Transcript: PODCAST SERIES: The Chocklett Factory with Blane Chocklett
S6, Ep 1: The Chocklett Factory with Blane Chocklett
2024, Marvin S. Cash
The Articulate Fly
http://www.thearticulatefly.com
Transcript
Marvin:
[0:04] Hey folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of the Articulate Fly, and we're back with the first Chocolate Factory of 2024 with Blaine Chocolate. Blaine, how you doing?
Blane:
[0:13] Good, man. How are you doing?
Marvin:
[0:14] As always, just trying to stay out of trouble and, you know, big news at the end of 2023 and 2024 is going to be a big year for the Chocolate Factory.
Blane:
[0:24] It absolutely is, man. It's It's a dream come true. Super excited about this.
It's really 30 plus years in the making.
You know, we, as everybody knows now, finally launched the Chocolate Factory.
I had an opportunity to be in full control over my brand and my flies and, you know, work directly with my tires.
And it's something I've always wanted. And it's, you know, it's a big part of my life is always, always seeing fish and how they react positively and negatively, what you throw at them and understanding fish behavior.
I get to be able to design flies for all these years, 30 plus years.
I've always, my dream was, even though I've had flies out on the market with different companies, my dream was always for people that purchase my flies for them to see what I get to see.
And actually get to fish my flies. And that's finally going to happen.
Couldn't be more excited about it.
Marvin:
[1:30] Yeah, it's pretty cool. I mean, I know how important it's been for you.
I mean, because you spend hundreds of days a year on the water.
And, you know, your flies are involved to tie to be able to bring that to, I hate to say the average fly fishing angler, but, you know, basically the consumer is a really big deal.
Blane:
[1:49] It's a huge deal, man. And that's kind of going back a little bit to what I was talking about here.
[1:58] People really don't understand what goes into really understanding behavior because I've been a guide for 30 plus years and traveling and seeing all types of different fish and fisheries.
That's invaluable. You can't reproduce that without blood, sweat, and tears and being on the water and taking your beatings and whatnot.
And that's how I've been able to design these flies all these years by being on the water, sweating, freezing to death.
Getting soaked by cold rain or being out in the snow.
I mean, or ice, actually. Been in a lot of ice storms while I've been fishing as well.
And there's been days where I'm bailing the boat, a drift boat or whatever, and trying to keep that thing from sinking.
And you can't make up for that. And there's no hiding it. And you can't fake it.
And to be able to have the quality flies I've always wanted and having the trust.
[2:58] And someone that I know I can rely on and to make sure that what I believe in and what my mind's eye sees and my designs come to fruition.
It only comes from doing it the right way and doing it on the water and working with someone that understands that and has done it as well.
That's the only way you can truly make it happen.
And that's what the Chocolate Factory is all about. And it's taken me 30 years to get to this point, but I think it's gonna be worth it in the end.
And I'm kind of getting on the backside of my career now.
[3:35] It's one of those things that I believe that all this hard work and sacrifices, there's been plenty of that over the years and disappointments and whatnot, but to be able to finally have this happen.
And that's why you're seeing what you see in the next months and years leading into this or moving forward.
You're going to see the care and the attention to detail. Because I believe when you have that opportunity to put a fly in front of a fish of a lifetime, You want to make sure that everything has already been taken care of.
And that was my job by being on the water all these years, you know, and being able to relay that to my tires and having meetings sometimes twice a day.
And just making sure that we go back and forth with my designs and my samples that I receive and, you know, tweak this, this isn't right. Right.
And then it goes back to choosing the materials, the hooks that we're using.
I'm partnering with A-Rex, which is a huge deal to me, too.
[4:41] And, you know, just making sure we have the best quality hooks that we can use.
And obviously the materials, too.
And as we all know from the past couple of years, it's been not an easy thing to get the right materials and, you know, production.
And the whole everything has been kind of up in the air. And for us to be able to pull this off, I could not be more excited, man. I really can't.
And I'm sure we'll be talking about this as we move forward with some of these podcasts.
But I just wanted everybody to know what really goes into this Chocolate Factory and why it's so important to me and what you're going to see moving forward.
What you've seen in the first launches of this, these flies are going to be better than I can make them.
If not as good, they're going to be better. and the first flies that hit the market so far the jerk changers and they are i mean when you see them and you feel them and you fish them you're going to know that why i've been talking about it like this and why i've originally called these flies game changers.
