Cheap materials, oops I meant inexpensive

[bluefishercat]

Ok I buy fabric paint at the craft store instead of the relabeled fly shop stuff and foam for gurglers and crease flies, and use regular mono for thread.
What is the difference between EP fiber and Fuzzy fiber besides the fact that the price is double?
I use 50/50 solder to weight big hooks. Tie it on under the hook and a little epoxy. I guess you could be enviormentally correct and use silva brite. for small flies I use electrical solder.
What do you use that is unconventional?
What have you found less expensive that is the same or works as well as expensive.

[Pauper Piscator]

Cheap Nail polish for heads, eyes. Try the Clear or gold glitter polish. Or, if you can find it (not that hard), white and black or yellow and black for eyes. Coat with hardener

Cheap, brush included, stays "wet", dries fast, NP remover removes it (go figure), every color in the rainbow.

Black makes lovely shiny black heads on streamer patterns or trolling flies.

Also good for touching up chips and dings on your car, reels, etc etc, (Hey its better than bare metal!)

[Craignev]

Sometimes you can get decent natural grizley saddle hackles at the craft store for a whole lot less than at the fly shop. Probably never the same quality as Boar Mountains, but usually pretty good if you don't need anyhting longer than about 4". When they have them, I usually buy lots.

[tyguy]

My wife loves the fact I hit the craft stores on a regular basis. In fact, she gets upset if I go by myself and I didn't invite her! :rolleyes:

Let's see... glitter, foam sheets, beads, feathers, chenile, yarn, craft fur, fabric paint, markers, bead chain, anything that looks interesting... the list goes on and on. Although I buy a fair amount of goods at the craft stores, I still help to keep my local fly shop open... ;)

As I said in an earlier post, I now have three plastic drawer units stuffed to the gills, much of it from Michael's and AC Moore.

[Animal Chris]

Ditto on the nail polish. I have my wife keep an eye out for stuff like that at garage sales. You can find some really wild colors for almost nothing. I have also picked up some great books on flies, albeit all fresh water, but when you can get the "Benchside Fly Tyers Reference" book (normally around a $89) for a couple of bucks, I say go for it. I also found a BPS 9 ft., 2 seater bass buggy with trailer and troll motor (with a new deep cycle battery and charger) in like new condition for $400. The trailer was worth that much. As the saying "One man's trash is another man's treasure".

[Quicksilver]

Thank you bluefishercat for this post! Are you using two pound test mono as a replacement for mono thread? My tips? Ebay for natural bucktails, then dye them yourself. I havent tried this yet, but if you tie crab flies with rubber legs buy a short bungee cord and open it up for a lifetime supply of legs. Xmass tinsel is suppossed to be the same as Flashabou.

[Punchshot]

Growing up my brothers and I used to throw handful after handful of tinsel on the tree - if only I knew :)

[FLYRODER]

I love to get great bargains at the local craft store. All the things listed above I have here's a few more. Enough Pearl Krystal Flash to last me a few years for only $5. So much Pearl tubing that will last for years for a small amount of $. Lots of stuff that's exactly like EP Fibers for less than a dollar.

[Henry]

How about those long (6ft) feather "Boa's"...man, there's enough maribou to last a lifetime on one of those and only cost's $8.00.

[Saltydog]

SO you want to talk CHEEP, (#$119) heres my ROPE FLY.
GOOD LUCK GOOD TYIN --127-3-

[Animal Chris]

At the Texas Fly Fishers Tying Festival yesterday a local tyer, Ron Mayfield, showed me a trick when spinning hair. He had some easter basket liner that looked a lot like Angel Hair, but stiffer. He uses this to get some sparkle in the white hair. Also for you that tie with mono, Wal-Mart's craft section has mono thread dirt cheap. I have found size 4 & 5 and they both work well. I use 4 when I tie most of my mono. No to take any business from this site, but the Texas Kayak Fisherman site, http://www.texaskayakfisherman.com/ , has just added a fly board to the forum and there has been a good thread going on about this very subject. Tight Loops, AC

[bluefishercat]

I use 4# cheap mono. use an old spool and put a bolt and nut thru it and chuck it in my cordless drill and fill her up. A good source for fancy rubber legs is a sporting goods store that caters to bass fishermen, Spinnerbait skirts make great legs. I can't find anything that looks like fuzzy fiber or EP fiber at the craft store. Or pearl crystal flash or Tubing. Maybe I need to go to another one. What should I be looking for?
Pete

[bluefishercat]

Now I don't think these guys are much competition for the fly shops but --127-3- http://www.aloghomestore.com/backer-rod.shtml This is the stuff I use for poppers and sliders.

[mrschapin]

A few feet of old speaker wire will provide you with all the copper wire you will ever need.

[kujo24]

I went to AC Moore this weekend and got some cool stuff...

Look in the clay modeling section for bodkins!

I found bill's body braid used for the underbody of flatwings(labeled something else) in the sewing section...

Kreniak tying materials(mostly good for freshwater, like wet flies)...many colors--sewing section

Thought I hit the jackpot with angel hair, but it was the thickness of easter basket filler. Oh well...

Foam for topwater flies

My search continues...