Who We Are

Dirty Water Fly Co was founded in 2012 in Bozeman, Montana by Daniel Soltau. These patterns and designs date back long before that, pointing to one of the main principles that we stand for. Testing. They have been fished all over world for all kinds of swimming critters. Refined, rebuilt, and dialed to be the best they can be. We use the finest materials on the planet, and tie everything in our new homebase of Lake Fork, Texas. Our search for the best components available eventually led us to importing our own custom line of brass fly tying components due to lack of availability of eyes and cones that were up to the standard of our choice hooks and soft materials. These flies are tied tougher, built better, and have been critique by some of the discerning, demanding, experienced, and inexperienced anglers today.

Notable characteristics within all our patterns would be but not limited too;

  • Castable
  • Durable
  • Suggestively Anatomic
  • Maximum hook gap purchase
  • Premium hooks ONLY
  • Tied in the USA

Photo credit - James Anderson

Dan has been in the fly fishing industry since 2004, spending a total of 12 seasons at fly shops and outfitters in Montana and Washington. You will find no one who cares more about fly shops and their well being. Without the shops, what is known as fly fishing and tying today simply would not be. More and more companies are popping up that go strictly direct to consumer or enter the market comparing to American or "local" manufacturing but are actually having their stuff made overseas and they are skipping the fly shops. This is not to be confused with sourcing the components from the best sources to get the best product available. With a Dirty Water fly tied on, you are fishing a world class fly. Each component likely traveled thousands of miles to end up on our tying bench and into your fly.
Support your local fly shop and fly companies!