Marvin:
[5:47] You know, and it's interesting, too, because I kind of, you know, as we're talking, you and I have talked multiple times and I've had this conversation with other people, too, that, you know, you don't have to be on the water to be a good fly tire, but you have to be on the water to be a good fly designer because the whole purpose of that is solving fishing problems.
Blane:
[6:08] A hundred percent. There's a lot of excellent custom tires out there that's doing my flies and they're doing a great job at it. and not taking anything away from them.
[6:21] They've been doing it for years. And that's kind of the way I wanted this to be, but these be directly me and my flies and my dream.
And it does take that. It takes that knowledge and it takes someone that put it, you know, like I said earlier, blood, sweat and tears.
And, you know, I designed them. So nobody knows the fly better than me, right? So for me to be able to directly put the input into them towards...
And that goes with the brushes, all the products that are going to be relaunched too.
But for me to be able to do that with my team and directly communicate that with them and go through several tweaks, then we got to change this. This isn't quite right.
This is too long. It's too dense. It's not dense enough.
I mean, all these little things, all that goes into...
That knowledge right like what you just said i asked um and you do you have to be able to do it to be a designer for me it was always on uh pop pop evicts i've told this many times in a lot of conversations bob said a great fly always comes from problem solving and it's true, and you cannot create a new pattern without being on the water and solving a true problem um and.
[7:42] All these flies that i've created all these years and i've created a lot of bad ones i mean i've, been on i've been on the vice many days many nights trying to figure out how i can make this fly swim a certain way what is that thing that made the fish not trigger on the fly and you can't do that without being on the water and you can't do that without understanding the fish that you're targeting you have to catch them you have to get denied countless times and then finally have that success and that is truly what makes a great fly is is knowing what the fish wants knowing what they don't want you can't just i don't think you could truly make a new a new fly a new great pattern an iconic pattern like these flies or surf candies or clouds or deceivers without putting that time in on the water and understanding fish behavior and that's what makes a great design or a designer by taking those lumps and beatings and having those moments of success. That's what it takes.
Marvin:
[8:46] Yeah, and you know, kind of the corollary of all of that is, you know, since you're not making Big Macs, you know, you've got a very deliberate rollout on the flies and it's really kind of like you're making fine wine, right?
So, you know, your initial launch, you have, I don't know, is what is it?
Is it four retail outlets in addition to yourself?
Blane:
[9:05] Yeah i have um four four initially because you know we have a small team that we have to build and it's going to take a long time to train new tires right and um i wanted i wanted i want to start slow and i want to i want to have a core group of dealers that i've been working with for years and i've known and that are friends within the industry you know like bad river outfitters schultz outfitters um the fish hawk in atlanta um tco fly shopping up in pennsylvania um working with feather craft um and we're working with saltwater edge right now and talk to a couple other dealers to bring them in slowly and and then understanding that we're all in it together we're a team a family and that's truck and family has always been a huge part of my life and you You know, that is who I am and those that know me know that.
And I think for me, it was very important to have a small knit community that was all in on what I've been trying to do all these years.
And I consider these shops and retailers family to me. And like I said, trust is a big deal and I trust them.
[10:20] They trust me and we're in it together because we understand what we're trying to do and we understand what we're going to move forward doing.
Doing we want to change the game not not to be funny about it but it's true that's that's what i want to do i want to moving forward uh in my life you know moving away from guiding i want to.
[10:40] Do more in conservation i want to do more in in design and leave a mark in that way make the make the uh fishing and fly fishing industry better than what it was for me um and do my part on that And I think that's important moving forward with these dealers too and bringing some in as we grow and not over-promising and under-delivering.
And I'm not going to compromise the quality of these flies because they're custom.
Basically, it's not mass.
Even though we're going to have higher volumes of flies being released, a lot more than I said, a lot of these great custom tires can do, but they're one person, right? but we're going to have 20 of me doing these daily.
[11:29] As you know, any attire knows it's tied these flies, it takes a long time to get good at them.
The attention to detail is going to matter, and even the packaging.
I want to make sure that the flies when they leave, my team, that they show up to me just like they left them, and then hit the retailers and the consumers just like they left the vice.
And the only way you could do that is to have the packaging that these flies are coming in.
And we're being very conscious about the environment.
