Prices of flys/teasers

[Patrick]

Went to Fairfield Flyshop today in my town. They only have a couple flys in stock. I basically wanted them for teasers. I got 4 flies. One was a baby mackeral, a 1/0 black over white deciever, a 'baby bunker fly' and a silverside fly. I plan on using a the silverside fly as a small sand eel teaser as well. We don't get big sand eels around here. They are pretty cool flies.

Anyways, those 4 flies came out to 21 bucks. Not that I'm complaining but is that really normal? How hard would it be to tie those kinds of flys at home? Could I do it at a lower price? I'm thinking the easiest to tie and the best producer is going to be the deciever.

Let me get this straight. It's a 1/0 hook. That has a feather in it, then it has bucktail around the feather, then some peacock strips laid on top. then a little tinsil. I notice it has a sparkley red hackle or chin, what is it?

Thanks,

[JohnR]

Buying bulk supplies will cost you more than that to start off but you would be able to extend those supplies across many more flies... Talk to Saltydog about that. He also does a few fly swaps and get togethers (although it is getting late for that)...

[Saltheart]

All the cost is in getting set up. You need a package of hooks. You need a bobbin or 2 , you need the trhead. You need head cement. You need a vise of some sort. You need a bucktail , a whole package of hackle , flash , etc in whatever colors you want. You can make a whole bunch of flies from one bucktail and one neck but you have to buy the whole thing to get started.

You can certainly make them for a lot less than $5 once set up. A simple teaser of white bucktail topped with black hackle is probably 60 cents to make. You can also buy some for a lot less than $5 too. Shop around.

[Patrick]

I actually have a vice and a bobbin. It's not the prettiest thing around but it does the job. Saw those mustad hooks on Tim's site. It's like 13 bucks for 100? not too bad. I have some thread. I could probably get more. Black over white sounds fine to me. Now when I buy buck tail, will it all come attached? I'm not too sure how it comes. Any special brand of head cement? Oh yeah, I wanted to show you guys the flies I picked up. Tell me if you like them.

On the top is the bunker fly. Next is the deciever. Then a mackeral fly. Then the Silverside fly. I figured I would just stick to basic designs. Did I do well ya think?

[Saltheart]

Be careful what hooks you get. The mustads I have mentioned here are jig hooks , not teaser hooks. Usually for teasers you'll be in the #1 to 4/0 size. The bucktail is.... a bucktail. You buy the whole skinned tail. About 1/3 the hair on it is white and thats what people use. Some people use the tan or dye it to a dark color. The flies look good to me. The long green one looks interesting.