About Us

Welcome to Dan Johnson's Saltwater Flies (customsaltwaterflies.com). It is my ambition to provide my customers with the most extensive selection of premium saltwater flies available anywhere. I have been in business since 1990 and have tied well over 18,000 dozen flies. The flies shown on my site are in no way a comprehensive list of saltwater patterns I produce, just the most popular. While I earned my reputation by tying Redfish flies, my flies work just as well for all fish that swim in saltwater. I’ve tied flies for all the inshore and flats species as well as Tarpon, Tigerfish, Golden Dorado, Giant Trevally, Milkfish, Tuna, Mahi, Cobia, Sharks and many more. Give them a try, you won't regret the decision. I will gladly tie almost any custom pattern my customer’s desire, with the price agreed upon before doing so. Visit the Custom page to find out how to order custom flies.

I have worked extremely hard to earn my reputation for providing a premium quality, very consistent product. You cannot buy a better made fly anywhere in the world. I look forward to letting you see this for yourself.

All flies are tied on Mustad stainless steel hooks unless otherwise specified. My customer’s satisfaction comes first. I guarantee my flies against defects in workmanship. I will not, however, guarantee them against attacks by fish.

About Dan

I started my career as a commercial fly tier in November 1990. Back then, the saltwater fly fisher’s choice of commercially available patterns for saltwater species was pretty limited. I had the good fortune to be taught by the well known professional tier Tom Lentz. As a teacher in a public high school I tied to supplement my income. By my best count, I have produced about 18,000 dozen flies on my well worn Renzetti vise. I sold to a number of fly shops in Florida for years, and still tie for Orlando Outfitters and Harry Goode’s Outdoor Shop. Since 2002 I’ve been selling my flies on the internet as well.

For 30 years my home was Brevard County, Florida, which put me smack in the middle of some of the best Redfish, Seatrout, Baby Tarpon, and Snook fishing in the world. Consequently, I built an excellent reputation for patterns aimed at enticing those species. Two of my Redfish flies, the Redfish Candy (Cherry) and the Indian River Redfish fly have taken numerous I.G.F.A. recognized world records. My fly patterns have been written about or published in a number of respected publications, and I have co-written (with T.J. Bettis) two articles for Fly Fishing in Saltwaters magazine.

In June of 2010 I retired from teaching and moved back to Maine for family reasons. I get back to Florida or the Bahamas to fish as often as I can. I have worked extremely hard to earn my reputation for providing a premium quality, very consistent product. You can not buy a better made fly anywhere in the world. I look forward to letting you see this for yourself.

Publications:
Allen, Farrow. “Southeast Regional Fly”, Fly Fish America
Butler, Jim. “Dixie Reds”, Fly Rod & Reel, Jan/Feb 1996
Meyer, Deke. Saltwater Flies, Frank Amato Publications, Portland OR, 1995
Sargent, Bill. Florida Today Newspaper, “Outdoors”, numerous occasions
Shupe, Jim. “Record Reds in Record Numbers”, Florida Sportsman Magazine, Feb 1991
Stewart, Dick and Farrow, Allen. Flies for Saltwater, Mountain Pond Publishing, North Conway, NH, 1992

Other:
Featured Fly tier. “National Fly-fishing and Wing shooting Show” Miami, FL Nov 1993