You know, I want to make a difference in that too. I mean, I can't tell you how bad I feel when I get all these tying materials and whatnot, whatnot and it's all plastic you know and working with yeti and patagonia and costa and and that's what we're doing on a daily basis is trying to make the world a better place as we obviously sell products and whatnot it's important to me to make sure i'm doing it in a sustainable way and and a thoughtful way and and i feel like we're we're going to try to be leaders in the industry And this is one way of doing that, not only delivering the best flies in the world, but they also deliver them in a way that it doesn't hurt the environment and it's sustainable and recyclable.
Marvin:
[12:50] Yeah, it's super cool. And I know, you know, your first launch, you know, were the jerk changers.
Are you able to kind of share with us kind of what folks should expect to see coming out next from the Chocolate Factory?
Blane:
[13:01] Absolutely. Yeah, we have my larger flies, which I've always called the hybrids because just the materials that go into the big hybrids from six to basically close to 12 inch flies and everything in between.
The bigger baits, you know, the big predatory fish that feed on them.
I call them hybrids because and we're going to come out with the brushes that go with all these patterns of mine that I've created over the years.
And we've searched different areas within the marketplace to find these materials to make the casting and make the fit flies look more realistic.
So the hybrids are a combination of materials that allows us to have that larger profile, the swimmability that we want, but also make it castable.
And that's what the hybrid's all about. Realism, swimmability, and castability.
And to me, that's kind of been the, like you said earlier it's a it was a problem i was trying to solve years ago and the hybrids i think are the best flies that i i could produce to have all those triggering and attracting qualities that these big predatory fish want and so that's.
[14:13] The one of the next flies that would be hitting the market and then obviously that to me the most important uh fly would be the finesse flies and the finesse flies are just a way of me describing them that that clear water super spooky fish um.
[14:30] The most discriminating of fish um i'd call them finesse because of that because they're these are ultra realistic they look at and.
[14:40] Swim like the real thing and that's what a game changer should be it's a swim bait foul fly and it does all those things that you you want but a lot of fish in super clear water or fishers uh fished over quite a bit you got to have the exact bait that they they want to feed it's just like learning trout fishing in the beginning map to half and this is a match the hatch type of fly and you're gonna see you're gonna see flies that look exactly like a shad exactly like this and that and another thing that i'm going to be doing with this company is i'm going to be able to do custom flies for certain fishing situations you know um silversides glass minnows um herring you name it uh for different types of fishing conditions and you know uh that's kind of the kind of the route i want to go and and you know people travel and all over the world there's different baits and different different scenarios that happen in those places and i'm gonna make sure that we can cover those spots and you know working directly with dealers and myself and i've got plans to do some things in the future with what's directly with my my customers and my support group um which we can i'm sure marvin you and i will talk about that leading into the 2024 season you know um but But this whole thing is going to be a pretty cool deal.
[16:07] Like I said, it's 30 years of looking at the industry and looking at the fish and looking at fly designs and whatnot.
[16:15] And I feel like I've been there and seen a lot of different things.
And I feel like the way I'm going to approach this is going to be a big deal.
And the flies and going from the hybrids and then to these finesse changers and all the other flies that are going to be launched. And a lot of new patterns that I haven't talked about yet that's going to be in the new book.
So, um, I'm super excited about that. And I know the dealers I've shown and friends I've shown are really excited about what the world's going to get to see here and leading up in the next few months.
Marvin:
[16:48] Yeah. Super cool. And I guess the best way, right. For folks to kind of, you know, you've got your own social media channel.
I know you like Instagram, but you've also created a new Instagram, uh, channel for the chocolate factory, right?
Blane:
[17:01] Yes. Yeah. The chocolate factory, the chocolate factory on Instagram.
Please go check that out, like it, follow it, because that's where you're going to find the release of new products and whatnot and videos, hype reels, just information going forward on the business and working on a new website for all that.
That and the current website that we have it's plain chocolate fishing right um you can check it out there too but we're gonna have a lot more stuff coming here as soon as i get off this podcast i've got a lot of work to do on on that side of stuff taking photos put it on the website and be able to give it to dealers and right now packaging and all that you know every package that you get of ours it's going to have a story about the fly or if it's abrupt it's going to to tell you, you know, my thought process on the brush and what you could use it for other than my flies, if you want to use it for other things.
Um, so all that stuff's been thought out and I feel like we're going to try to help people that, that support us by giving them information that I've, you know, failed at or been successful, over the past 30 plus years of being in the fly fishing industry.
