Fly Tying Purchases: The Good, The Bad, The ???

[JimNovo]

For the fly tyers out there:

The Good: your best fly tying purchase.
The Bad: your worst fly tying purchase.
The ???: the non-fly tying item that really works well for you in your flies?

For me:
The Good: CDC. It has so many applications (body, wing, legs), floats great and trout love it!

The Bad: Wing Burners. No matter what I burn (organza, plastics, feathers) it is clunky, twists my tippet and looks like crap!

The ???: Coats and Clark Sewing Thread from Walmart. Great for making segmented mayfly bodies in many colors and it splits tails better than tying thread.

 

[Tigereye]

The Good. Wood duck flank. My neighbor is a duck hunter and i get these by the bag full. Wings on catskill dries and tails on wets and nymph. Cheaper than coc d'leon and not so sure the fish can determine the difference.

The Bad. Wing burners. Hahaha. Yeah they rank near the top. Gave them away years ago for free on the Swap Forum. I still have swanandaze and McMurry ant bodies. Bleh!!! Porcupine quills and peccary- tell me again why i bought these?

The ????? Wax from Baby Bell cheese. The wax from tbese little cheese balls is excellent tackiness and consistancy for use as thread wax. Also can form it to a point for ez application.

 

[falcon]

Dyed peccary makes a nice segmented fly body. I have some peccary dyed dark brown that makes a nice Hendrickson. It does not dye in a uniform color either.

 

[JerryC]

The good: CDC-I've been using it since the mid-90's, but I'm going to go, since I tie a lot of warm water flies, spinner bait skirts and spinner bait skirt layers(known as "sili legs"). I've been using them for years, long before they replaced rubber legs in fly tying. They're much cheaper and come in larger variety of colors in non-fly fishing tackle catalogs

The bad: Wing Burners- I brought a whole set of them when I first started tying and have never used them. I keep wondering if they would make decent tweezers.

The ???: Materials I pick up in craft stores. Particularly, the various sizes and colors of craft foam sheets.

 

[McSneek]

One bad that immediately came to mind was Swiss straw. Bought some years ago because a beetle pattern called for it as a shell back. Looks ok on the finished fly but I think it is terrible and not at all durable once it gets wet.

 

[Bamboozle]

The Best:

I have three to list that I bought in bulk on the cheap, cheap and now they are either discontinued or too expensive to buy in the quantities I did so I feel like a genius.

Gudebrod Fly Tying Thread - In a ton of colors in 3/0 through 10/0. It is my hands down favorite thread and all I've used for a LONG time. I stocked up on the cheap after they went bankrupt.

Whiting 100 Packs - From size 12 down in a bunch of sizes and colors you can't even get anymore. I literally have hundreds of 100's packs. I was snapping them up at $6.00 - $8.00 before the hair craze so I am set forever with dry fly hackle.

Frank Matarelli Bobbins & Tools - The first bobbin & whip finisher I ever bought were Matarelli and they have been with me ever since. Around 10 or more years ago I added a BUNCH to my collection, especially the bobbins (long tube, regular & midge) since I like to keep more than few loaded with thread so I don't have to swap spools. Frank is gone and the company is out of business.

Have you seen what real Matarelli stuff goes for on eBay?

The Worst:

Pettijean Magic Tool Set - I bought this set after seeing it demonstrated someplace. The only magic thing about it was how it made my money disappear. The only good news is I didn't pay anywhere near what they get for them now.

BTW - I've never used it...

The ???:

Toenail Clippers - I tie & fish a lot of foam beetles. My process involves first pre-cutting diamond shaped pieces of flat foam. I tie in the foam by one diamond "point," build my body and pull the foam over and tie it off at the other diamond "point."

I have this pair of toenail clippers I got somewhere about a 1000 years ago with the PERFECT curvature to clip the points on the sides of the foam to give it that PERFECT beetle shape. Most other toenail clippers I've seen have a much shallower curve and would require more clipping to get the same result so I guard this pair with my life!

 

[CRB]

One bad that immediately came to mind was Swiss straw. Bought some years ago because a beetle pattern called for it as a shell back. Looks ok on the finished fly but I think it is terrible and not at all durable once it gets wet.

I have to agree on that.
Best
The first purchases I made from Cabela's for tying supplies in the early 2000's. You used to get multiple spools of thread, packages of dubbing, etc. I purchased dark olive utc thread I got 6 spools I am finally down to my last spool. It was my perhaps my best purchase.
Worst
I picked up one of those tinker toy looking threat dubbing spinners never used it.

The ???
ott light from the craft store.

 

[falcon]

Gudebrod thread was the best especially in the small sizes. I have a Ott light I bought on sale at Lowes for 20 bucks. Works pretty good and is easily portable.

