I just started fly fishing and have become very interested in all aspects of the sport. While on Ebay on noticed some cheap $30 kits for making flies. While I’m sure these kits are far from great do you think they are worth messing with? Its something about the idea of tying my own that I’m interested in just trying.
the vises in those kits are always crap unless you buy a high dollar kit :shock:
and then cabelas has some good kits i would say are worth looking into and so does kauffmans streamborn.
i would not bother with cheapo kits because
a.crappy tools
b.crappy quality materials
personally i never bought a kit i just bought all the tools seperately and bought high grade materials.
you would be better off with higher grade stuff because it makes tyng easier and more enjoyable and you are more likely to love it 
I started with a cheap wallmart kit, the vice broke, I took it back and went with an upgrade cabellas kit, it worked ok, I think it was about $50 it wasnt the least expensive I went with an upgraded vice.
were I to do it again I would buy a decent used vice, a pair of cuticle scissors, a bottle of clear fingernail polish from wall mart, a bobbin and hackle pliers from your local fly shop.
then I would start the begining fly tying series on FAOL and go fly to fly untill I understood it. if you spend a week tying each fly at the end you will have a good supply of flies and a good understanding of tying. not to mention a pretty good supply of decient tying stuff.
And if money is a problem you can go slower as the money allows
Just my thoughts
Eric
I started with the Cabellas standard Fly Tying tool kit ($29.99), and found it adequate as a beginner. After using it for a few years I had a better idea of what type of vice and tools I wanted to invest in.
Bill
JRA,
Try tying Woolybuggers
Buy flies and try to copy them.
Take a Fly Tying Class.
JRA if you go to Sound Off there is a post on filling out your profile. This would help us to know where you live. If I knew where you live I could find a club that will teach you to tie with their equip and material. I do it every month at meetings. You should tell us in this post what type of fishing you intend to do. This would help me to know if it’s a simple vise bobbin thread and material for pan fish or a little more expense for trout steelhead or salt water. A few in our club tie on Cabelas deluxe tool kit $39.99 – you would then buy the material to tie the type of flies you intend to fish with. Dont buy the kits with everything in the box,you may never use half of the material.BILL
Im near Salisbury Maryland
You are getting very good advise here. I would not recommend the Tying Kits. The compaines that put them together do not know if you intend to tie flies for saltwater, warmwater or cold water, so, they put material in the kits for all three and you will end up with material that you paid for and will never use.
I always tell my students in my tying classes to purchase a vise and the tying tools and then I would look at a product called “Fly in a Box”. There are different companies with different names, but, what you will get is a completely tied fly with enough material, hooks and tying instructions with pictures to tie another 12 flies. Say you purchase the Woolly Bugger kit and when you finish, you will have one dozen Woolly Buggers and you will know how to tie them plus you will know what hooks and materials to purchase to tie more. These fly kits are great. They have kits for bluegill poppers, sponge spiders, dry flies, nymphs, streamers, etc. They cost less than a dozen of them would cost you at the local fly shop plus you will have no waste when you finish.
The Beginner Fly Tying series here on FAOL is a great set of instructions and I would urge you to check them out.
Most of all, have fun and be warned that fly tying is addictive! 
I suspect this is a kit like the one I fell for once. There was alot of variety in the materials, but honestly, there wasn’t really enough of anything to make it worthwhile. If you want to go the kit route, try the ones from Cabels’s or something, with a better vise than the Wqlly-Mart kits and more/better materials.
if you really wanna get a good start, orvis has amazing sets.just tie flies from the beginer archives on the site.
Forget the kits. No matter what they come with, you’ll probably never use a bunch of the materials. Why, because they are not geared for where you live and the fish that you tie for… No matter where that is .
Instead save your money and then:
Purchase a good used vise (i.e. there always number of them out there) and don’t go too cheap on this purchase. Then buy new quality tools. I still have and use some tools that I purchased 30 years ago.
Buy materials and hooks for the flies that you want to tie… don’t see some thing that you like and buy it in 12 colors/sizes! Go find the posts from a few weeks ago about good cheap craft store and “odd sourced” materials.
For the first year, just concentrate on a couple of styles of flies and learn to tie them well… the rest will come in due time.
You’ll learn a lot faster if you find a buddy to tie with.
Join the Federation of Fly Fishers (FFF) and go to FFF Conclaves and spend time with a bunch amazing tyers who will teach you everything they know. That is the very best deal in the world of tying!