Marvin:
[18:18] And I know some of that is kind of taking you kind of off the traditional show circuit, But I do know, because I'll see you up there, is you will be at Schulze's Bobbin' in the Hood. I think it's the first weekend in February.
You have any other engagements that you want to let folks know about?
Blane:
[18:34] Yeah, I'm going to be in Saltwater Edge. I think the weekend of the 19th, 20th, and 21st.
He's having a very similar event up there. Peter Jenkins in Saltwater Edge in Rhode Island.
Great shop. They've been around for a long time.
He's a partner with me and ASGA as far as us trying to help the fisheries on the East Coast and Gulf Coast areas.
So Peter and I have been kind of working together the past year and a half.
On conservation side but he also became a partner with the chocolate factory and he he saw what shelty was doing with bob in the hood and decided to bring back uh something he used to do years ago, and uh doing this big time event on that saturday and doing some private classes on a sunday i believe and uh so i'm excited about that um and a couple of the other dealers i'm working with we We've been talking about me coming and visiting and doing some stuff there.
And as we do more launches, you'll see me posting things like that.
It's another reason to follow the Chopper Factory on Instagram and whatnot to see what we're going to be doing and where I'm going to be.
[19:50] I'm going to be traveling a lot over the spring, heading out west, doing a tour of California, then Washington and Oregon, again and then i'll be in the keys a little bit i'm gonna be a little little bit everywhere here you know it's uh it's gonna be a busy 2024 for me for sure yeah it's a good johnny cash song in there somewhere right yeah about him that's right so uh you know you briefly mentioned your work at asga um with peter um and i know we recently i don't know gosh within the last i don't know week to 10 days uh the comment period on addendum 2 just closes or anything you want want to share uh on the striper front or any other or any of the other conservation work that you've been working on yeah i do i really would like to reiterate what i've tried to say and in short little um public announcements with people and how important it is to take it five minutes when when we throw something out there and you see it stop what you're doing and and go sign it because Because I can promise you, we're not doing this because we're just trying to create a lot of fire.
I mean, there's smoke. And where there's smoke, there's a fire.
And a lot of these fisheries and fish are not doing well.
[21:04] You know, a lot of people say, well, it's been the best striper season, striper fish in the past couple years in certain areas.
And up and down the East Coast, well, specifically in New Jersey, New York, and up in Cape Cod spots. spots, but if you step back and really look at it, you're not seeing recruitment.
[21:23] We've had very poor recruitment in the Chesapeake Bay for a long time.
Chesapeake was the backbone of the striper population, and we're just not getting.
[21:34] We're not getting smaller fish the spawns have been terrible and the striper fishery believe it or not whether you want to believe it or not is not doing well even though we have a lot of really big fish around there's no small fish um and i saw that here in my in my home waters um where i was catching all these big ballmouth for a long time and just not getting a lot of a lot of numbers you know and um those are warning signs you know if you're not getting small fish and all you're You're getting into these year classes that are lapped.
It's going to take a very big spawn and a very good spawn. We haven't had those conditions for many years now.
You get to the end of their lives and you don't have any recruitment, then what do you have? You don't have any.
[22:20] It's important to protect the fish that we have currently.
We've tried to put it in place. um uh we're trying to get laws passed to where these fish are protected to where they can have a future because we got to have these smaller fish coming in to replace these fish that are moving out right so that's why we did that addendum too and we're still fighting to make sure that we can change certain certain uh laws that are already in place and whatnot to make make sure that everybody is being treated fairly, you know, commercially and recreational anglers.
I mean, recreational anglers are a big part of the problem.
You know, so people a lot of times think that ASGH not doing, they're kind of like looking at commercial side of things and it's not us.
And we're always, we're actually trying to police what us as recreational anglers are doing because we're, we're the bigger problem in this and.
[23:21] A lot of times and you'll see it you'll see the dock shots whether it be for stripers or down specifically in louisiana and which i went down with asga to speak in front of their house committee on the redfish down there and um it's just ridiculous to think that you could keep killing all these big numbers of fish and and then a brood fish too and think that these it's going going to be, stay sustainable.
You know, the fisheries are getting smaller, not bigger, you know, and it's, I've seen that and that's why I joined ASGA and it's important to me to not only, I've made some, I've made money and I've made money off of fish for 30 plus years.
It's important, very, very important to me that I can at least leave the fisheries as good as they were when I was starting out.
I would like to see him better, but I definitely don't want to see him worse because I've got a young son that loves fishing, and I want to make sure he gets to see things that I've gotten to see in my career and not just me telling him stories about, well, you should have seen this and that.
