Buying Flies in Thailand
- This topic has 5 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated Mar 30, 2011 at 1:22 pm by
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Does anyone know if you can visit Rainy’s in Chaing Mai or other fly factories there and buy direct?
I would imagine that if you visited any factory in Thailand you could get some items that “fell off the back of the delivery truck.”
I spoke with Jesse Riding at Rainy’s Flies at the US office in Logan, Utah – “Sorry, but we sell flies only through our authorized dealers worldwide”. And no chance of “flies that fell off the back of the delivery truck” it seems – “The Thai government is pretty strict on whom we sell to and it must be authorized channels or we would have ot be set up as a retail shop there and not a duty sheltered enterprise like we all are…providing jobs in exchange for lower taxes and duties and such.”
Though it would certainly be a fascinating tour, Jesse says they keep the factory “really tight” and are not set up to give tours, “maybe occasionally to a dealer” but otherwise no. Part of the reason may be the many innovative techniques that have been developed over the years by Rainy and her staff of fly designers, but more likely because they are busy tying high-quality flies that catch fish!
You can see photos of the Rainy factory and staff on their facebook page – http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=114778735211229&aid=11333
This is certainly far from the stereo-typical far-eastern sweat shop. Rainy Riding, the founder, actually lives on location in Thailand, and manages the operation. Many of the management and tying staff are long-time employees, and jobs with Rainy are some of the most coveted in the area.
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Hey Zach, Jesse said you and he are talking today about an article. You should set him up for a podcast – very cool guy.
Kent - FlyFishGA
Try Montana Fly Company in Missoula and or Columbia Falls. They have a nice facility in Thailand and might give you a tour. Sorry, but I don’t have a contact name for you.
If you are looking to buy flies cheap, I have a link for you;
A friend of mine who used to have a shop and then is just doing this on the side to feed his fishing habit.
Eric
The article I am writing is primarily on how flies are sourced and what the various grades are. Jesse was very helpful in that regard. I am still organizing my thoughts on this side of the industry into something cohesive, but you should know the following things:
Flies come in quality grades which are not displayed on store shelves. Often times the bins at your local fly shop will contain a mix of various grades of fly. These grades are typically associated with where they are being tied. Grade A would be Thai and U.S. flies and some Sri Lankan flies. Not coincidentally those are tied by the “name brand” companies like Umpqua, Montana Fly, Rainy’s and Solitude. They are seeking to brand these things with their names partly so they can explain the quality differences and justify the price of $2-3 per fly.
Grade B would be from places like China, the Phillipines, and possibly Mexico.
Grade C would be from Kenya, Chad and some of the more terrible tyers in China.
The only way to tell these things apart without inspecting them is by price. Grade A flies cost $2 and up. Grade B flies typically cost $1-2. Grade C flies cost under $1.
But, once you get them in hand, there are a lot of differences. High end flies have properly sized hackle, head cement, the correct number of wraps and proportions, as well as high quality hooks. Low quality flies might have fewer wraps, no cement, bad technique, mis-sized or weak hackle, and hooks with too much carbon (brittle) or too little carbon (bendable).
Most of the Grade C wholesalers will blatantly lie about the quality of the material they are using, so you can’t take their word for it. One of my sources noted that he was told by a Kenyan distributor that they used “only Whiting hackle.” He then called Whiting and learned that Whiting had never sold to anyone in that country.
At Umpqua, at least, the appropriate way to tie a fly is broken down into a very very detailed word document with pictures and instructions for each step; far more steps than we get in a tying magazine but similar to those articles. Each tyer, typically a lady, is expected not only to tie perfect flies, but to use the exact same number of wraps, etc. Some of those ladies become so good at certain flies, like the Copper John, for instance, that they essentially are the world experts in that particular pattern. One of my sources said John Barr himself would not even be in the same ballpark as the Sri Lankan lady tying John’s fly for production. Those ladies also get bonuses for hitting quality and number benchmarks, and they have something of a competition among themselves for who can be the best tyer.
The takeaway from the article is that you’re going to get what you pay for if you’re ordering online.
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