Home Forums Fishing Flyfishing FLY TYERS-where to get supplies?

Thinking about buying a vise and equipment to start tying flies. I don't flyfish all that much, mostly panfish/bass on the local ponds. Tied crappie jigs when I was a teenager but that was 40 some years ago.
I've got some gift cards for Cabelas, so was thinking about ordering a Griffin Odessey Spider vise and enough tools to get started. After seeing what they get out of some of these feathers and capes, I about choke thinking of the pheasant and turkey we've cleaned over the years.
Where is a good place to order tying supplies? I'm in Kansas and nobody carries anything of this sort.

1. Hunting buddies
2. Road kill
3. Sewing/fabric shops - One can buy spools of tinsel etc for the same cost as a couple yards on a card in the fly shop.
4. Friendly farmers for wet fly quality capes and feathers.
5. Zoo keepers/tenders - A buddy scored all kinds of exotic stuff (Macaw tail feathers etc) from a tender at the DC zoo. He just asked for what was on the floor.
One typically will have to pay for dry fly quality capes, but the highest grades are well worth it over the long run.
6. Estate sales can turn up some great buys for things like polar bear/seal fur and jungle cock.

It's an endless process.

Along those lines I once met about an 85 yr old chap packing a well worn bamboo rod on Oregon's Metolius, and we engaged for several hours. He recounted a day when he showed up and had left every fly at home. He scavenged the camp ground tables, tree limbs overhanging likely spots, and every feather or wisp of fur he could spot. A few badly decomposed flies were torn down for the hooks. He unraveled some thread and fabricated a couple crude but functional flies with melted pine pitch serving as head cement. I seem to recall him saying it was a 3 fish day, but still one of his most enjoyable outings.

Orvis has fly tying supplies 20% off in February. orvis.com

Thanks guys, I had googled it and came up with lots of suppliers, but didn't know which the favorites might be.

I have been lucky to find a few taxidermy shops that give me scrap furs and feathers. I donate most of the flies I tie to charities so it really helps out. And most dont want a thing

Well up till the recent on going recession, I tended to buy my stuff from the local fly shops. The two that I did business the most with are now out of business. As for mail order thats fine, there are lots of online fly shops around, I still would want to look over a Hoffman or Metz Neck if I am going to drop a 100 + dollars for one. Blue Ribbon Flies is a good source. Of course I hunt so a lot of duck pheasant and deer hair is always in good supply- I would recommend buying a good quality vise and tools. I am still using the Regal I bought in 1980! Craft stores is good place to find stuff, but you end up with hugh amounts of a given thing, then storage become a problem if you don't have the space. I had a spare room I used for my fly tying, in a few short years I had ended up with a lot of stuff - I mean a lot of stuff. Check out In the Riffle.com lots of good instructional videos and lots of great stuff to buy too.

I've been looking at some of the youtube videos, including In the Riffle.
The stuff I ordered is starting to trickle in, no vise yet but some of the smaller packs.
Thinking that with non finicky panfish I could maybe start with scrounged materials to get my feet wet. Poly twine off the large ton square bales would be an endless supply if it will work unraveled for orange floss/ body wrap, or even wing/ tails. Some of the twine off the large round bales would be about the size of chenille but a bit stiffer.
Too bad I hadn't decided to try this when I dressed my buck this winter, or the pheasants last fall!

I been doing this for over 54 years now, of late, Baling twine has its uses in Fly Tying, I like it for making legs on hopper patterns. You don't need much or spend a lot either. Start with a wooly bugger, good pattern to start with .

Yep, wooly bugger will be among the first I do, not much different than all those crappie jigs I tied as a kid. Thunder creek minnow, crappie candy, "Plan B", Griffiths gnat, and bluegill gurgler will all get a try. This is probably more to give me something productive to do in the evenings than necessary for fishing, but at the moment anyway I'm pretty enthused.

The Griffiths Gnat is one of the simplest and quickest flies to tie, and one of my go to patterns for picky trout. For your application a #14 and 16 should work. You can use peacock heel as the pattern calls for and grizzly hackle, you can also dub the body different colors if you like. When you tie those tie in some 2 lb test clear monofiliment or old tippet material. and counter wrap the body and hackle, it will make for a much more durable fly. Tie an all white woolly bugger, say size 8 or 10 with a little pearl crystal flash in the tail, the Crappies or Calico Bass as we call them will not leave it alone. The Calico Bass fishing were I live is not as good as it use to be. Maybe to many fisherman kept and ate them. Good eating, one of my favorite fresh water fish to eat.

Still don't have the vise, was messing around in the shop, put a 4X #10 in the bench vise and tried some of that baling twine. Stuff is really stiff, might work as a bucktail substitute, or as you said hopper legs, but a little tough to use for a wrapped body.