bucktail, um, you know, and they have a lot of awesome colors. Um, but I would say for me and my style and the kind of person I am, I like the small batch guys because one, You build a relationship with them. You become friends with them. They die. Up something cool. You never know. They might hit you up before they release it and be like, hey, you want this, right? So it’s cool to have that personal connection with somebody. And you know, you can ask for requests too, if you’re friendly with them, you know, hey, what do you think about this? Hey, what do you think about that? Um, so I’m more of a, a personable guy. I want to make a relationship with you. I want to be friends. Um, that’s why I deal with a lot of the guys that do small batch, uh, bucktails. Yeah. 00:47:37 Dave: Small batch. That’s awesome. No, those are great resources. Um, what is the so we mentioned, obviously we’re talking travel here today a little bit. What would be, you know, first off is the travel. Is that something you really enjoy? All the travel, getting to these places, just the getting there. 00:47:51 Speaker 5: I love it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s great. 00:47:53 Max: The whole build up of packing your bags six months in advance and looking at them every day until you go and. 00:48:00 Dave: Tying. 00:48:00 Max: Tying flies and, you know, rerigging rods and taking lines off and the whole build up of it, it’s it’s you know, the trip doesn’t start when you get there. The trip starts when you book it and you start thinking about it. So it’s an awesome process. Destination fishing has been something that I’ve thought about ever since I was a kid. Um, again, I’ll take it back to Jeremy Wade, man. You know, that’s, I think he was an inspiration to a lot of people. 00:48:27 Dave: What’s his show? 00:48:27 Max: River monsters. 00:48:28 Dave: Yeah. River monsters. 00:48:29 Max: Yeah. I think he was an inspiration to a lot of young anglers or, you know, anglers around my age bracket. Um, and he’s been all over the world. So as a kid watching that, I was like, oh man, I want to go there. I want to go there. I want to go there. And then I got a little bit older and I got in a position where I was able to venture out and do it once. And once I did it once. Um, it kind of became the only thing that I really, uh, wanted to ever do again. 00:48:56 Speaker 5: So that’s, you know, that’s, uh. 00:48:58 Max: When you get to this. Yeah. When you get to this level of love and addiction for the sport, it’s almost like you do everything in life to revolve around. 00:49:07 Dave: Exactly. To get to the next true. 00:49:09 Max: Exactly. Yeah. So, you know, we’re working to get to the next trip where we’re doing this for the next trip. So that’s where I’m at. And I love it. And I hope that I get to go anywhere and everywhere. And I hope that people listening to this, you know, if you’re weary about it or you don’t know if you should go or you’re not sure if it’s worth it, just go. Just do it. Because I’m telling you, that’s how I was the first time I tossed and turned and, and this and that. And then I just it snapped in my head. I made the phone call and that was it. You know, listen, life is short. You never know what’s going to happen. Yep. You can always make more money. You cannot make more time. So go and do the things that you want to do. Make friends, make memories, catch awesome fish, eat awesome food and awesome places and live life. Man, that’s really it. 00:49:58 Dave: That’s it. Well said. Well, take us out here with our just our travel tips and, you know, tips and tools kind of segment here. So you’re out traveling. What is your advice? What’s one tip you would give somebody on the travel to have about it? Because I know we’ve had issues with, you know, lost bags and we’ve had like, uh, you know, ferry issues, right? All this stuff. What is your, what’s one tip you would give somebody who’s making a big travel? 00:50:22 Max: Uh, I would say make a checklist when it comes to packing. Um, that’s the first thing that I always do is make a checklist because I’m one of those people that always somehow manages to forget something. Right? Um, so the checklist is key. Um, don’t overpack and don’t under pack. I know that that’s a crazy thing to say. And it’s like, you know, yeah, just pack what you need. Um, think about it. Are you really gonna need to change your underwear five times a day? No, no, you know what I mean. Do you really need seventy thousand pairs of socks? No, no travel light travel with what you need. Because wherever you go, you’re gonna bring stuff back from guaranteed. Um, and then my big thing, which John from moccasin will always say with the rods, carry them on going, check them coming back. You do not want to get to Brazil or Mexico or Oman or anywhere in the world, and your rods are lost when you come home and you’re coming off of the high of five days of fishing. If your rods get lost in transportation for a few days, you’re not going to care as much. So carry them on going there, check them coming back. Um, extra line, bring extra line and, uh, extra line. 00:51:35 Dave: What do you mean by extra line? 00:51:36 Max: Extra fly line? 00:51:37 Dave: So bring us a, uh, like extra, like extra backup fly lines. 00:51:42 Max: Yes, absolutely. Yeah. Because you never know. You never know, especially when you’re getting in these places again, like Brazil, Mexico, uh, you know, Oman, a GT will blow your line up, right? A tree in Brazil in the river will cut your line. A tarpon could pop your line. So bring an extra line, uh, travel light and have fun. 00:52:02 Dave: That’s it. 00:52:03 Max: That’s it, ma’am. 00:52:04 Dave: Awesome. So I think we can leave it there for today. This has been awesome. We will send everybody out to moccasin Flyklubb dot com and they can reach you as well at Predator Prey Flies on Instagram. And yeah, man, this has been great. Appreciate all the the words of advice on tying and travel and we’ll be keeping in touch with you as we move ahead. 00:52:21 Max: Awesome. Dave, I appreciate it. Thank you for having me. And, uh, uh, yeah, thank you and have a great day, man. 00:52:28 Dave: All right. Hope you enjoyed that one. If you get a chance, check in with Max. Uh, you can go to Max and flyklubb dot com or check in with them on Instagram if you want to. You heard them. If you want to get into more on tying some of these flies, Max is there for you. Check in with him, send him a DM, he’s going to help you out. I want to let you know if you’re interested in any trips. You can go to moccasin or you can go to Wet Fly Swing Pro, and that’s the easiest place if you’re not a member yet in Pro, we’ve got a bunch of bonuses and and extras you get there, go to pro dot swing dot com and want to let you know. We got trips. We mentioned a few of them here. Uh, moccasins double haul. We’ve got we’ve got the redfish trip, we’ve got a bunch of trips around the country. So if you’re interested in anything, please check in today. And that’s all we got for you. We’re going to keep this rolling as we get out and travel around the country. Hope you’re enjoying and preparing and planning for a big destination trip yourself. And if you get a chance, please check in with me anytime. If you’re new to the show, Dave at webplace dot com. Always love to hear from new members, new listeners, and everybody out there. So check in if you get a chance and I want to wish you a good day. Hope you’re having a good evening, morning or afternoon, and we’ll look forward to talking to you on the next episode. We’ll see you then. 00:53:37 Speaker 6: Thanks for listening to the Wet Fly Swing Fly Fishing show. For notes and links from this episode, visit Wet Fly swing dot com.
Max’s journey shows that destination fishing is about more than catching fish. It’s about preparing well, learning from others, and enjoying every step of the adventure.
Whether you’re tying better flies, planning your next trip, or connecting with fellow anglers, his experiences are a reminder that growth comes from staying curious and continuing to learn.