The only way I can figure it is there must be two demographics for fly fishermen;  the starry eyed fellow that approaches the counter with an eight hundred dollar rod and asks, “what else do I need?”

… and the mean old penny-pinching codger poring over the fly tying materials alternately swearing and grasping his chest like it’s the end of his world.

Last year we broke the thousand dollar rod barrier, and debuted a $12,000 titanium fly reel, so why is it that fly tying materials grow smaller with each passing season?

Fish hooks went from 100 packs to 50 packs and the price remained about six bucks, begging the question why didn’t they remain 100 packs and the price rise to $12?

The boxes were sized the same, ditto for the labels, so why couldn’t they just double the price and tell us to endure?

Guys like the Roughfisher could snort a 24 pack of Tungsten beads, chase it with his room temperature ghetto malt and have no ill effects. Twenty four beads is a warm up, it’s a snack – it’s not a “supply” or even a goodly amount.

With Whiting necks and saddles approaching the ninety dollar mark, fly tiers are used to the same price increases as the rod and reel crowd. We’re not going to unlimber a hog leg and start popping caps at the fellow behind the register – we’re aware of the steady drain to our pocketbook, as is the rest of the retail crowd, but outside of hygiene, we’re gifted with similar social skills and patience.

Material packaging is beginning to border on the unrealistic.

… contains approximately 1/2 gram per pack.

I need teal flank and find 12 feathers in the delicate glassine envelope. Three of them were damaged by gassing the plumage per USDA specs, the fellow dyeing them didn’t bother to pre-soak so the remaining feathers have brittle tips from a too-hot dye bath … I mash one getting them out of the baggie and find eight feathers of which three have the markings necessary.

What am I supposed to tie with that? My vacation is a week long and I get three of the “hot” flies to last me?

… 12 feathers per package

If I need more I incur the wrath of the fellow at the register. I plunk down the entire store selection – perhaps ten packs of teal, and he’s looking truculent because the Boss is going to make him restock.

Mostly because he’s only got ten fingers and these are twelve packs.

There was no sudden outburst of gunfire when fluorocarbon tippet rang the register at $15 per spool, about three times what the prior tippet du jour cost – and fly tiers being fishermen as well as craftsmen, bore the burden in silence or didn’t buy it at all.

With all these price-records shattered, why don’t you give us a quarter ounce of the feather, priced however much you want, so we don’t have to come back tomorrow for the rest of your inventory?

Even the beginning fly tier needs plenty of materials to learn routine procedures. With all the mishaps and rejects, his fur and hide cuts should be at least 16 square inches, feathers need to be at least a quarter ounce, and if he’s shell shocked by 50 or 100 packs, we’ve done him a favor by weeding him early.

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