 

[JeffK]

Good: I bought some natural gray snowshoe hare feet that were harvested before they turned white for winter. Great mottled dun hair great for mayfly wings. Dyed dun is nothing like it.
Bad: plastic fake jungle cock - just say no
??? DMC Wool tapestry yarn in black. Great nymph body material. Only problem is that wool embroidery yarn is hard to find these days. It comes in dozens of colors, but black has worked out best for me.

 

[Bamboozle]

I use Swiss Straw all the time for almost all of my nymph wing cases and have no issues with it however Raffia Grass which is what it replaced really sucked.

Speaking of sucky materials, did anyone out there get caught up in the sheet latex craze way back when?

It was touted a material to use for caddis larva & nymph bodies. I got my FREE supply from a dental supply company owned by a family friend. Dentists call it "dental dam."

It made for pretty flies but the latex would dry out and the flies in my fly boxes would all unravel...

 

[Bamboozle]

...Bad: plastic fake jungle cock - just say no...

I still have few in my $#!++y materials drawer, right next the Raffia Grass...

 

[Bamboozle]

Gudebrod thread was the best especially in the small sizes. I have a Ott light I bought on sale at Lowes for 20 bucks. Works pretty good and is easily portable.

There is a company called Versitex in Spring City, PA that was the main distributor for Gudebrod thread.

When Gudebrod went bankrupt after losing a huge dental floss contract, they told me about Versitex and I drove down to Spring City and bought a ton of thread.

 

[salmo]

Best Buy: 2mm craft foam form Michaels
Middle: Czech Glass beads for zebra midges
Meh: White Bonnie cord ( I have enough for the next century- who wants some
Worst: Assorted colors of tying threads from Amazon Breaks a lot!

BTW: I bought a Peak tying vise after a recommendation from this site. Boy, I love it! Thanks.

 

[lestrout]

The Good. Wood duck flank. My neighbor is a duck hunter and i get these by the bag full. Wings on catskill dries and tails on wets and nymph. Cheaper than coc d'leon and not so sure the fish can determine the difference.

The Bad. Wing burners. Hahaha. Yeah they rank near the top. Gave them away years ago for free on the Swap Forum. I still have swanandaze and McMurry ant bodies. Bleh!!! Porcupine quills and peccary- tell me again why i bought these?

The ????? Wax from Baby Bell cheese. The wax from tbese little cheese balls is excellent tackiness and consistancy for use as thread wax. Also can form it to a point for ez application.

LOL Tig - sure a little cross-contamination isn't adding a little cheesy chum action?

 

[a23fish]

BTW: I bought a Peak tying vise after a recommendation from this site. Boy, I love it! Thanks.

Which one did you buy? I am starting to look around for a possible upgrade from my very basic Thompson A style vise. Once I learn to tie a lot better....

 

[jifigz]

Best buys: craft foam from Walmart or a cheap, brown full saddle in brown from Aquatic Imitations. It was unbranded and from the back of the store, definitely a great buy for lots of stuff. Those two items represent great value to usefulness ratio.

The ugly: I can't think of any one thing that sucks or I regret. I do use A LOT of the same materials in many flies though. Who knows?

 

[Tigereye]

Which one did you buy? I am starting to look around for a possible upgrade from my very basic Thompson A style vise. Once I learn to tie a lot better....

I have been using a Thompson A vice for almost 40 years. I purchases a pair of midge tips for it probably 30 years ago. The standard tips are too big.

It has and still serves me well.

 

[sandflyx]

have enough swannundaze personally about 1500 packs, on the wall for sale another 1000.
aunt lydias yarn from the old days
the bad
tons of deer, elk and black bear hides

 

[dc410]

The Good: My bobbin threader. As I get older and my eyes starting to fail me, I would spend an exorbitant amount of time trying to rethread a bobbin without this tool.

The bad: A Thompson style whip finisher that I bought early in my fly tying career. I was never smart enough to figure out how to effectively use this style of whip finisher. I have repurposed it to a touchhole cleaner for my .50 caliber flintlock long gun. 😉

The ??? - An old shaving brush makes some extremely stiff tailing fibers for dry flies or split tail spinners.

 

[lestrout]

The Good: My bobbin threader. As I get older and my eyes starting to fail me, I would spend an exorbitant amount of time trying to rethread a bobbin without this tool.

The bad: A Thompson style whip finisher that I bought early in my fly tying career. I was never smart enough to figure out how to effectively use this style of whip finisher. I have repurposed it to a touchhole cleaner for my .50 caliber flintlock long gun. 😉

View attachment 1641228463

The ??? - An old shaving brush makes some extremely stiff tailing fibers for dry flies or split tail spinners.

View attachment 1641228465

My first bobbin threader was made of wire, and I grew concerned that in time and usage that it would score and roughen the inside of the tube. Some tyers just suck the thread through the tibe, but that was unappealing. Sometimes I would feed tippet through, then double it back to form a loop, which I could use to pull the thread through. But then I discovered the dental floss threaders. And they are unbelievably cheap.