29 replies to this topic

[Harold Ray]

I buy the vast majority of my materilas from J. Stockard, inventory, prices, quality, friendliness, and service, followed by FlyTyer's Dungeon, FeatherCraft, and a few others.

[fishingtheflee]

5 hrs from the nearest flyshop. so i do it online ..

[streamcaddis]

I shop my local shops first. If my local shop doesn't I go on line to J. Stockard,99.9% of the time they have what I need.

[redquill]

Fortunately, there are plenty of fly shops in Colorado. I prefer to put my hands on them before I buy. However, for hard to get items will have to go online.

[DHise]

Hopefully local but for local shops to stay competitive in today's market they also need to have an online presence.

[Harold Ray]

We've got an archery shop here in town that has begun stocking a little bit of tying material; I buy some there, but their stock is extremely limited. The closest actual fly shop is about 150 miles away both ways down I35, north of Fort Worth and nearly to San Antone, so I buy most of my materials online as I have said before. If we had a large shop here in Waco, I would probably inhabit it and spend more than I already do, which is quite a lot.

Ray

[Roadkill]

I am a couple of hours from any decent flyshop and 5-6 hours away from shops that carry specialty items that I must see before I buy. Mail order has been a fact of life for me since my first Herters supplies that supplemented what a .22 and 20 Ga. didn't provide.

[camoham]

online only.

nothing available locally or without traveling to a 'chain' significantly away from me.

if i had my way..................or won the lottery. I would buy one of the old closed shops in a historic district part of town, open up a fly shop that sells flys, tying equip, rods, reels, and on the side pipe tobacco and expensive cigars. yes sir, my job would be to tie flys, tell some lies, goof off..................and sell things at a loss on purpose.

camoham

[ozzy1038]

I buy most of mine from retailers like bass pro and sportsmans. There is a mom and pop shop here that I go to from time to time. It doesn't get a lot of traffic and some of the stuff is pretty old. It is one of the only places I have ever seen french tinsel.

[notenuftoys]

I travel almost every week, so I don't have much time to go shop. Almost everything I have is from online (J Stockard is one of the best!), but my second choice is Cabela's (30 min away) or Bass Pro (15 min away).

[Fatman]

Buy most of my supplies at my local shop, but yes I also buy online when I can get a great deal.

Fatman

[Chase Creek]

I didn't vote - I am fortunate enough to be close to both a local shop and one of the "big boys" (Cabella's). I also do some buying on line if I can't find the item at those two places.
I prefer to handle the material I'm buying, if possible. But the way things are packaged now, that's getting harder and harder.

[Live2Fish]

I'm beginning to feel fortunate. We used too have ten places around town and are down to four. Materials I prefer to be able to see before I by them. Equipment I consider buying on-line.

[JSzymczyk]

Last week I found 2 good pieces of deer hair at a Gander Mountain store. After opening and examining about 20 packages of deer hair, I was approached by a "staff member" and asked what I was doing, and several of the bags I had opened were taken and looked at to make sure I didn't put anything in them.... Even though it is a pain in the ass, I guess I understand their point of view. They have no idea if someone is a picky tier or a psycho crazy a$$hole up to no-good. In a real fly-shop I don't think that would have happened. In mail-order the greatest chance was I would have gotten a couple pieces of hair that sucked. BTW it was all Wapsi brand--- most of it looked like it came off deer that were roadkilled in August in Florida.

[Maj Bob]

i hear all kinds of people saying support your local shop but for people like me there is no local shop. I have to buy my materials online to get quality Wapsi or Hareline materials. I recently found that supplier on Ebay and he is going to be my supplier from now on so this is my only way of supporting a shop. Well thank for participating. I dont want to advertise so if you want to see the shops ebay page follow my sigs link. Have fun and happy tying.

Ditto.

There is only 1 tackle shop in Southern Maryland, and he's 45 - 60 minutes south of me, and I can't drive. So I get down that away only when the dog's sick . . . (our Vet is down in Lexington Park too)

Doggone healthy dog!

Cheers!
Bob Hendry