How To Sell Fishing Flies that you Tie

If you like to tie your own flies for fishing you may be able to offset your expenses by selling some of the flies you tie.

In the old days you could simply sell them down at the river to your fellow fishermen. Today you can still sell them in person but there are many other options available in this age of the internet.

Down At the Fishing Hole
If you have a large amount of fishing flies you have tied, pack them up and take them with you next time you fish the river or lake. When you catch a nice sized fish, and the other fisherman ask what you caught it on, you can show them. Many times they will offer to buy one. If it works for them, they will usually offer to buy more.

You won't get rich selling flies this way but it can help you to get your name out there. If you can build reputation for yourself as a quality fly tier locally, you can easily expand it regionally. If you have your own website where you sell your flies, you can pass this out to people that ask for more information on your flies. This will help you to expand from regionally to a well known fly tier nationally.

Sell Flies Online
Have a nice looking website built and list your various flies for sale. Make sure that you use quality pictures that can be clicked don to make the image larger. Fishermen like to see the detail of the flies before they purchase them.

You can easily set up PayPal to use as your merchant account. Anytime you are out in public have some fliers or business cards that have your website URL listed on it.

You can increase traffic to your website as well as sales by participating in fishing forums where they allow you to use a signature. In the signature have a link to your fishing flies for sale website. Every time you post on the forum your URL will be visible to all people on the forum. This is a great way to get targeted traffic to your web site so you can make some sales of fishing flies that you have tied yourself.

Word Of Mouth
If you tie a quality fishing fly, then your work will get noticed. If fishermen like your quality of work and they have good results fishing with them, then they will tell their other fishing buddies about your ties.

Many fly tiers have a hardcore following that will only purchase flies tied by that particular designer.

EBay
EBay is a great way to sell your fishing flies. You can sell in bulk amounts or in small quantities such as 3 or 6. You can also sell a sampler pack that includes one of each fly that you tie. If the customer finds a particular fly that works for them then you can expect to get future orders from them.

When you send a package of flies to a customer that ordered them off of EBAY, make sure you include a pamphlet that lists your web address. The customer can then buy directly from you and you can sell the flies at a lower cost because you will no longer have to pay the EBAY listing fees for this particular customer.

Library and Bookstores
Go to the library and your local bookstores. Find every book related to fly fishing and sneak a pamphlet or business card into them that have your Web address on.

Fly Fishing Websites
In addition to your website, there are many other websites that sell fishing flies. Many of these websites have fly tiers that make and sell fishing flies on the website.

If you get an order, the website will send you an email documenting which flies they order and the quality. You then tie the flies and send them out in the specified time and the website will pay you directly.

Swap Meets
Swap Meets and other similar venues can be a great place to sell your flies. If the venue us located near a popular fishing hole you are bound to have many fisherman walking through and browsing at all of the booths. If they are fly fisherman they will usually stop and talk to you about your work.

In order to help attract attention, set up your table and start tying flies. Even people that are not into fly fishing will sometimes gather to watch you work.

Pricing
Tying flies is supposed to be fun. If you are cranking out generic flies and selling them for 50 cents each you will rapidly get burned out. If you tie quality fishing flies using premium materials then price yourself accordingly.

Do you want to be the Ford Pinto of the fly tying world or do you want to be the Cadillac of the Fly tying world. If you properly market yourself then you can get a premium price for your fishing flies.

Instead of cranking gout generic flies like a factory, you will be able to take the time to carefully craft each fly with premium materials. Instead of selling 10 flies for $5.00 you will be able to sell one fishing fly for $5.00, or even higher.

If you truly want to sell fishing flies as a full time job, and not simply some pocket change, then you need to read and study as much as you can about the master fly tiers. Learn their methods, master their methods and techniques, and then using their techniques implement your own flair and ideas.

Start off by targeting local fishing holes that you are familiar with. You can experiment and learn which colors and patterns work there. Once you master your local fishing holes and have developed your name as a local fly tier, you can then move on to regional fishing holes that are popular. Once you have mastered tying flies for regional fishing holes you can then attempt to tie flies for fishing hotspots around the Country.

If you truly want to be a master fly tier, you must have a passion for tying flies, and realize that it may take a life time to get the recognition you both want and deserve.