I was stocking up on tying thread the other day at the local fly shop. It seemed kinda expensive, almost three times the price of the local big box, but we'd had so much good advice from Julie at the shop that I didn't mind--thought of it as a 'tip' for her! Then I noticed something...the thread spools at her local shop contained 200 yards. The ones at the big box contained only 50 yards, on the same size spool. DUH! It was actually *cheaper* at the local shop. I suggested that she put some signs up pointing that out, I'd never noticed.

Then neighbor Ken and I started yakking about some other issues with bad materials at the big box-- Deer and elk hair that was so brittle you couldn't tie it on tight enough to stick, much less spin, without severing it--gave it to my dog and replaced it at the local shop with some good stuff. So-called 'soft wet fly' hackle that was so stiff you couldn't fold it with an iron, steam and starch....Ken's dog got that one to play with.

We're getting a new Cabela's here soon, I'm curious about what the quality of their tying materials will be....better than our current big box I hope. I've actually always liked Cabela's, but I got to wonder what Brad and Tyler Befus think about their last name being mispelled in the new Caebla's fly fishing catalog....

DANBOB