I was at cabela's tonight looking at some fly tying materials and I found some packs of assorted hair, fur and feathers for $19.99. Here is the link I bought a fly tying kit from bass pro last month and I'm running low on tying supplies. Does anyone think its worth the price, or should I just buy what I need when I need it? I'm mainly going to be tying bass and sunfish flies, But I might tie a few carp flies soon so I will definitely need some dubbing.

Thanks
-Brendan

Whether or not it is a good buy depends on what you plan to tie.

If you plan to tie specific patterns or you only want to tie specific sizes or colors, then you probably will not get your money's worth out of one of these bags.

However, if you like to experiment or you want to be able to try a new technique or fly that you see on U-tube or somewhere else. These bags will help you to have a variety of materials on hand that will help you do that. I started with a similar mixture of materials and it allowed me to try new techniques and flies without having to buy new materials every time. The colors and sizes were usually wrong, but I was able to learn to tie the fly as soon as I saw something new. Although with that said, you can pretty much guarantee that there will be some materials that will never be used in the bag.

If you buy one, I recommend buying in person so that you can sort the options. Each bag will have something different and some of them will contain more of the materials that you'll use.

Cabela's used to have a grab bag of buck tail pieces. It contained small pieces of a lot of different colors of buck tail. That one of the best buys I ever made of tying materials. Not sure if they still have it or not.

Thanks Rex,

I was planing on experimenting with some different patterns and making some of my own. By the way cabela's does still have the bucktail grab bag and it is about the same price.

-Brendan

If you get a grab bag I'd look at ftd. I know it's still a while until there x-mas bag is out, but I think they have other stuff as well. That's the fastest way to get a ton a supplies cheap. They aren't always what the recipe will ask for, but for experimenting they are great.

Actually, I just checked Oct 7 is the date for the holiday boxes.

http://www.flytyersdungeon.com/HolidayGiftBox.htm

I forgot about the FTD Holiday boxes. I got one last year and there's a whole lot of stuff in that package.

Brendan, the FTD box is full of synthetic materials and dubbing. I don't remember any feathers or fur which is primarily what the Cabela's kit contains. Add some hooks and between those two kits, you could stay busy tying for a long while. For hooks, the Mustad 3366 is a generic hook design that runs about $6 per 100 and at that price it makes a good hook to learn to tie on. Good luck!

I have found that no matter what you have, there is always that one thing that you could still use. I've yet to see any kit that didn't have good usable materials. Most are a pretty good value, but you will always be left with some stuff you don't use as much, as well as run out of some stuff that you tend to favor.

Cool I'll check them out

Thanks
-Brendan

Thanks for the help every one. I will have to check out ftd when I get home. If anyone has any otber suggestions feel free to chime in

I started out with my grandfather's random feathers and fur so I may not be the best help, but I mainly just buy materials of flies I want to tie. After a while of it you will have a lot of stuff and one thing I am learning, you will never have all the material you want......just so much out there now days.

Random packs are fine to get you started. As you progress you will want to build materials for specific patterns. Also remember that most grab bags dont contain the best selected materials.
Mike

I order a few things on line. As matter of fact, I just put an order in @ intheriffle. That being said, most things I buy in person because I want to look over things like feathers, craft fur, etc.

No matter how much material you acquire, you'll find that you want/need more, trust me, there's always going to be that fly that you just gotta ty.

Thanks for all the help everyone. I still have some bucktail so I'm going to try to tie some of the flies I saw in other posts