Fly Fishing

petap · Location: Key Largo

Im looking for a good site to shop for some fly tying stuff

Cole · Posted: Sat 01/02/10 9:04 pm Post subject:

Cheap and fly tying don't go very good together to me.

I like Bearsden.

JeremyK · Location: Montana

I lived on the east coast for awhile before moving back to the West. I knew of the Bear's Den and found a good deal on some materials I wanted a couple weeks back. I called the shop to confirm that they had the stuff in stock, ordered it that day and a week later got the confirmation that they had sent it out (5 days late!) and received the materials 2 days after that. I had ordered 2 day USPS so I could get it in time to give to a friend for x-mas and knowing the USPS at that time of year, i wanted to make sure I received it in time.

I have worked in a fly shop and have sent out orders many times, but this was kind of ridiculous. It came all ripped up (probably not the fly shop's fault) smelled like dead fish (also not the fly shops fault) and of course the wrong material color that I had requested. It can be very frustrating ordering on-line and I would highly recommend that you support your local fly shop and go in there to SEE what you are getting. Now, I live in the west and can be hard to get a lot of good saltwater stuff, but I have decided that from now on I will go in to my local fly shop and see if they will order stuff directly for me so I don't run into this again. Yes, you may be able to get cheap stuff on-line, but nothing rivals the face to face customer service at your local fly shop. BASICALLY- you sometimes get what you pay for!

greg · Posted: Wed 01/06/10 5:15 pm Post subject: Agree With JeremyK

I had a guy I fish with from time to time tell me about the deal he got on some leader material but he had to buy it in bulk! He could not use up the amount he got the deal on in the balance of his life and three other lives! There is an advantage to buying materials in a local fly shop, you can return it! If materials were not reasonable in shops they would not stock as they would not be able to sell it. Unless your looking for an exotic neck or skin, shopping on line for a deal may be costly. When you see prices like flies for 50 cents, you usually have to buy a dozen and when you fish them and they are stripped after 2 fish, relax, you still have 10.