[tie one on]

Good Day to All,

Do you ever find yourself buying tying materials at other places besides
your local fly shop ?

Do you find the prices for items are better, or worse ?

Do you ever visit a craft store to buy tying goodies ?

The more articles I read in some of my flyfishing magazines the more I'm seeing tyers heading for other places to purchase supplies. I myself went this morning to a craft store & purchased 3 colors of 3mm craft foam & 0.5 mm clear bead thread. ( I will be using the foam for my DragonLady surface fly & the clear bead material for a nice segmented body Grub. )

What about you ? Have you also found other items at these stores that you use, that you are willing to share with the Forum ?

Tie One On-------------------------<*))))))><

[Supplicate]

My girlfriends grandfather used to put squirrels in the freezer to get their fur for tying. Similar goes for birds he would find dead or injured on his poperty.

In my opinion, you can't beat free.

[MrEsox]

I find that walmart has some nice feathers for small dry flies and various parts for other flies. Some craft stors are also a nice idea to find those not so common things. Though I get 85% of my stuff at a fly shop, 10% from birds I hunt in the fall, and prob 5% or less is from other places.

[sandfly]

Originally Posted by MrEsox

I find that walmart has some nice feathers for small dry flies and various parts for other flies. Some craft stors are also a nice idea to find those not so common things. Though I get 85% of my stuff at a fly shop, 10% from birds I hunt in the fall, and prob 5% or less is from other places.

There is no way wally world has good dry hackle. answer this does the fly float for hours with no floatant?? Does the hackle fold over at the tips?? If so then its no good for dry flies tied right. Dry fly hackle is a breeding thing , walmart gets their feathers from leftovers in the garment industry..

[Jackster]

Hunt around after Christmas at darn-near any store that carries decorations. You can get yards of Flashabou-like stuff for pennies.

Speaking of the foam sheets they sell at craft stores... I've heard it is not a closed-cell foam and so absorbs water. Anyone out there with real experience in using it?

[Bruce]

When I first started tying flies (appr 1950) there were no specialty shops to buy material. In fact, I didn't even know of a craft shop. We scrounged material from where ever we could. We got hackle from local farmers that had chickens, whatever road kills we could find that was still usable, from any ladies sewing box that would allow us to look for goodies, we hunted and trapped for our fur. Then came a Herter's catalog. I just couldn't believe the stuff they had available at a very low cost. Today we have become so pattern specific and perticular that we have to visit the specialty shops or catalogs to get 'the just right' material and other tying supplies. And you gotta admit there is a lot of new and great material available. The geneticaly engineered hackle is hard to beat. But there are still lots of good deals at craft shops and hobby shops that fits the need for lots of patterns.

[wlschindler]

I have had good luck with the foam from craft/sewing stores. What I buy is the same stuff as I get from the fly shop except about 20x for the same price. Colors are limited (can't find dark green). Also antron yarn is antron yarn, it makes no difference where you buy it.

I have found ebay a great place to buy hooks. I can usually buy 100 hooks for about the same price as 25 from my local shop.

[MrEsox]

Originally Posted by sandfly

There is no way wally world has good dry hackle. answer this does the fly float for hours with no floatant?? Does the hackle fold over at the tips?? If so then its no good for dry flies tied right. Dry fly hackle is a breeding thing , walmart gets their feathers from leftovers in the garment industry..

Did I say anything about hackle and what the feathers are used for? Did I say that they are the best? Did I say anything else then hey give it a look, I've picked up some feathers (remember there are many types of feathers and used) that work for fly parts. Would you use a wing feather for the samething you would hackle? There are some good stuff as far a feathers go and a few other things that wal-mart does have that can be used. Did the fact I even mentioned that I maybe get 5% of my stuff from other places then a fly shop or feathers from brids taken in the fall.