Every couple of weeks, it seems this same question comes up and I never seem to have enough foresight to write down the answers. Anyone have a good suggestion for cheap flies online? Anything with a pretty large selection? Thanks!
Great service and quality with bargain prices and a sponsor here:
[url=http://www.hillsdiscountflies.com:acfd9]http://www.hillsdiscountflies.com[/url:acfd9]
Joe
what ffjoe said, or do what JC said and you’ll find hills there as well.
jed
Letortrun,
Just got an order from Hill Discount, they were fast and very easy to use.
I can highly recomend them.
Found on this sight as JC suggests.
Wyo-blizzard
[This message has been edited by Byron Zuehlsdorff (edited 19 May 2005).]
I’m curious.
what do you guys who buy yer flies spend on them in an average year?
do you find yer selection limited to the extent that you can’t match a hatch?
whatever the case may be I’m sure yer spending less than tyers spend on hooks and other materials.
mgj
Oh,Me thinks Mikie has’nt checkout the going rates of flies these days…I’ll not ever regret taking up tying right as I did Flyfishing…7 bucks for a dash of deer hair and a strip of bunny hide is’nt ever going to be worth such for this Flyfisher can tie a dozen for way less than that…
call me cheap or whatever…but for those on a limited earning scale…Tying is the only way to go…
“I’ve often wondered why it is that so many anglers spend so much money on,and pay so much attention to.the details on the wrong end of the fly line.If they took as much care in selecting or tying their flies as they did in the selection of the reel and rod,They might be able to gain the real extra edge that makes it possible to fool a fish that has,in fact,seen it all before” A.K.Best
“Wish ya great fishing”
Mikey, If your talking about, say, just a dozen flies and you had to go out and buy all the materials to tie that dozen it would cost you a lot more to tie them yourself. For example you can buy a dozen Adams at hills for $8.95. To but a package of hooks, grizzly and brown hackles, dubbing, thread, it will cost a heck of lot more than 8.95. Once you have a good collection of materials the cost will start coming way down per dozen that you tie yourself and eventually you will save money, however you still need the time to tie them. I tie most of my flies but I do it because I like it and I like creating new stuff and variations. I don’t think I save any money. It seems that I’m always “needing” some new material. Sometimes I need a dozen of a certain pattern and I don’t have the time to tie them or get a certain material that I lack, so I buy from Hill’s.
Joe
You might also want to try [url=http://www.discountflies.com:af1f1]www.discountflies.com[/url:af1f1] I have had pretty good luck with them and they are timely. They also have free shipping on all orders in the month of may over $30
I’m a cheapy too. I tie using hackles I purchased 20 years ago. Yes, you pay a little extra up front, but the materials last a long time. Granted, dry flies are my least favorite to tie, the real savings are on the streamers and Bunny Bugs.
Tying pays off mostly in the fact that there are alot of patterens and sizes you just can’t find.Many midges are either none existant or the wrong size,color…oh we don’t even want to go down the road of color…lol…as I’ve also been dying my own materials for some years now…and I like knowing when I tie a fly onto my leader…that it’s going to still be intact and look like what was intended after an hour of casting/fishing…I enjoy every facet of this sport…Fly tying,Rod Building…ok…so I got a lil side tracked…lol…
the most important reason I feel for myself in tying is that I control the quality of the overall Tying,and I see alot of flies out there that just don’t look to me what a natural actually looks like “where I feel a certian patteren needs to be” Such as my Crayfish patteren…I have not yet seen a patteren other than the one I composed 6 years ago,that makes me say wow thats it…and is still simple for me to tie…but I get lost while tying…so simple is different for all…ok I’ll stop babbleing…lol…forgive me all…
“I’ve often wondered why it is that so many anglers spend so much money on,and pay so much attention to.the details on the wrong end of the fly line.If they took as much care in selecting or tying their flies as they did in the selection of the reel and rod,They might be able to gain the real extra edge that makes it possible to fool a fish that has,in fact,seen it all before” A.K.Best
“Wish ya great fishing”
no no no…I tie my own flies and started soon after beginning fly fishing. I can’t remember the last time I bought any flies. I wonder what a serious fisherman pays for flies annually. I go through an exhorbitant number of flies over the course of the year (easily 200 daze fishing) and I don’t give it any thought because I can replace anything I need within minutes or hours if necessary. if I were buying my flies, I would certainly be limiting myself first, running out and needing to buy more.
I just wonder what it runs to buy yer flies annually. and whether you lose the four #20 bwo’s you bought and yer handcuffed during a hatch.
mgj
[This message has been edited by mikeytwoshoes (edited 19 May 2005).]
