Main Line Fly-Tyers

Philadelphia's Oldest Fly Tying Club

Established 1971




Sep 15, 2022:    Henry Ramsey

Henry has a new presentation about Kettle Creek's Class A Wild tributaries.


2022 - 2023 Meeting Schedule and Speakers

Dec 15, 2022: Annual Auction & Christmass Party

Our yearly Christmas Party and Auction will be held again this year at the Sandy Run Country Club. A buffet dinner will be served at 7pm. The facility will open for us at 6pm to setup for the auction and have time to mingle before the auction and dinner begin.


If you wish to partake of adult beverages there will be a cash bar for your enjoyment.


The location is:


The Sandy Run Country Club

200 Valley Green Road

Oreland, PA 1907


The Main Line Fly-Tyers are pleased to announce that live meetings have resumed at the Greater Plymouth Community Center for the 2022-2023 season.

Special Notice.  Due to the Covid situation the Plymouth Center is closing at 9 Pm. Until further notice our meeting times will be 6:30 pm to 9 pm.


We will also be live streaming the meetings (for paid members only) for those still uncomfortable to be in large pulic situations. Be sure to pay your dues to recieve the online meeting invitations.


Pay your dues on-line: Join the MLFT Club


Jun 15, 2023 - Henry Ramsey

Terrestrials: Patterns and Tactics


It is now mid-June and most Mayfly hatches are starting to wane.  The Isonychias and Tricos are two exceptions and of course mayflies continue to  hatch all summer on the upper Delaware due to its very cold water.

For the rest of Pennsylvania, June is a transition month for fly fishing. Hatches decrease but terrestrials come into their own.  Ants, beetles, crickets, grasshoppers and even lantern flies will find their way into the water.  In those streams that remain cool there can be some excellent fishing with terrestrials.  Henry Ramsay will discuss some of  his effective patterns and how to fish them.

Oct 20, 2022:    Sam Vigorita

Sam is a longtime member of Main Line Fly Tyers and a master fly tyer, fly caster and fly fisherman.  In recent years he has focused most of his spare time on exploring and fishing the Upper Delaware.  In the process he has created many highly successful patterns for catching the extremely difficult wild trout of the West Branch and Main stem of the Delaware and has developed and refined fly-fishing tactics needed to have success on these rivers.   Sam has agreed to share some of his knowledge of fly-fishing tactics that he has acquired over his years of fishing the Upper Delaware. 


This is a great opportunity for club members to learn from a master.  An understanding of these tactics will improve your fly-fishing success wherever you fly fish


Nov 17, 2022: Dave Rothrock


Dave’s presentation: Fishing Unweighted Nymphs

With the Euro nymphing craze, use of heavily weighted, beadheaded nymphs appears to have taken the fly fishing world by storm. During a prior presentation to us, Dave provided insights into many aspects and his somewhat unique view of Euro nymphing. This time, Dave will delve into the use of unweighted nymphs, taking an in-depth look at various techniques to address a variety of conditions. We'll also discuss tackle, flies and applications which, when coupled with these techniques, can increase the “effectiveness quotient” of any angler.


Dave Rothrock has been pursuing trout and other species with a fly rod since the mid-1960's and he's been tying flies for a bit longer than he's been fishing them. He has fished throughout the East, into the Midwest, and Europe where he fished great waters in Austria and Slovenia.

Dave's articles have appeared in FLY FISHERMAN, AMERICAN ANGLER and PENNSYLVANIA ANGLER magazines as well as other publications. His fly patterns have have graced the pages of various publications, books and calendars. He has presented programs on fly-fishing related topics to groups throughout the Eastern U.S. and Canada. He is a co-author of the book “Keystone Fly Fishing: The Ultimate Guide to Pennsylvania's Best Water.”


In 2004 he and George Daniel teamed up to compete in the northeast regional qualifier for Barrett Productions' Fly Fishing Masters competition. As a team they placed first out of 36 teams in the two day casting competition.

Dave is a former Orvis Endorsed Guide as well as a former FFI Certified Casting Instructor . He has worked as an instructor in the L. L. Bean fly fishing schools and has taught fly fishing, casting and fly tying classes for various fly shops and groups. He currently guides and teaches fly fishing and casting through his business, Salmo-Trutta Enterprises as well as being on the staff of Sky Blue Outfitters. He utilizes many of the best trout streams in central and north central PA as his classroom environment. He serves as an Ambassador Pro with Douglas Outdoors and also serves on the Pro Staff of HMH Vises and Flystones. We are fortunate to have him provide this presentation to us. Enjoy!


