Savage Flies is a project with the simple goals of getting folks interested in fly tying and fishing. Right now the project is a YouTube channel, a couple social media accounts that I update every now and then, and this website.
If you’re curious about me, the guy behind the keyboard at Savage Flies, here’s a simple Q&A that should give you some background.
Who are you?
My name is Matt O’Neal. I grew up in a small town in the mountains of north Georgia (circa 1980s). I did the regular kid stuff there– worked plenty of part-time jobs, played some sports, went hunting and fishing when I could. That’s when I started dabbling in fly fishing and tying. I eventually went off to college in coastal South Carolina. I spent the next ten years in the Navy as a Surface Warfare and Public Affairs Officer. I spent time in New York City; Norfolk, VA; Monterey, CA; Washington, DC; and Bremerton, WA. I didn’t do a lot of trout fishing while in the Navy, just the occasional adventure into any mountains I happened to live close enough to.
After the Navy I spent a few years working retail and then landed as a civilian scientist working for the Navy. By then I was in my 40s and living in southern Maryland (just outside DC). That’s when I got heavily back into fly fishing, and realized how much I used to enjoy tying.
Fast forward a few years to the pandemic and I suddenly had some extra time (no long DC commute) so I decided to start a fly tying channel on YouTube. Five years later and I’m still plugging along with it. It was slow at first, and my first hundred videos were total crap. Well, some of them aren’t much better today, but I am at least a better tier than I was five years ago! And I’m still having fun making content.
Why Savage Flies?
Several years ago my wife and I were looking for an area that we might eventually want to retire. I had recently been fishing on the Savage River and fell in love with it. So one day, coming back from a camping trip in Pennsylvania, I said “Let’s drive through western Maryland. I’ll show you one of my favorite places to fish.” She liked the area, and a few months later we found a farm for sale near Cumberland, MD. And lucky for me, it’s not far from the Savage River.
So knowing that I love the river, and in a few short years we would be retiring out of the DC rat-race, I knew the Savage River would become my new homewater. So I named the channel after it. There’s nothing “savage” about my flies, or my channel. The name is simply an homage to the river.
As of right now, we make it out to the farm on holidays and long weekends, and I might make the drive up from southern Maryland a couple times a month to take care of the fields – and get a few hours on the river.
You must make a ton of money with all those YouTube videos.
First, that wasn’t a question. And second, nope, small creators on YouTube don’t make much money at all. In a good month, the channel will make about $450-500 from those annoying ads that everybody skips. “That sounds like a lot!” you might be thinking. Well, I’ll admit that it’s not insignificant, but when you do the math, making 8-10 videos a month could easily take about 40-50 hours. Which is somewhere in the neighborhood of Maryland’s hourly minimum wage. But it does keep me pretty well-stocked with fly tying materials, with enough left over to give away a few books and maybe some fly-tying tools every once in a while.
Making videos looks like a lot of work. If you don’t make any money, why do you keep doing it?
The short answer is that it’s still fun. Sometimes feeling the pressure to keep making videos can be a grind. Maybe it’s late at night, I’m tired, and just feel like laying on the couch to watch some TV. But then I read a comment from someone saying how much they appreciate the videos and how much they’ve learned by watching MY channel. That’s when I realize that posting these videos, week after week, really can make a difference.
What’s the future of Savage Flies look like?
This is a great question. As long as it keeps being fun, I’ll keep tying flies, going fishing, and trying to make videos about it. I envision that I’ll just keep plugging along, the channel will keep growing (at a slow but steady pace), and someday that $450-500 a month might be enough to supplement my retirement income. I’ll update this answer if this plan pans out and comes true. And if this website is still around, and I’m still actively publishing to it. Of course that’s a big IF. It could easily join the ranks of billions of defunct websites that their creators have given up on.
But maybe, just maybe, I’ll keep at it. And occasionally post new content, with original writing or essays on fly tying and fishing. I want to eventually write books and magazine articles, and this website could serve as a conduit for that leg of my journey. That’s my lofty goal anyway. Fingers crossed I stick with the plan.
That’s all folks, thanks for reading!