That is the best advice that an old tyer can give ya’.
Tight lines,
Bowfin47
You Know, I gotta say that when I first got into tying, I purchased one of those kits. I paid about $50 for mine. I still use the vise to this day (although I’m waiting for my new rotary to come in) and it has been great for me. The materials weren’t that bad, and above all, it gave me an idea about what to purchase for flies I wanted. More than anything though, the beginner fly tying on this site is where I became a true “tier”.
I gotta agree with Terry. When I started I bought a kit, albeit a bit more expensive than what we are talking about here ( I think I paid $70) or so for it. It came with a wide array of stuff and a little book. The vise wasn’t great, but at that point in time I didn’t know the difference so it was great for me (it held the hooks and everything). The material provided isn’t the greatest quality, but you know that you are going to replace most of it anyway as you go along.
The nice thing about the kit is that it is a cheap way to get an introduction. You may love it or you may hate it. Granted, once I got started tying I fell in love with it and ended up using the vise for a few months before I bought a renzetti and now I tye as much as my schedule will allow.
I have never tried the fly in the box but that sounds like a good way to go as well.
jra, give mason a call, if i remember right he gives lessons with purchases of a kit, he has some inexpensive kits if i recall. i havent gotten into that yet, but its on my list
In my opinion fly tying kits suck. I bought on from cabelas for $50 and it had absolutely nothing i needed. If i were you i would read over this
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/beginners/part1.html
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/beginners/part2.html
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/beginners/part3.html
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/beginners/part4.html
Make your own the way you want it and then you don’t have to worry about whats in a kit. Think about what type of flies you want to tie, look up a bunch of good flies for the species which you want to catch. Write down the materials used in these flies and go from there.
Welcome to FAOL
WWFF
I will give him a call and look into it.
I started with this one. [url=http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/catalog/item-link.jsp_A&_DAV=MainCatcat20431-cat20532&id=0027332318118a&navCount=2&podId=0027332&parentId=cat20532&masterpathid=&navAction=push&catalogCode=IH&rid=&parentType=index&indexId=cat20532&hasJS=true:c0706]Cabelas kit with master vise[/url:c0706]. The vise works just fine, though it mostly sits on the side of my desk, and I use my Danvise 99.9% of the time. The other tools do the job they are required to do. The scissors made me happy until I got a pair of Anvil Ice Stainless. The Thompson whip finisher was immediately replaced by a Materelli. I never could leftyize the Thompson. Get a hat pin and a few round toothpicks to take the place of the bodkin you won’t get, and a hair stacker and you are good to go. As far as the materials, they are for the most part pretty poor stuff. The little bit of hackle you get is basically worthless, the marabou is enough to tie a few dozen flies, and the thread is Ultra Thread that breaks constantly. The rest of the stuff is okay.
As always when this thread comes up, I’ll be the voice of dissention and tell you that Bass Pro has some very decent kits. The Trout/panfish kit is perfectly functional. I would go ahead and buy the matching pedestal that is extra. There is a VHS tape or a DVD, depending on the kit that you choose. I bought one to give as a gift to get somebody into fly-tying.
http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/store … TYING_KITS
Ed
I went to the fly shop the other day and found a kit there for $50 & $60 that the owner said would do just fine.
This kit has the vice and all the tools needed I just need to purchase the material. While im sure I could save $10-$20 going to Gander Mountian he offers “service” with the sale and can show me what and what not too do. Thanks for everyone who responed. I cant wait to get going on this ,although the new reel must come first! Who ever said it was a cheap hobby :lol: !
My dad bought me my first kit. The kit was a tool box. In reality, his fishing/tying buddy went with him to an angler store, grabbed a basket, starting tossing things in… “She’ll need a vise, bobbin, this thread, that thread, this yarn, this chenille, these 3 packages of hooks, those feathers…” My dad then went out and bought a $2 plastic tool box to put everything in, gave it to me, and said we’d be stopping by his friend’s house for the afternoon to learn to tie. He brought along a tape recorder (video cameras for the home were not invented yet), so I could replay the audio tapes and refresh my memory if I got stuck days later. (Our local library and bookstore didn’t stock tying books.)
I still have the vise (handed it down to my kids), I still use the tools. The materials are gone. He bought quality items the first time around, and it certainly paid off.