I'll keep this short, is there a huge difference in what you get for your money when buying flies online? I'm not talking about whether it's ethically correct to buy flies made cheap in far off lands. I'm more interested in whether it's false economy to buy 20 flies for a tenner rather than 5 flies for the same price?
And if you do buy online, where do you buy from? I'm unsure if we can name drop websites or not, so if it's not the done thing then drop me a pm to let me know the better sites to use.
Cheers
Kenny
I tend to buy bog standard flies I can't be bothered tying - things like butcher, invicta etc. I don't use these types of flies often, thus I don't buy them often. Usually the quality of the very cheap stuff is OK (always overdressed), but palmered hackles only last for a fish or two as they are not reinforced. I used to buy from select-a-fly, no idea if they are still going or not. Small scale independent tiers like Caithness Flies will supply the best quality flies you can buy, but they cost more than 30p each. You get what you pay for.
Only time I will buy any flies if it is a pattern I do not have material for (not often) or more likely if I need to see a pattern I do not have ( again not often).
One thing though I will not buy cheepo, for any reason. I'll only buy if I know the pattern & materials are "correct" as envisaged by the creator.
Fred mentions Caithness Flies. He is what I would call a journey man tier, noo cheap but good quality which you would expect paying £1.20 ea.
Tight Lines
Neil, owner of Caithness Quality Flies is a member here "Norscot"
A few members here buy and use his flies, that should be recommendation enough
http://www.caithnessqualityflies.co.uk/ (http://www.caithnessqualityflies.co.uk/)
There are many outlets out there some will sell you very very decent quality flies for next to nothing. The main problem is that the quality of all their stock is not neccesarily the same. You might get great Kate McLarens but crap Invicta's etc.
Basically its worth shopping around. Places I use or have used include
fliesonline, The fly factory, the essential fly
The best flies I have ever purchased came from a chap called Lucian (I believe he is or was a member on here he deffo posts on FFF from time to time), www.troutflies.ro (http://www.troutflies.ro)
They are amazing but not particularly cheap.
If im going to buy flies online it has to be from Neil@Caithness,superb quality :D
I've bought flies from caithness a few times too, very good flies. Fulling mill flies are also excellent and tied to a very high standard.
I've not bought a fly for years and in actual fact it was the frustrating lack of consitency that really made me "up my game" with regards to my own tying.
As has been mentioned before- when tying your own, you control the proportions, how heavily or sparesely dressed you want them and so on.
I have not bought a fly for ages, however I would recommend Fulling Mill, excellent hooks, which is usually the let down for other suppliers. Fulling Mill also operate very tight quality control, with samples sent to the designer of the original pattern to ensure that the quality is being maintained ( river selection in particular).