Jan 19, 2023 - Ray Miller


Majestic Argentina - the scenery, culture, food, wine and of course world class fishing.


The location is: Fly fishing, wing shooting and photographing the natural world, have been a big part of Rays's life. He has been a n intergral part of the fly fishing community as a New York State Guide on the Upper D, Montana Guide, fly fishing and casting instructor to many beginning and advanced students. He is the assistant to the National Fly Fishing Show Director and past presendent of the Pennsylvania's largest teach fly fishing club.


He currently hosts international and domestic trips to such locations as Chile, Argentina, Alaska, Canada, Belize, Upper Deleware River, South Andros, Bahamas, Iceland and others. Traveling to these exotic locations has given him the opportunity to indugle in his true calling for photography and video production.


Some of his past and current projects include promotional videos for outdoor lodges and travel videos which can be found on his Youtube  Channel, "The Wandering Sportsman".


Ray enjoys being in the outdoors and sharing his experience through video, photography, hosting anglers to exotic locations or just sharing the joy of the outdoors in seminars, presentations or workshops.


To share these experiences with everone and inspire people to be outside is one of his greatest passsion

Feb 16, 2023 - Shorty Bartholomew


Tips and Tricks for Better Flys


Shorty will be presenting a program that features a number of tips and tricks for bringing more consistency and accuracy to your fly tying. Let's face it, we all want to have a little pride when a fellow fly fisher looks into our boxes and sees all of the little warriors lined up for battle like so any uniformed soldiers, but sometimes our executions falls a little short of our ambitions.


If you currently find that your patterns look too fat, too thin, disproportionate, or just generally inconsistent in some fashion, at the conclusion of this programs you will be better equipped to make each of your flies of the same pattern look exactly like one another.

Mar 16, 2023 - Rick Kustich

Fly Fishing for Great Lakes Stealhead


Shorty A complete discussion of pursuing steelhead in the Great Lakes region. The presentation looks at run timing, steelhead behavior, strategy fly, techniques, flies and some of the regions's top rivers. The discusion on techniques is focused on Rick's favorite approach to a steelhead river - swinging the fly, the use of switch and two-hand rods and spey casting.


Rich is a fly fishing writer, instructor, and guide who began fly fishing fifty years ago on the lakes and streams of upstate New York. His work has appeared in numerous national and regional publications. Rick is author of Modern Spey Fishing (2023), Hunting Musky with a Fly (2017), and Advanced Fly Fishing for Great Lakes Steelhead (2013). He is featured in the film Spey Daze and is the Great Lakes editor for Swing the Fly magazine.


Find out mre on Instagram/Facebook: @rickkustich or at www.rickkustich.com.


Apr 20, 2023 - Special Meeting

We are fortunate to welcome Tina from Wayward Trading Post for an interactive, hands-on custom net building demonstration. This should be a very unique and interesting experience. Wayward crafts beautiful hand made nets and fly boxes ... they are heirloom quality ... something to pass dow to your kids! Wayard will be offering a 10% discount to members during the meeting.


Also bring your rod and real ... from 4pm 'till meeting time Sam Vigorita will demonstrate casting and provide semi-personalize lessons to sharpen your casting skills.


Finally we are also offering knot tying and multi-tyer demonstrations throughtout the evening. Flies covered will include Dry Flys (Catskill, Comparadun and Parachute styles),, Wet Flys, Nymphs, Streamers and perhaps a few others.


Zoom will be available but this is a meeting you don't want to miss being there in person.


May 18, 2023 - Tim Flagler


Tim will do a fly tying demonstation tying 4 variations of the sulpfur; the KLG Sulfur Frenchie, a Sulpfur Soft Hackle, a Sulfur Parachute and the Last Chance Sulphur Cripple.  


Tim is the owner of Tightline Productions, a video production company. He produces videos over  a wide range of topics, his specialty is fly fishing. He is a well known fly tyer and his Youtube videos are some of the be best tying videos on Youtube with over 109,000 subscribers and 33 million views. Almost weekly is produces a new 'how to' video posted to his website, practicalpatterns.com and his Youtube channel. The can also be found Midcurrent, Orvis fly fishing blog and Trout Unlimited's website. Tim also has a regular column "Beginners Masterclass" in Fly Tyer magazine.


Tim's a fixture at the Fly Fishing Shows, giving presentations, teaching classess and often as one of the Featured Tiers.


Bonus: You have the opportunity to tie along with Tim. Click this link for more information, Tying with Tim.