1. Troutnut Forum
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2. Fly Fishing
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3. New/Used equipment?

Does anyone have any good sites where I can find any good new and used equipment. I'm planning on starting to tie my own flies over the winter, so I'd like to get all set up to do that too.

Are there any wholesale sites where you can by the tying supplies cheaper, that anyone knows of?

Is there anyone on here that has upgraded their equipment and would like to unload their older stuff?

Otherwise, just good links to sites where I can find cheaper flies, leaders, tippet, etc. would be much appreciated. I'd like to learn and gain as much knowledge, as quickly as possible, from all of you with all your years of experience.

Thanks.

HighFlyer, Fly Anglers On Line probably is the best place to start outside of e-bay. www dot faol dot com

Sierra Trading Post has a lot of left-overs, overruns, and other such merchandise. most of it is pretty good, and if it isn't there is never a question about returns. some of the rods i got there are great. some not so much. the duds went right back.

in my limited experience, "bargain" fly tying materials aren't. pick a couple of really useful patterns and buy those ingredients. lots of folk start with wolley buggers, pheasant tail nymphs, and elk hair caddis because they're not hard to tie and they catch fish.

many tyers are also really nice people who will talk your ear off and pass along bits of feathers and fur that they have plenty of. they are good resources for matching your efforts to your local streams. buy slow and careful when it comes to expensive feathers because only experience will teach you what good feathers act like.

this sport is like baseball--it rewards long observation. enjoy the ride!

"Are there any wholesale sites where you can by the tying supplies cheaper"

You won't be able to buy stuff wholesale as those prices are reserved for fly shops and other people in the fly fishing business so they can buy the product at a lesser price and then add their margin (profit) to the cost.

Yeah, I hear ya. I understand that they wouldn't technically be "wholesale", but there are sites that call themselves wholesale and then give really good prices for merchandise, because they buy in bulk.

Just wondering if anyone knows of any of them in the fly fishing area.

Thanks.

higflyer, this will be the second time I have agreed with casey on this site, buy sloooww. If you already have been fly fishing for a good time and know what you want to use and tie then by all means buy all the stuff you need, but it is best to tie a whole bunch of one fly various sizes at one time and not tie one or two of one pattern and then go to another. For instance tie a half a dozen adams in size 14, then 16, or 12, then goto the next pattern. I would also recommend tying popular patterns that will give you different looks to give the fish. I get good prices for capes at gander mtn. I get good prices on dubbing at my local fly shop. but you want to know what your buying, I bought some dubbing and it was about 15yrs old, it just disintegrated in your hands so again to agree with casey, bargain is not always bargain. YOU CAN BUY WHOLESALE, if your going to tie a lot of flies and I mean a lot the math will work out in the end. In Michigan here I went and got a DBA-doing business as. . .my business name. Then get a tax id number and your good to go.
I will say I had trouble with the elk hair caddis at first.
I have seen sites where the flies sold for as little as .50

Yeah, I plan on doing exactly that; starting with one particular fly and tying about a ton of that one style before moving on to another. For me it's more for the sake that I'm getting older and forgetful. If I only tied a few of one pattern, I'd forget it before I ever tied it again. So I'll tie a ton of one, and then a ton of another.

No aspirations of selling anything yet. I just think there will be an extra sense of satisfaction if/when I catch a fish on a fly I tied.

Thanks for the feedback.