FLYAbout FlyVault
What is FlyVault?
FlyVault is a free, growing repository for fly tying and fly fishing, and a space to keep your own flies — our goal is to keep tabs on everything in the craft so it can finally be found in one place.
Founded in 2021, FlyVault brings together over 10,000 fly dressings, more than 55,000 catalogued materials and over a hundred classic angling texts — and it’s still growing. Each fly connects to its materials and traces back to its source. It grew out of years of teaching the craft, where more than 500 people learned to tie. Running through all of it is MIDGE, FlyVault’s AI assistant for fly tying and fishing, with the whole vault behind it.
Everything worth knowing about fly tying and fly fishing has always been scattered. A pattern tucked in an old book nobody can find. A trick somebody showed you once. An answer buried in a feed three years back. For years now, we’ve been gathering as much of it as we can, pulling it into one place where it can finally stay put.
Who made FlyVault, and why?
FlyVault grew out of a fly tying community where good answers kept getting lost.
A feed is a hard place to keep anything: a trick somebody showed you, an answer worth saving, all of it scrolled away, and the same questions came back every week. FlyVault was built to fix that — a place where the knowledge could finally stay put. The first versions, started in 2021, were rough, and we rebuilt it more than once before it held. FlyVault hasn’t stopped growing since.
What’s in FlyVault?
FlyVault holds over 10,000 fly dressings, more than 55,000 materials, and over a hundred classic books, all connected to each other.
Flies sit at the heart of it, with more arriving all the time. Well over 5,000 come straight from the classic books, each traced back to the page it came from. Flies connect to their materials, materials to the flies that use them, and the old patterns back to the book they came from.
Can I keep my own flies on FlyVault?
Yes — every member gets a space of their own: your flies, your notes, your materials.
You decide who sees each fly: just you, or everyone. Change your mind any time.
Is FlyVault free?
Yes — the reference is free, and it stays free, open to anyone who comes looking.
Who is FlyVault for?
Starting out in this craft, there’s always more to pull together than anyone tells you: somewhere to learn, somewhere to make things, somewhere to keep it all.
Most people end up juggling a dozen tools. We’re building the other way, everything under one roof, so you can spend your time on the craft instead of chasing the pieces. Clubs, groups, shops and guides have a home here too — keep your Facebook page and your website, bring your members and your flies in, and they connect to everything else in the vault.
What is MIDGE?
MIDGE is FlyVault’s AI assistant for fly tying and fishing, with the whole vault behind it.
There’s more to it than we can say here.
Where does FlyVault go from here?
None of this is finished, and that’s the point.
We gathered what was scattered and gave it a home. Where it goes from here isn’t up to us anymore.
It’s up to you.