So, I’ve always wondered something. Take a company like Umpqua. A company that sells a bunch of flies, large, small, bass, trout, panfish, etc. The files seem to be really consistent and there are ALOT of them sold in the marketplace.
How do they do it? How do they tie those flies? Do they have a shop full of full-time tyers? Do they sub-contract it out? Are they machine tied?
Just curious…
I cannot speak about Umpqua, but there are a lot of flies tied in 3rd world countries. I have seen information indicating their are factories in several countries, I think the flies at BPS has a “toe tag” with the country on it.
Probably at least 90% of retail flies are tied offshore. They are usually tied by young girls who are taught by fly designers from the US sent to introduce them to certain patterns they will be tying. These tiers tie the same patterns over and over all day long. They are better at it than the part-time tiers in the US.
A story:
Famous tier Royce Dam told me the following story:
He was sent to a location in China to teach a new pattern to their tiers. The night before his teaching assignment he was up late drinking. Next morning, he went to this large butler type building. In it were all these young girls sitting at their little spaces. His hands were shaking at the girls watched his every move. After demonstrating a couple patterns, he had the translator tell them to go back and tie some for his review. He said every one of the girls tied with a shake in their hands…
They can’t design flies, they tie by copying the instructors sent there.
Such little “factories” are all over. Thailand, Indonesia, and now even in African villages.
Gary Borger has taken many trips to Chiang Mai, Thailand to teach fly tying. Chiang Mai is the major fly tying center in Thailand. The quality there is much higher than in Africa.
There are a number of fly tying factories there and they “steal” talented fly tyers from each other. Typically, these are women and they make more money than their husbands. In fact, Gary told me that the best tiers make more than doctors and lawyers.
“The Art of the Commercial Fly. The best fly tyers in the world are commercial tyers in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Innovations in fly tying are spread by the commercial companies and these tyers are at the leading edge of the fresh and new.”
http://www.garyborger.com/about-and-gb-info/programs-and-bookings/
All these fly tying companies are in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
http://www.shadowflies.com/about-us.html
http://www.anglerstonic.com/2012/01/how-adam-trina-built-montana-fly-company/
http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/showthread.php?1684-Northern-thai-city-swarms-with-flies
i have seen a variety of flies sold at gander mountain with the tag indicating the country of where tied. Southeast Asia top the list as I recall
It’s probable that the best fly tyer in the world is a middle aged woman in Southeast Asia.
but she only knows how to tie one fly.
I did a short tour of duty in Chaing Mai back in 63 and will say that wiith the quality of the Gold and Silver work their flys must excell. Many stories of that era I’d like to share but most are not suitable for the forum!
Umpqua invented the foreign flytying factory.
Here are a few packs of Umpqua flies with their point of origin printed on them. Some years ago Umpqua presented a group of their tyers at an industry show, they were wonderfully gracious and extremely talented women.
Umpqua produced the commercial version of my flies for many years, each and every box of those flies were marked with Sri Lanka as the point of origin as did the majority of the thousands of boxes of other patterns we stocked at that time.
That was then, this is in the now. Dave
Good Grief! I guess that answers my question. I wonder if there is such a thing as “tyers elbow”!
