About Nick Nickens
Nick Nickens brings 60 years of fly fishing experience throughout the western United States to the fishing and stocking advice shared here at WholesaleFlyFishing. His background includes four years of guiding, thousands of flies tied commercially, and ownership of The Fly Fishing Place since 2006.
Six decades on western waters
Nick's experience spans fishing, guiding, commercial fly tying, and fly shop ownership. Those different perspectives inform the guides on this site, connecting the angler's question of which fly to fish with the shop owner's question of which patterns to stock.
His advice emphasizes the role a pattern fills, how to present it, and how local waters and insects should influence the choice. A useful fly assortment is more than a collection of familiar names. It gives anglers options for the conditions they encounter.
Guiding, tying, and fly shop experience
Four years of guiding contribute a practical fishing perspective. Tying thousands of flies commercially adds hands-on familiarity with fly patterns, while owning The Fly Fishing Place since 2006 brings a retailer's perspective to assortment planning.
Together, that background provides the foundation for Nick's writing about trout flies, hatch-specific choices, general searching patterns, and building a thoughtful shop selection.
The approach behind these buying guides
The aim is to help readers understand why a fly belongs in an assortment, not simply give them a longer shopping list. Guides explain what a pattern suggests, when to consider it, and how to approach fishing it. Stocking recommendations offer a starting point that readers can adapt to their own waters and customers.
No single list can replace local knowledge. Hatch timing, water type, fishing methods, and customer demand all matter when deciding what to carry and when to reorder.
A note about product recommendations
These guides appear on WholesaleFlyFishing, which sells fishing flies. Product links and stocking suggestions are part of that commercial context. They are intended to help readers make informed choices, not to claim that one pattern is best for every fishery or that a particular fly guarantees success.