Fly Fishing Insider Podcast
Togens Fly Shop is a British Columbia online fly shop built around stillwater tying: hooks, beads and body materials for chironomid and lake patterns. Started roughly 18 years ago by a previous owner, it now runs a house materials line, free weekly tying tutorials, and custom tying kits built to a customer's budget and home water.
Dave and Justin run Togens Fly Shop, an online British Columbia fly shop specializing in stillwater fly tying materials, hooks and beads.
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What does Togens Fly Shop actually specialize in?
Togens Fly Shop is an online-only fly shop in British Columbia built around stillwater tying, and hooks, beads and body materials are what the shop is best known for. The shop was started roughly 18 years before this conversation by a previous owner, and the current family bought it after becoming his neighbors at a lake where they kept a trailer. Its customer base is concentrated among stillwater anglers in British Columbia, the Pacific Northwest and Idaho.
What changed when the second generation joined Togens Fly Shop?
Justin joined Togens Fly Shop about 18 months before this conversation, coming from marketing and social media rather than a lifetime behind a vise. He found a small customer base that had been reordering for close to two decades and concluded the products were already good and the shopping experience was the problem. His work was rebuilding the site so a beginner could see a clear path from nothing to a first usable set of materials, and pushing the shop out onto social media.
What house-brand tying materials does Togens Fly Shop make?
Togens Fly Shop sells two materials of its own: a flash-type skin used for chironomid bodies and ribbing, and a stretch material offered in colors outside what the rest of the industry stocks. Dave sources those himself, and both were being tested on salmon and steelhead patterns as the shop moved into that space. The two products are the start of a planned full house line covering wires and other staples, built on the argument that familiar materials can be sold at a lower price than the big brands charge.
How much should a beginner spend on fly tying materials?
Far less than beginners actually spend, according to Dave: he described people spending hundreds of dollars on materials and using maybe fifty dollars' worth, because the size of a materials catalog invites over-buying. Togens Fly Shop builds custom tying kits to whatever figure a caller gives, $150 for example, and assembles each kit around the species the tier is chasing and where they live. A British Columbia stillwater kit looks nothing like one built for Ontario or Colorado, so location drives the contents as much as budget does.
Why does Togens Fly Shop give its tying instruction away free?
Justin said plainly that he refuses to charge for education, so there is no paid course behind a paywall. Instead Togens Fly Shop publishes weekly tying tutorials on its blog and YouTube channel, produced largely by one member of its pro team, alongside written posts on general trout knowledge. A deeper instructional project was in progress at the time of recording, tied to the larger warehouse the shop was moving into that August.
What happened to fly tying sales in the first months of 2020?
Togens Fly Shop had already committed to a large inventory expansion when the pandemic arrived and expected the year to collapse. April went the other way: orders took off, and the shop sold out of stock almost immediately. Restocking then took roughly two months because borders were closed and shipping was backed up, which Justin named as the biggest operational problem of the year.
What does midsummer stillwater fishing look like in interior British Columbia?
At the time of recording, air temperatures at the lake Dave fishes were around 35 degrees Celsius and the trout were holding on the bottom, so anglers had to work for them. Four-, five- and six-pound rainbow trout were still coming out. Dave was fishing two rods, one chironomid under an indicator and one fly hung off the side of the boat on a fast-sinking line, with the lake's big chironomid hatches just starting to come off.
Key takeaways
- Start a fly tying kit small: many beginners spend hundreds of dollars on materials and end up using about fifty dollars' worth.
- Ask a shop to build a tying kit around your budget, target species and home region — a British Columbia stillwater kit is not an Ontario kit.
- Togens Fly Shop's own materials are a flash-type skin for chironomid bodies and ribbing, plus a stretch material in colors the major brands do not offer.
- The shop's weekly tying tutorials on its blog and YouTube channel are free and open to anyone, not just customers.
- In midsummer heat near 35 degrees Celsius, interior British Columbia rainbows sit deep — fish the bottom and expect four- to six-pound fish.
- A workable two-rod stillwater setup: one chironomid suspended under an indicator, one fly on a fast-sinking line hung off the side of the boat.