And that's important, and that's part of that addendum too.
[24:34] Moving forward, we're going to be moving into Florida, doing stuff with Snook, with ASGA, and continuing to fight the good fight in Louisiana.
Um we were a little disappointed in the original um uh decision that they made and but we continued to fight and we're in some headway on some changes there still so it's a tony who's director there and kind of my coach and kind of tells us where to be and gives us the pep talks i mean he just taught he tells me all the time it's not about victories it's about getting a first down and And that's kind of what – unfortunately, that's what conservation is all about.
It's just trying to get a first down and eventually getting a touchdown.
And hopefully we win in the end, but it's just all about getting the next – you know, it's three yards and a cloud of dust. You know what I mean?
So that's kind of what we're doing. It's been an eye-opener and very disappointing, to be honest, to see how common sense, as Lefty always said, isn't so common.
It really just blows my mind that the science is out there, and that's what ASGA is all about, is providing science for the powers to be to make good decisions.
And even though you provide the best science that you can, that definitely...
[25:56] Points in a direction and then see them go another direction.
It just, it's frustrating, but, uh, we're going to keep fighting.
And it's very important that people that do listen to this.
If we put something out there, we really need you to do it.
And you need to tell everybody, you know, because the more support we get and I've seen it, the more support we get, the harder it makes for those that are looking out for special interests that aren't looking out for the best interests of fisheries, it makes it harder for them to make those decisions that aren't in the best interest of the fish and the fisheries.
So please go do that.
And I know we greatly appreciate it and our kids will promise you that.
Marvin:
[26:36] Yeah. And I think it's an important thing too. And you kind of touched on it is, you know, the, the people that are doing this every day, they're not a lot of them and they don't have all the financial resources they need.
And so, you know, it's really important when you see those call to actions and, you know, I know ASGA, just like TU and other groups, they make it pretty easy for you to basically, you know, add your name to the call.
There's almost always a post, but, you know, spend that little bit of time, right?
Because you're helping, you know, people that, you know, to your point, like, you know, you go to work every day and you don't generally get a touchdown. down.
And, um, you know, it's, um, you know, winning a football game, uh, the old school NFC East way, uh, three yards in a cloud of dust is a long haul, right?
Blane:
[27:21] It is. And then it's, I'm in it for the long haul and everybody that's part of the ASGA crew is working countless hours.
I mean, I know Tony works 16, 18 hours, almost 18 hours every day, man and I don't know how he does it but I know I know he needs all the help he can get and I know we do too as anglers and it really I mean they make it um Cody who puts all this stuff helps put all this stuff together on social media it literally we make it as easy as possible click the link, put, you know, click this, click that, and you're done. It takes less than five minutes and it could change fisheries forever.
Marvin:
[28:01] Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, I, you know, as we kind of wind down, you know, first of all, I, I want to congratulate you and tell you how happy I am for you. Cause I know how important this has been to you.
Blane:
[28:12] I appreciate it, dude. It has, it's been a long row and, you know, I've had your support and, you know, talk to you for hours at a time, kind of kicking ideas and you giving me good suggestions, man.
It's, I greatly appreciate your friendship and support, man, for sure.
Marvin:
[28:27] Yeah, I appreciate it. Yeah, it's been, you know, it's been one of the great things is to, you know, doing the articulate fly and being around the industry is to become friends with you and other folks.
And I think it's great. And, you know, 2024 is going to be a great year.
And I want to wish everybody a happy new year. Happy new year, Blaine.
Blane:
[28:46] Thanks, you too, man. Hey, everybody, go look to Marvin.
You know, he's trying to do something special in the industry.
If you haven't checked it out, pay attention to what he puts out there because he's helped me a lot.
So I know he can help all those people that are in the industry.
Help me like, you know, he helped you like he's helped me. So go listen to what he's got to say. He's much smarter than I am.
Marvin:
[29:11] Oh, that's not true. We just have different talents. That's all.
Blane:
[29:14] Yeah.
Marvin:
[29:16] Well, I super appreciate that. and everybody, you know, look forward to, you know, touching base with you guys on the show circuit.
You know, Blaine, I know we'll be talking before then, but I'm looking forward to hanging out with you in Michigan in February with Schultz.
Blane:
[29:32] Yeah, man, me too. And happy 2024 to you and everybody else.
Marvin:
[29:39] Tight lines, everybody.