The story of the Beast
Those of you who have followed us from the humble beginnings of when Chris and Marty were business partners, will know that we have come a long way from only offering one range of brushes, in one size, and only 8 colours. Now Beast Brushes boasts having a full production of brush manufacturing, natural material processing, dubbing manufacture in addition to a consistently growing range of Beast Brushes brand and major brand materials. In addition to giving birth to the Australian Fly Tyers Co Op, and initiative to support local fly tyers to compete with imported flies.
Since the beginning we have strived to separate ourselves from the existing resellers by creatively sourcing materials direct from textile manufacturers to create our very own range of carefully selected fibres. In this time we have also sourced popular natural materials form places that don't sell to anyone else, except for Beast Brushes globally, offering graded materials that smash the stereotype that we get given "scraps off the floor" in Australia.
Our in house dying has been an intense process that has been a learned the hard way, there have been many mis-tints along the way. As a former commercial fly tyer, who was constantly looking for quality in major name bucktails, I was often left wondering why my flies did not look like Bob Popovics... a lot of that is because I don't have the talent that Bob does haha, but a big reason was that commercial tails are pretty much lifeless straw. I have learned that this is because mass producers give preference to colour as opposed to quality of the hair which often strips hai and feathers of the properties we look for as fly tyers. With our process, we leave as much of the natural lanolin in the hair to leave you with a well conditioned hair that ties super nice flies but most importantly, enhances the action in the water.
Since Marty ( one of the founders) left Beast Brushes in Jan 2020, Chris has been handling all of the processing and manufacturing. Marty was and still is a carpenter, and at the end of 2019, Beast became such a beast that his hobby was quickly becoming a choice of careers, and as a consequence, Marty decided to stick with his trade.
Chris is the owner of Ammo Flies and is still a newbie to the fly fishing with over 2 decades of experience (since 1998), exclusively fly fishing and almost the same with fly tying. Ammo Flies is a relatively new comer to the scene but Chris has built Ammo Flies up to become a full time operation as of the end of 2017, previous to that, Ammo Flies started way back in 2014 as a hobby that quickly grew. Chris was accredited with a Federation of Fly Fishers certified casting certificate (CCI) back in 2007 and has been a practicing certified casting instructor since then to now.
Ammo Flies developed a reputation for producing quality Deerhair creations and was displaying flies that were not seen in Australia by the current resident commercial tiers. Flies such as Dahlberg Divers, and the range of Bob Popovic flies was where it all started, this has now branched out to the popular Game Changer style of fly that Chris is known as one of the world leaders in. Chris has hosted many presentations to fly clubs all over Australia, he has also been the president of the Saltwater Flyfishing Association QLD, and competed in many fresh and saltwater flyfishing tournaments with many that he has either won and placed in.
Chris has flyfished all over Australia, from Victorian Saltwater, to Weipa, over to the Kimberly and a lot of the way down the east coast in both fresh and salt. He has also taken 4 trips to Christmas Island with his fist time being back in 2004 at the Mini Hotel and most recently back in 2011 at the Villages. Chris is a member of the Ahrex hooks, RaidZap, Nervous Water and Peak Vices pro communities.
Chris is also one of the hosts of the international flyfishing podcast " The Intermediate Line" available everywhere you find podcasts.
