How to learn and buy without a fly shop

Here in our town the only real fly shop closed about a year and half ago. Since then I have a hard time buying much fly fishing stuff except when I traveling for work and happen to be in a city that has a bass pro or a fly shop. I do not like to buy things that I have never felt or held in my hands so internet is hard unless I am replacing something that I already have. The second and bigger of the two problems are when I have a casting question or tying question. I am a very hands on and visual learner so when I have a casting problem I need to see what I am dong wrong and how to fix it. We have a "fly shop" here in town but the time that I have been in there they either won't help me or try to sell me something I do not want like high priced clothes. And you can forget about asking a tying question all they say is that it is easier just to buy their flies and by the way you need a new rod and reel to go with that. So besides moving what can I do.

hmm..sounds like it's going to be well worth you while to try to find the nearest Trout Unlimited chapter and make every effort to go to their monthly meetings, if you've not done it already. we learned a whole lot from the folks who do tying demos before our meetings, and from those amazing guys who lead Fish With A Member trips. sometimes there are casting teachers who belong and attend; heck, sometimes that is the topic of the meeting! the conservation work was a good opportunity to get to know some other water around and about, to say nothing of meeting other anglers.

or you could come visit me and help defend me from the flood of information that pours forth every time i go into our shop. my eyes glaze and my smile gets tired, but gee,after a while it all begins to make some sense. i sure wish i could bottle it up and send it to you. why is it that the good things in life are so seldom evenly distributed around the countryside?

There is a TU chapter in Greenville, 3. here is what I found googling: Council(s)9SC - South Carolina
Council Chair: David Armstrong
10 tranquil ave
greenville, SC 29615
Phone: 864 268 7213
Email: arms7213@bellsouth.net
Website:

That should get you started.
Good Luck.
mcsteff

You'd be amazed how helpful some mail order shops are. My experience has been to avoid the big-name places and deal with the smaller owner/operator places where the person you talk to on the phone is "the"resident tier. You'll get nowhere with an order taker that knows only the catalog numbers. In dealing with the two or three places I frequent I can even specify details that I would look for in person like: "I want straight fiber calf body hair.", "I want long straight fibers on the calf tail for my smallest streamers.", " I want the deer hair tanned." etc.
In addition I always look for the brand names of materials in their printed catalogs. That gives me some assurance of consistancy. You should, at all times, avoid places that cut up and package their own natural materials. There is one unnamed popular shop I've dealt with that repackages any kind of natural material he can find with the quality varying between garbage and useless.
After tying for almost 60 years I'm still a happy camper. Good luck.

Why not try the Sponsor Page on FAOL, they are very special with Customer Satisfaction, otherwise they would not be on the Sponsor Page.

Parnelli (Chartered Member of "Friends of FAOL")

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Originally Posted by Ray Kunz

You'd be amazed how helpful some mail order shops are.

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I agree with Ray. I've had nothing but fantastic service with Charlie Craven - a few quick e-mails explaining what I was trying to do and he'd send me stuff before I'd even paid for it! There are other places out there that are more than willing to help you out, too; Blue Ribbon Flyshop is the first that pops into my head but there are many others. Definitely join your TU chapter, too; you'll get lots of great advice from your fellow fishermen.

Regards,
Scott

i'm not so sure you can learn or correct any casting deficiencies by posting to a bulletin board. someone who is a casting instructor should be watchingyou and correcting your mistake. a tu or fff chapter would be your best bet

A lot of good information has already been given. Since you are a visual person have you tried a search for "fly tying" or "fly fishing" under videos in your local library. Even if your county library doesn't have many videos, you can do a search under interlibrary loans and search your whole state library system.

For materials there are specialists like Chris Helm for hair who are real experts and can get you quality materials.

Then there is YouTube. There is a a lot of good and bad stuff there. Look for the good stuff like tying from RaginCraven (Charlie Craven), for example.

More than attending TU of FFF meetings, I strongly urge you to get on the board of TU. As a board member of our local TU chapter, a TU member will get help but a board member will get taken to some local hot spots and get a lot more face time with the best teachers on the board.

Someone that comes to the meeting gets thanks, but someone on the board gets RESPECT. You actually help TU and it is amazing how much help you get back.

Without personal instruction from a professional or a mentor, I would recommend this video. It was the only instruction short of observing that I had in the beginning, but it was invaluable in my opinion.

http://www.melkrieger.com/PR_DVDvideo1.HTM

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Originally Posted by NJTroutbum

Without personal instruction from a professional or a mentor, I would recommend this video. It was the only instruction short of observing that I had in the beginning, but it was invaluable in my opinion.

http://www.melkrieger.com/PR_DVDvideo1.HTM

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I agree. I have the original video in VHS and Mel's book of the same title. It is an outstanding video on how to cast.

Hi 3DWE,

Did you once go by the name of Justice League in a former FAOL life? Also, if you don't mind me asking, where is the remaining open fly shop in Greenville? Let's get together sometime and scare a few trout. 8T :)

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i'm not so sure you can learn or correct any casting deficiencies by posting to a bulletin board.--Normand

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good point! there is one other idea, and it made all the difference to me: watch the videos that have been suggested, or one of them anyway, and then video yourself trying to do what you saw. we visual learners can do wonders with this activity! it cured me immediately of two major problems because i could see where my action differed from the one on the professional DVD.

I watched Mel's video.....then went out and lawn cast....and repeated. Then I went down ot the lake and cast from the dock. And once the season started.....I put it to work on the rivers. It wasn't the be-all or end-all of casting. But it taught me everything I needed to kow that I had questions about.

videos and you tube help but I don't get the feed back that need. and eight thumbs check you pm I dent you my secret identy lol