Which fly tying kit?

[wingman]

I have not tied flies since I was 18 when I used to tie them for the local fishing tackle shop, hence i am abit behind on the advances that have been made, so I am thinking about taking it up again but I'm not sure what the best route to take would be regarding buying equipment i.e. in kit form or buying things separately and preferred makes etc and where's the best place to get stuff? Also any advice on where to buy decent quality materials at decent prices. I'd be very grateful for any information.

Thanks alot.

Mark

[FatOldGit]

I would advise spending time browsing various online Tackle dealers catalogues to get an idea of what is available,then deciding what you buy should be determined by the type of flies you want to tie.Whatever you do - don't waste money on Tying kits -they will contain stuff you won't ever use and be lacking items that you will need on a regular basis.

[christy27]

I'd recommend a look at flytyingboutique.com. Everything you need on there especially good quality tools. Service is second to none, speedy delivery at a fair price. ian-woods.co.uk (Game Fishing Supplies) is another renowned on here for good service, price and again speedy delivery.

Above all buy some good quality tools it makes everything so much easier.

Chris

[wingman]

Thanks for the advice, I thought going in the kitform direction might be a bad move. I'll give those sites a lookover to see whats going. Thanks again (its always good to hear what the experts think).

[arkle]

There are lots of posts about fly tying kits, try the search facility at the top of the page

[BRUCE1]

wingman... along with other suggestions of purchasing materials have a look here for capes feathers skins etc, steve supplies quality stuff..

Cookshill Fly Tying Materials

[bear]

I hadn't tied flies since I was a kid and went out and bought a kit. In hindsight, I wish I hadn't bothered. There's stuff in there I still don't know what to do with 2 years on

I now look at patterns either in magazines or on this very forum (there are some superb tiers on here) and make a list.

A kit assumes a wide variety of flies, whereas you may only fish rivers, so all that fritz would be pretty useless.

Celtic Fly Craft, Dave Downie, Anglers Lodge, Tackle and Tying, Spiderplus, Cookshill, Joel (tungsten beads uk) and WCB all get superb reviews.

Find some patterns, then find the materials

[Texxa]

My experience of material kits is that you end up paying for a lot of guff you will never use. I got my first kit about twenty years ago and still have numerous spools from the kit which I have never used (threads and odd tinsels).

Do a search on previous threads as there was one where we all chipped in with a basic set of 'ingredients' for basic flies. As Bear pointed out...no point buying a pack with 8 colours of marabou when you want to tie PTNs and hares ears for river fishing.

[Mrtrout]

Mark, whatever you do, avoid Stonefly tools at all costs.
S.

[falsecast]

If you don't take Mr.T's advise and buy the stonefly tools, I have a few spare parts available that have fallen off them