fly tying material
My amazing wife bought me all my Griffin Montana Mongoose vise for Christmas and all the tools, and left the material for me to get. I bought a packasge deal off of Ebay, and I got it today. Very dissapointed I must say. Any suggestions on where to get good material for a good price would be appreciated. Bass pro seems way too high.
Feather-Craft, Hook and Hackle, Cabelas, Blue Ribbon, etc. By the way, I've bought lots of quality material on EBay, you just need to look around a bit to separate the wheat from the chaff. Usually those "Package Deals" aren't worth it, as you found out; sorry.
Regards,
Scott
As was stated most package deals and kits just plain suck. There for the most part a conglomeration of material that can be used in any area. The best bet is to make a list of flies that you are gonna tie and buy those materials until you get more experience.Many dubbing kits will also give you colors that you will never use. They seem to be a good deal but in the long run are not.
I have to second narcodog. When I first started tying I bought one of those material packages and it was not very good in quality of material or the range of size I wanted. I just picked a couple of pattern's I wanted to tie and bought the material's for those flies. When I would move on to other pattern's I would just add more material to my collection for those pattern's. You wind up with a collection of quality material without a big expense upfront.
I'm going to echo what the other guys are saying. Pick a few patterns and buy materials for those. Next trip to the fly shop (or ordering online) do the same.
I buy from Cabelas and Feather Craft online a fair amount and have had great luck with both.
What kind of fishing do you do? What are some flies you use a lot, maybe in a couple different sizes?
If you have a fly shop near by, I would highly recommend going there and getting your hands on the materials before buying. For one, you SEE what you're going to get. And two, you can ask all sorts of questions about stuff you will encounter.
Material in the kits may not be the best quality but material kits are good for the first time tyer who's not sure what they are doing yet. I think of it as practice material. It lets you get basic techniques figured out with wasting good material.
Even though we only pay a few bucks for any one material (necks/capes and exception) lets face it, Fly Tying over the long haul can be an expensive hobby(obsession).The vise is your first step toward an obsession many of us embrace. But if you think Bass Pro is too high, you should give up now send the vise back. Their prices are at or a little less than most fly shops. Cabela's generally has higher prices but usually has a bigger selection( at least in the stores). Also between the 2, the retails stores carry more than the web sites (sometimes items are only offered online), and retail selections vary from store to store regional fishing. So whenever you get the opportunity to stop at one you should to see whats different.
Even though I'm a computer guy by profession, I've never bought from eBAy. Just never been looking for something I haven't found at a brick and mortar or a reputable web site. But thats just me.
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