How much would you pay for a decent sea trout fly or salmon fly?The reason i ask is because on my way back from Dorset we stopped in stocksbridge and i had a look in the orvis shop and the one accross the road,forgot the name,and i was amazed at the prices for some of the flies between £3 and £4 EACH!!!!!!!!! is this the norm or am i just being a cheapskate?

Well I hope you bought a shed load!

If the flies are well tied ones and are quality i'd pay no end of money. Too many anglers these days spending hundreds of pounds on rods reels etc, but refuse to pay good money for quality flies.

Well Horses you obviously went into Robjents which I am afraid does tend to target the more shall we say affluent shopper.I am led to understand they offer good quality and service which does reflect in the prices.Without meaning to demean in anyway we more or less locals have a little fun with the contrast between the two being Orvis Of Shanghai and Royal Robjents
Just funnin'.

Best JP

That particular shop you mention is very expensive and perhaps best avoided unless you need anything desperately.

Generally I wouldn't want to pay more than about £1-50. The only exception would be for Marc Petitjean flies which I think are deadly on the streams down this way. but very expensive at circa three quid a pop. Of course I really ought to learn to tie flies myself but I just don't have the time or the patience.

£3-£5 is now a price that you will pay for 'quality' salmon flies.The Rutland/Grafham shops charge £1.30 for a buzzer/blob/booby.

Jim

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The Fishermans Friend is the Flirty Fly,Fickle Food for Fleeting Fish.

A 'decent' fly is tied with quality materials and often sea trout or salmon patterns tend to combine more materials and take longer to tie.

The foundation of any fly is the hook, check out the price of good sea trout or salmon singles and doubles like the Frodin Salar series - a Salar double costs 75p (retail) before you add any material to it. Does the pattern include Jungle Cock? Again, decent quality JC is far from cheap.

Even at £3 to £4 per fly I can't imagine anyone retiring to the Bahamas following a career in tying sea trout or salmon flies.

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[I]"I still don't know why I fish or why other men fish, except that we like it and it makes us think and feel."[/I] Roderick L Haig-Brown

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[url]http://www.gameanglinginstructors.co.uk/[/url]

If I hadn't had time to tie in the winter, as happened this year, I'd pay £3 to £3.50 for surface lures like the Jambo or one of the larger tandem /secret weapon flies.

I would have said £4 was a fair price for a U.K or Ireland dressed Salmon fly. As noted above, if quality hooks are used, factoring in tying time, materials etc it's not too expensive. If anything, I think that fly prices have dropped comparatively over the years. I reckon £1.50 - £2 would easily be a fair price for a U.K dressed trout fly using top grade materials.

As with everything that's outsourced abroad, the poor local fly dresser has to work for pennies to compete with imports, which precisely why I don't do it.

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I admit it, I have sharpness issues.

if you value your fishing then u should value good well tied flies that will last for more than a couple of fish, as a tyer myself, i look to save on various materials myself even down to reusing hooks from old flies, if they break whilst stripping then they were no good, otherwise i use them again, but that's for my own fishing, should i tie for anyone else i would use good grade materials and hope that those i tie for appreciate the time, effort and quality of materials in the tying, so, 3 or £4 for sea trout flies is good, alternately, start doing your own or even see what someone else you may know will tie them for you and see what THEY would charge for each one.
It is a shame that these days with all the cheap **** arround done by lots of foriegn traders we have forgotten about appreciating true hand made things, my father does wood turning as a hobby, he took a few turnings to a car booter once and got asked for a price on a certain bowl, when he gave what to him seemed a fare price, the poeple gave a look of discussed and offered him less than half his asking, again, for purchasing the wood blank, turning it, polishing it all took time, patience and effort with a little careing too and it was not appreciated. go figure.

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When i was a course fisherman i had bag weights to remembernow i'm a fly fisherman i can have bag weights to take home