What difference do premium fly fishing flies make to your day on the water? There are many who advertise “Quality” or “Premium” fly fishing flies, but they are far from it. A premium dry fly will land on its back, float properly and consistently, and retain those properties even after catching 5, 10, even 20 fish. On the other hand, poorly tied flies often land upside down, on their side, or even upside down.
A premium trout fly at a fly shop costs between $ 1.50 and $ 3.00, bass and surf flies between $ 3.00 and $ 5.00, but there are literally dozens of online retailers that offer similar patterns for half that price. You may pay more for a premium fly at a fly shop, but research suggests the fly will last almost 10 times longer. You have to ask yourself a question: Do I want a 2-fish fly or a 20-fish fly? Let’s examine some of the differences:
Materials
The first important material is the hackle. Great strides have been made in the last 60 years with hackles using premium commercial fly levels. Flocks have been baked based on color, hackle length, and barb stiffness to create superior hackle.
It has been a process that began with Harry Darbee in the 1940s and 1950s and continues today with the hackles produced by Dr. Tom Whiting of Whiting Farms and Buck Metz of Metz Hackles, among others. Premium fly manufacturers such as Idylwilde Flies, Umpqua Feather Merchants and Rainy Flies use high quality hairs.
The second material of great importance is the quality of the hook. Tiemco has positioned itself as the world leader in premium fly fishing hooks with creativity and attention to detail in the functional designs of its premium fly tying hooks. From trout to tarpon, in fresh or salt water, to poppers for bass or micro-ephemera, leading fly manufacturers choose Tiemco hooks over the best efforts of other competitors. They were one of the first manufacturers to chemically sharpen the tips and it is now standard throughout the industry. They carry a very wide line of fly fishing hooks with about 46 models to choose from. At the end of the hook designation, you may see an “SP”, which stands for Specialty Point. SP hooks have a hollow curved tip with triangulated edges for easy sharpening. The hooks also have a slow taper which helps make hook sets easier. An interesting aspect of this hook is that the basal end of the point has a swelling that works like a barb without being a barb.
This can be advantageous for attaching hook assemblies with barbed hooks. Another designation you may see is “TC”, which stands for Tiemco Cut. This is a cut that Tiemco uses on certain wet flies and scarecrows to improve hook penetration. “It’s about quality, or rather the lack of it,” says Bruce Olson of Umpqua Feather Merchants. “The first problem is that cheap imports are always tied with very cheap hooks, with strange sizes. I find that a quality fly has to be tied. [name brand] hands. This becomes very important for larger game, such as tarpon, where the sharpness and tensile strength of the hook wire are vital. “
The fact that a discount airline company does not use premium materials means that the final product is not up to scratch. As Shawn Brillon, Orvis’s top fly buyer, says, “If you have to tie up with garbage, often the end product is the same … garbage.”
Discount fly manufacturers also take shortcuts to cut costs and materials. Bruce states, “To produce flies this cheap, these guys have to cut corners.” Discount fly companies use substandard hooks and materials, skip important tying steps (like putting a glue base on the hook shank to keep materials in place), and they don’t exhibit much quality control.
Patterns
A second important quality of premium fly fishing flies is adherence to standard pattern recipes. Bruce described a “Copper John” he bought online as missing the epoxy on the shell and the lead under the thorax.
“So he may have saved a lot of money on the go, but he’s not a Copper John!” he says, noting that such an inferior version of the popular fly will not perform in water the way its designer intended. Without the lead, it won’t sink properly and the lack of epoxy makes the fly much less durable.
Luck
Most of the fly production is done in third world countries because of the price but also because they still work with their hands. Although they are third world countries, fly tiers receive a good salary and earn middle-class income from their work. The most expensive flies carried by premium fly shops like Blue River Fly Company are linked in Thailand, the fly tying capital of the world. There are more than a dozen major fly tying companies that have tying facilities there. Other areas of the world that produce significant numbers of flies include China, Sir Lanka, and Kenya. There is some production in Central and South America, Mexico and the Philippines. Fly production in the United States and Europe, where the largest number of users are, is primarily by starting levels or levels that relate to specific fly stores.
Many premium fly manufacturers, including Idylwilde, strongly believe in corporate social responsibility and believe in fair trade. They take responsibility for the impact their activities have on customers, employees, communities, and the environment. As Idylwilde describes on her website: “If a fly is worth only $ 0.99, not only does it suck, it was probably tied up in a third world sweatshop and we’d rather not have that bad mood hanging from our conscience. Fishing with Fly in Idylwilde The flies are tied up in Manila, Philippines, under a markedly progressive arrangement with Sister Christine Tan, a Catholic nun who believed her people needed more than charity levels to better provide for their families. you see here are the work of their hands and their hopes “.
Fly fishing costs
The average cost of products for a premium fly maker for simple dry flies and nymphs equates to about $ 4.50 – $ 5.50 per dozen. Additional shipping, tax costs, and a US excise duty add an additional $ 1.00 per dozen.
The fly companies that are importing the flies must make a profit, so the cost to the stores is generally key (50% markup), so the cost to the stores is now $ 12.00 per dozen. The fly shop pays for shipping and increases its operating costs and profits, key again, the cost to the consumer is pushing the $ 2-3 price you pay at a brick and mortar fly shop.
Big stores, in order to cut prices to what they do, are either getting big discounts for volume purchases or they are getting flies that are tied up somewhere other than Thailand, or both. Hopefully now when you get a shock sticker when you walk into a fly shop, you can understand why the shop is charging for what it does.
Cost per fish
Bruce Olson argues that fishermen should consider the cost of a fly in relation to its durability. If the 75 cent stimulator falls apart after the second fish, but the $ 1.75 Umpqua stimulator is good for 10 fish, then the profitability of the most expensive fly is double. (75 divided by 2 fish = 37.5 cents per fish, 175 divided by 10 fish = 17.5 cents per fish). “You have to do the math,” says Olson.
Premium fly fishing flies
You wouldn’t settle for rods, reels, fly lines, waders, etc. that fall apart or break after a few times of fishing. So why settle for substandard flies? Flies are the most important part of fly fishing. If the bottom line of all this is fishing, why not spend more time, money, and energy on the one item that fish really care about? “
Price is a pretty good indicator of the overall quality of the flies you buy. Cheap flies are almost always cheaply tied. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to do the math. You can also test them by making sure they don’t spin easily, that they are well designed for balance, that they are tied at the proper ratio, etc.
Umpqua, Idylwilde and Rainy have significantly raised the standards by which high quality fishing flies are defined by using premium materials such as Tiemco, Metz and Whiting hackle hooks, and by developing the consummate skills of their fly hoists. of production.