Online Shops

[scotty9]

I'm trying to get into fly tying at the mo as some of you may have seen from my other thread. Thanks for some advice from Buzz i've got the Fly Tying for Beginners book on its way to me. My question is though, once i identify a couple patterns I wish to practice with and have a list of materials that i need, where should I buy them?

I found www.taimen.com thanks to a thread on here that came up in searches and they seem very cheap for a lot of items. Any good? Also came across capes from irishtroutflies.com and they seemed to get good reviews on here.

Any advice on outlets to buy stuff would be great, as cheap as possible please whilst keeping some quality! I'm just beginning i don't need super high quality stuff but i don't want rubbish  :lol:

[Clan Chief]

I was at the BFFI recently. I was really impressed with Cookshill materials. Great quality and not too pricey Look.......
http://www.cookshill-flytying.co.uk/
You will get good quality bags of all sorts of feathers such as cdc, partridge, mallard and all game birds which are great for spiders at extremely good prices. They also do thread, dubbing and capes etc. If you give them a call and explain that you are a beginner I'm sure they will be most helpful.
I believe that its a good idea to get the best materials you can afford as they are much better to work with than inferior materials especially when you are a beginner. You will also get better results which will spur you on to improve even further. Just my opinion I'm sure others will agree.
I just took delivery of a load of materials for north  country spiders from them. Generous bags and fantastic quality.

[Clan Chief]

I would recommend starting with spiders.
than a spider with tippet tails .........A pennel
Then a pennel with a wing....A blae and black
then move onto palmers such as your very impressive bibio
Then Kate mclarens etc.
What I would say though is do these basics then don't be restricted by established patterns. put the skills you will learn form the above patterns into creating your own style of flies.

[scotty9]

Clan Chief, the cookshill website is quite nice, the prices aren't high!  It's good to have some confirmation that the quality is good too.

Wildhibroon, there's a hobbycraft not too far from me, i wonder what delightful suprises they may have in stock!

[Guddler]

I'm sitting here with an order list for stuff from Cookshill myself - was going to try a seals fur selection, bag of CDC and some other bits and bobs. I don't see any online order form. Looks like they're a proper shop where you can call in and place an order in the old fashioned way  and tap them up for some advice at the same time.

[Clan Chief]

I phoned the bloke at Cookshill on Friday . My order arrived on Saturday. Excellent service. They have a very good reputation which in my experience is well jusified.

[shanksi]

Scotty,
Once you decide what you want to start tying phone Steve at Cookshill and he will point you in the right direction even telling you of cheaper options.  His materials are always top quality and has a great service.  Check out the SBS's on here http://ukflydressing.proboards.com/index.cgi? including Scotfly's.
Have also used Phil at http://www.flytyingboutique.com/Store/StoreIntro.asp another very helpful guy and great materials.

Ian

[Wildfisher]

I don't see any online order form. Looks like they're a proper shop where you can call in and place an order in the old fashioned way 

You can email the order then phone Steve with the credit card info. That's the way I do it with Cookshill.

[shanksi]

I usually phone Steve at night and he can let you know what's in stock and what might be a cheaper alternative.

Ian

[bibio1]

Hobby craft is good. I buy all my wool hanks in this shop. You can mix it to get the perfect shades of olives and yellows from which  tie really slim flies. Perfect for DHE. Try buying wool in GAC it will cost you a feckin fortune. Infact I don't think they stock any.

Steve at cookshill is also very good. his  natural cdc is excellent value.

Lakeland  also very good.