What difference do premium fly fishing flies make in your day on the water? There are many fly fishing flies that advertise “Quality” or “Premium” but they are far from it. A premium dry fly will land right side up, float properly and consistently, and retain those properties even after catching 5.10, even 20 fish. On the other hand, poorly tied flies will often land upside down, on their side, or even on your head.
A premium trout fly at a fly shop is $1.50-$3.00, bass and surf flies $3.00-$5.00, but there are literally dozens of online retailers offering similar patterns for free. half that price. You can pay more for a premium fly at a fly shop, but research suggests the fly will last nearly 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 the premium levels of commercial flies. Flocks have been grouped based on color, hackle length and tine stiffness to create a superior hackle.
It has been a process that began with Harry Darbee in the 1940s and 1950s and continues today with hackles produced by Dr. Tom Whiting of Whiting Farms and Buck Metz of Metz Hackles, among others. Premium fly makers such as Idylwilde Flies, Umpqua Feather Merchants, and Rainy use premium flies.
The second material of significant importance is the quality of the hook. Tiemco has established 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 freshwater or saltwater, to bass poppers or Micro Mayflies, leading fly makers choose Tiemco hooks over the best efforts of other competitors. They were one of the first manufacturers to chemically sharpen points and it is now standard throughout the industry. They carry a very extensive line of fly fishing hooks with around 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 curved hollow point with triangulated edges for easy sharpening. The hooks also have a slow taper which helps to set up the hooks more easily. An interesting aspect of this hook is that the basal end of the point has a swelling that functions as a barb without being a barb.
This can be of some advantage in holding sets of hooks with barbless hooks. Another designation you may see is “TC” which stands for Timeco Cut. This is a cut that Tiemco uses on certain wet flies and streamers to improve hook penetration. “It’s all about quality, or lack thereof,” says Bruce Olson of Umpqua Feather Merchants. “The first problem is that cheap imports are always tied on very cheap hooks, with odd sizes. It seems to me that a quality fly has to be tied on [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 fly company does not use premium materials means that the final product is not up to scratch. As Shawn Brillon, Orvis’s main fly buyer, puts it: “If you have to tie with scrap, often the end product is the same…scrap.”
Discount fly makers also cut corners to cut costs and materials. Says Bruce, “To produce flies that cheap, these guys have to cut corners.” Discount fly companies use inferior hooks and materials, skip important tying steps (like putting a glue pad on the hook leg to hold materials in place), and don’t show much quality control.
patterns
A second important quality of premium fly fishing flies is adherence to standard pattern recipes. Bruce described that a “Copper John” he bought online was missing the epoxy on the shell and the lead under the thorax.
“So he may have saved a lot of money along the way, but he’s not a Copper John!” he says, noting that such an inferior version of the popular fly won’t perform in the water the way his designer intended. Without the lead it will not 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 breeders are well paid and earn middle class income for their work. The most expensive flies sold by premium fly shops like the Blue River Fly Company are tied in Thailand, the fly-tying capital of the world. There are over 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 found, is primarily by domestic levels or levels that link to specific fly shops.
Many manufacturers of premium flies, including Idylwilde, are strong believers 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 their website: “If a fly is only worth $0.99, it not only sucks, it was probably tied to a third world sweatshop and we’d rather not have that bad mojo hanging on our conscience. Idylwilde fishes with fly tying flies in Manila, Philippines, under a markedly progressive deal with Sister Christine Tan, a Catholic nun who believed her people needed more than charity: They needed honest, well-paying jobs they could rely on while building a life outside the world. confines of poverty. Our promise to Sister Christine continues some 12 years later, now enabling over 150 levels to better support their families. The flies you see here are the work of their hands and their hopes.”
fly fishing costs
The average product cost for a premium fly maker for single and nymph dry flies is around $4.50 – $5.50 per dozen. Additional costs for shipping, taxes and a US excise add an additional $1.00 per dozen.
The fly companies that import the flies need to make a profit, so the cost to the stores is generally keystone (50% markup), so the cost to the stores is now $12.00 per dozen. The fly shop pays shipping and increases operating costs and profits, key again, the cost to the consumer is increasing that $2-3 price you pay at a brick and mortar fly shop.
The big box stores, in order to cut prices to what they do, either get deep discounts for volume purchases or buy flies that are tied somewhere other than Thailand, or both. Hopefully now, when you are surprised when you walk into a fly shop, you can understand why the shop is charging what it does.
cost per fish
Bruce Olson argues that anglers 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 return on the more expensive fly is doubled. (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. of inferior quality. that fall apart or break after a few times of fishing. Why then settle for poor flies? Flies are the most important part of fly fishing. If the end result of all this is fishing, why not spend more time, money and energy on the one thing that really matters to fish?”
Price is a good indicator of the overall quality of the flies you buy. Cheap flies are almost always tied cheaply. 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, are well designed for balance, tied in the right proportion, 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 production fly tyers.
