Hello Everyone! I'm new to FAOL and I think this is a great resource!

I'm in Lincoln, Nebraska and we have no fly shops that I know of around here (None in Omaha either). All we have is the big chains: Scheels (Lincoln & Omaha), BassPro (Council Bluffs, Iowa) and Cabela's (Omaha only) . But their fly tying dept's have been steadily shrinking. The Lincoln Scheels has a pitiful selection that wouldn't even fill my travel kit! It's run by a 30 something from PA who is a wannabe purist who never fishes anywhere in Nebraska even though he owns thousands of dollars in equipment. Several members of the local club have tried over the years to convince him to care about his tying dept. and fly fishing in general, to no avail.

So, I got a retail license this past April and I've taken it upon myself to start up my own humble online fly shop to provide a local resource for the clubs and tyers (tiers?) in Eastern Nebraska. (hopefully it will lead to a brick-and-mortar shop someday).

Everyone I run into while fishing wants hooks primarily (don't we all), and since I don't have enough money to just load up on everything at once, I'd like to know where I should start.

Right now I carry Montana Fly Company's hooks They produce millions of flies each year and they've made their hooks available to the public. They're great for the money, strong and sticky sharp. MSRP is $2.75 to $3.65 per 25. and $9.20 to $12.00 per 100. (But they aren't well known yet.)

I'm thinking of getting Mustad Signature Hooks - maybe standard dries and nymph hooks first, say R50's (94840) and S82's (3906B). Since I get them in bulk, I can sell them in packs of 100 for maybe around $10 (but they don't come in those nice little boxes, just a big ball of 1000 hooks that I have to separate, count out and package myself) Streamer hooks would sell for more though, of course. (Possibly $13 per 100 or so.)

But before I do this, I was wondering if this is a good place to start?

ALSO: If you could only choose one brand of hooks, what would it be?

I guess what I'd like to know is, do most tyers prefer cheap hooks, moderately priced hooks or expensive hooks (like TMC, DAIICHI, etc.) ?

Sorry for the long post.

Thanks
Bill