Just got back from our monthly TU meeting. The plan was to have a casting clinic but the weather forced us inside so it became a tying clinic. The subject of cost of tying as opposed to buying came up. One gentlemen, an older sage, had it figured to a penny. He had been tying for about 30 years. Has accumilated all kinds of materials,hooks,thread,beads exotic feathers etc. Ties about 10 doz per month and figures he’s got the cost down to about $6.77 per fly.
Mark
I’d rather be in Wyoming!
[This message has been edited by Marco (edited 19 May 2005).]
Dang, thats a pretty cheap price to pay for a well tied fly.
My local fly shop rolls out the red carpet and hold the door open for me. I bet I’ve spent almost a grand there since the first of the year. Probably closer to four hundred bucks, but i have the material and hooks to tie about 600 flies without buying anything else. Thats only .66 cents a fly for materials. I can tie about a dozen simple flys an hour if i wait for the head cement to dry. That leaves $6.11 a fly x 12 an hour. $73.32 an hour.
HMMMMMM…anybody want to buy some flys? Freashly tied and out of the vise!!!
P.S. I buy from the local shop for the convenience. My price for materials is doubled and tripled!!!
If flyfishing were a sin, I’de be the devil’s right hand man.
[This message has been edited by countrygent36 (edited 19 May 2005).]
[This message has been edited by countrygent36 (edited 19 May 2005).]
I guess I am a lazy fly tyer. I tie most of my nymphs, and buy most of my dries. In fact, the only dries I tie are parachutes and comparaduns, and the really simple stuff like griffith’s gnats and renegades.
If you buy from a discount source, (Hill’s) I am pretty sure the flies I buy are cheaper than the ones I make (example: a dozen upright-wing adams cost 8.95, or 75 cents a fly, plus shipping, which is negligible if you buy a bunch of stuff) They look better than the ones I make, but if I can ever get those upright wings to stand up straight, I’ll probably start tying everything.
The bottom line is that if you are economical, whether you tie or not, you can save a bunch of money.
As to the question of running out of flies, never happened to me. I am a ridiculous packrat, and when I hit the stream, it is usually with about a thousand flies. (3x C&F swingleaf boxes, a foam box of terrestrials, and another packed with emergers and softhackle wets) I seldom carry less than a half dozen of any fly.
I tie and buy. I spend about $100 per year on flies and maybe $75 on materials. It takes me about 1 hour to tie 4 flies and throw out 3 as being too ugly to even attempt to fish. If my time is worth anything it probably cost me about $10/tied fly and about $1.00 for each one I buy. Wish I could tie more, but I sure don’t justify it by cost.
jed
I tie 99% of the flies I fish but will buy flies when tying a new pattern requires me to buy a ton of materials I don’t have to tie it.
I also refuse to tie stuff that takes too bloody long or is too complicated, (for me), to make. The minumum number of fies I tie of one size or pattern without changing patterns is 16 so the difficult stuff could take me a month to tie in one size. Poppers are a perfect example, it just ain’t worth it to me.
…go the sponsor route or I’ve had good luck with these folks…(might be a sponsor, I didn’t check)
[url=http://www.blueflycafe.com/:cb93a]http://www.blueflycafe.com/[/url:cb93a]
brookid
I second the blue fly cafe. Got an order today as a matter of fact. Ordered them Tuesday. Pretty good quality and way better than i tie for tiny dry flies 18 and up.
I just got back from the lake having landed and released 2 12’ rainbows, 1 big pumkinseed, and several crappie
used a single #10 Pheasant tail flashback nymph bead head from BlueFlyCafe (great service and patterns btw).
The fly is pretty torn up… the flashback is sticking straight out and the body will slid down the hook a bit if pushed tho i’m sure it can catch more fish.
just got some of those Water Boatmen flies in today - #12’s
man they look they can catch fish!
(nope, not a salesman)
tws
[url=http://www.mind.net/basile/2005/05/pan-fish-procrastination.html:df239]http://www.mind.net/basile/2005/05/pan-fish-procrastination.html[/url:df239]
Interesting!! I recieved 2 identical e-mails this morning from Kenya touting their companys flys (Nuventures), Special Nymph, Dry Flies and Wet flys. (Note spelling!!??). $3.00 to $3.50 per dozen!! PER DOZEN!!
How did they find me? Who is giving out e-mail addresses? Is it a scam to get my credit card info? I think so! I know I’m safe here!
Anyone ever heard of them? Or ordered from them?
Cactus