Fly Assistant Review
by Steve Clark

Recently I had the opportunity to try the new Fly Fishing Assistant from VMT Software. Think you have everything you need for your fly fishing way of life? Think again; let’s take a look at Fly Fishing Assistant.

Fly Fishing Assistant was designed by a fly fisherman to do a multitude of things. If you ever thought a spreadsheet or simple database would keep track of everything you need think again!

Articles

We all read articles in magazines and on the net that we would like to find later. With Fly Fishing Assistant you can enter topics, authors, page numbers and location so you can store your magazines and find the articles months or years later. If you find an article on the internet you can enter the URL and just click on it to bring up the article.

Inventory

In an effort to find the materials you have stacked up all over and around your bench the program keeps track of everything. You can input dubbing, chenille, hooks, flashabou, hair and everything else you have to tie flies. Sure there’s some effort involved in tying the materials into to program, although this process is easy. The next time you want to tie up a new pattern just check your inventory and see if you have everything you need, no guesswork. But it does stop there, you can enter your rods, vest(s), and all the other items you have. You are able to attach pictures to each item if you want. This not only makes it easy to find things later but it’s great for insurance should something happen to your stuff!

Fly Patterns

Enter your fly patterns into the program and you will be able to list all the materials needed to tie them, attach pictures to the patterns, print the pattern complete with a picture, and even email a pattern with picture to a friend! Fly patterns have a category so you can look them up by Nymph, Dry, Steelhead or any other category you input. Pictures are just standard JPG, BMP, GIF or other normal formats. The patterns can be associated with an insect so you can bring up an insect and see the patterns that work for it. You can install the sample patterns which will give you a good start and come with pictures.

Insects

Fly Assistant comes with several insects in the database. There is no limit on how many kinds or the number of insects you can put in the program. Genus, Stage, Species, and common names are all tracked for each insect. Pictures can be attached to each insect and a URL can be input to find an insect on the net. After you have put in an insect you can attach as many fly patterns to that insect as you want. You can print information on each insect and even email the information to whoever you want.

Trips and Logs

We all want to remember our best fish and a log of your trip, complete with expenses and pictures of each fish is no problem with Fly Assistant. A complete log of each part of your trip can be input into the program. Presentation, conditions, notes, land conditions, which fly you used, and even a picture can be put into each log. If you’re splitting expenses with other people you can track all the expenses for a trip and print the totals to give to everybody that went.

You can even make a list of items to take on a trip. Print the list and use it to check everything as you load up your vehicle. How often have we got somewhere and found ourselves without that special something?

Orders

Fly Assistant will track your orders and receive them right into your inventory. The next time something doesn’t show up or you don’t get the right item just put up the order and check it against what you ordered. As you input items into an order the program keeps track of the order totals. Once everything has been put in the Vendor’s phone number is right there to call in the order. You print the order if you want to fax it in. A credit card you use for orders can be put into your setup; the file is encrypted for your safety.

Swaps

This looks like a must have for people that like fly swaps. You can track all the swaps you join, what forum the swap is with, swap hosts with address, what fly your tying, how many you are supposed to tie, how many you have tied, when they are due, and when you mailed them. You can put in a name and nickname for printing toe tags for your flies. When the swap is done just click a button the whole swap is transferred to swap history where you can look at it later.

Want to host a swap? Track the swap from start to finish with start dates, end dates, swappers with address, who tied what and when you got them. Track which forum the swap is with and detailed information about swappers. There’s even a place to track you sent extra flies.

Water Logs

You can use this feature to track river flows and information about lakes to help to decide when to fish. You can compare flows from last year to this year.

Phone List

Just what it says it is, a list of phone numbers, address and email for your friends and contacts. You can even email someone from this screen.

So the bottom line, I found the program to have everything I needed and even some things that I might not use, but you could. It was easy to use and the features I didn’t use did not get in my way. For only $19.95 the Fly Assistant is a steal. As a bonus it will help you find that special something you’ve been looking for as you add your inventory. Check out the program and download the free demo at www.application-software.com/fishing

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