Fly material sources

[Martin McFly]

hey Beaver, I live in Canoga Park and I've heard of that store, I'm new to the area so I'm not sure how far I am from it. I will check that out.
Thanks a lot

[Bass_Bug]

I'm all for supporting the sponsors, but for the life of me I cant figure out why everyone is so enamored with Hook & Hackle??? Their website is mostly just a list of items, their catalog is news print with no pictures, their inventory is half of what most places carry, and the prices are average. They may indeed have good customer service, but what drew you in to find out in the first place?

-Jann's Netcraft http://www.jannsnetcraft.com/ not the biggest selection, but one of the most inexpensive places to shop general fly fishing, fly tying and rob building. A great place load on materials.

-J Stockard http://www.jsflyfishing.com/ Great all around fly fishing, fly tying and rob building catalog/site

-Anglers Workshop http://www.anglersworkshop.com/

-Cabela's http://www.cabelas.com/ A bit pricey for a 'big box' but their fly shops generally (not all) rival most local fly shops.

-BassPro http://www.basspro.com/flyfishing.html cheaper than Cabela's. A "regular guys" place. Probably why you wont see any purist(snobs) lurking around.

-Kaufmann's http://www.kaufmannsstreamborn.com/index.htm
Not the cheapest, but a great all around inventory and a quality catalog.

-Whitetail Fly Tying http://www.whitetailflytieing.com/ Chris Helm will take your call and answer questions personally.

-Mud Hole http://www.mudhole.com/ BEST comprehensive rod building catalog.

-REC http://www.rec.com/ Thought I'd throw this is for the rob builders even though any true rod builder probably already has this book marked next to Mud Hole's.

-Stone River http://www.stoneriveroutfitters.com/ Don't know how I came across this, but a nice catalog.

-Orvis http://www.orvis.com/ YES Orvis is a viable source.

-The Fly Shop http://www.flyshop.com/ Another good all around catalog

I'm sure there are dozens more..

[fishnfarmer]

hook and hackle, call them up, tell what your looking for/want- always been very very helpful to me.

[Dave E]

Another online provider that I've had success with is Saltwaterflies. com. As their name implies, they stock those materials that lend themselves to that discipline of tying and are a good source for some of the harder to find hooks, etc. They also maintain a nice selection of flies and for the novice saltwater tier, the color plates for those flies are of value.

http://www.saltwaterflies.com/theflies.html

http://www.saltwaterflies.com/catalog.html

http://www.saltwaterflies.com/catalog2.html

Best, Dave

[Bass_Bug]

Sorry if it sounded like I was bashing Hook & Hackle. That was not my intention. I'm on their mailing list, but I was never overly impressed with their plain paper catalog. I just see it as price list. After thinking about it I decide to check it out again. When I commented on the web site being nothing more than a list of items, this is what I basing that statement on. http://www.hookhack.com/ (which is what I've had bookmarked) If you go to this site and click 'Home' at top right it brings you right back to this again, ok thats standard web design. Go down to the 'Fly Tying' section and click on say 'Hair and fur', from the page it takes you to click on 'rabbit fur strips' at the bottom in the middle column and it just takes you down the page to a list of zonker strips.

However if you click on 'Shop on-line' at top left from the above link, it takes you to here: http://shop4.mailordercentral.com/hookhack/ This is a different 'Home page'. Clicking on 'home' on THIS page, brings you back to this page, again a no-brainer in web design. Scroll down the left 'Department' list to 'Fly Tying Supplies', then click on the 'fly tying materials' link (picture of peacock herl). From there go down to 'Rabbit Strips' (middle column about 15 items down). A totally different (but modern) web page? Now THIS part of their website could be what some of you are familiar with, but TWO distinct sites loosely linked together????

My comments were based on the text version which is all I was familiar with. The bad thing is there is updated content on the home 'test page.

Hey Ron? You might want to talk to to your Webmaster about all this? get rid of the old site/pages and you might get more business.

[maodiver]

what is the question, or what are you looking for? I have found that this board is better than any fly shop to answer both needs, answering questions and helping you find what you are looking for (even if you don't know you are looking for it, sometimes!)

[Bass_Bug]

what is the question, or what are you looking for? I have found that this board is better than any fly shop to answer both needs, answering questions and helping you find what you are looking for (even if you don't know you are looking for it, sometimes!)

You're correct, in fact this thread was started with "Can somebody please share any fly tying material sources on line?". He was looking for on-line sources, and all the replies were people giving him suggestions and opinions on various on-line sources. Many replies were for Hook & Hackle. I was merely pointing out their website has what I just discovered, are 2 distinct active home pages. But you already know this from reading this entire thread, right?

[Normand]

i don't think the hook and hackle website it too difficult to get around and it doesn't have to be extra flashy like the "fly shop" website to offer good deals/discounts on fly tying/fishing supplies. it is what it is. i don't think there is a perfect website that will satisfy every single person. its definitely not set up like amazon.com but i don't think it was meant to be.

if you didn't like the plain paper catalog, you're not gonna like the one from chris helm!
http://www.whitetailflytieing.com/PDF/2009v1.1.pdf

how is the "fly shop" any different when you say h&H has two distinct "home" pages? so does the "fly shop". the "home" page and then the "shop online" page.

[peregrines]

There are a lot of great shops out there including many of FAOL's sponsors- I think the best advice for a beginning tyer if you can't buy in person from a local fly shop, is to buy online from a shop (as opposed to a big box store) that has an 800 number- you can talk directly to someone that ties, tell him/her what you plan to tie and what you're looking for, and they can suggest/pick out the right stuff for you for whatever you're tying. Guys like Ron at Hook and Hackle and Chris Helm at Whitetail Fly Tying and the folks from the other shops already recommended are solid citizens and won't try and up sell you all kinds of stuff.

And to some degree, there are shops and niche vendors/growers that tend to specialize with strong points in some areas and perhaps weaker in others, so if you're looking for something specific, or plan to specialize in specific styles of flies, it's a good idea to ask on the board for recommendations.

mark

[Bass_Bug]

Norm, I never said H&H is hard to navigate, I'm just pointing out the home page is the old text design. Had I not been poking around I wouldn't have found the graphics page. Both versions have the same content, just one is all text, the other is graphics. Didn't see anything like that on the Fly Shop site. Look up rabbit strips on both sites and see the difference.

As for whitetailfly tying, the difference there is that Chris Helm operates his catalog sales business out of his basement by himself.

peregrines, Beginner or not, if a tyer knows what he wants to tie, wouldn't he/she have a pattern/recipe and know what material is needed? Even in the bog box stores the guys working the 'fly shop' can help you find whats on your list.