When I first wanted to learn how to tie flies I set off to my local fly shop and checked out the assortment of materials and equipment. The sale guy was nice but I was absolutely overwhelmed by the options and started making a list of everything I needed. As a beginner, you must balance wanting the very best of everything and trying to stay within a budget. I quickly realized that there had to be a beginner kit out there that could get me started so I packed it in and headed back home to do a little research. I didn’t pull the trigger on a kit as my wife and I were headed to Maine for a trip so I opted to wait until I got back to make a decision. While we were cruising around the Northeast, I begged my wife to let me stop at an local fly shop and check out some fly fishing gear. While I was there I came across a fly fishing kit that Wapsi puts out and I got a chance to look through it and it is quite impressive for a beginner kit. All of the materials were first rate. There was a large assortment of tying materials and came with a vise and some tools to get started.
Needless to say I ended up getting the kit from Wapsi and haven’t looked back. The instruction book creates simple step by step actions for a number of flies and I took to the internet to find a good video on whip finishing. I would recommend this fly fishing kit to anyone that wants an inexpensive way to start out and see if fly tying interests you.
To be fair.. I think the vise is definitely a beginners level vise. I haven’t had any issues with mine but I can see the need to upgrade to a rotating vise in the near future. Having had to replinish my stock of fly tying materials recently, I can tell you that the amount of materials you get from this kit makes it an amazing value. Separately, materials can be quite expensive but I was able to tie a ton of flies before I ran low on materials. It is well worth the money in the beginning and I am thankful I lucked out and saw this kit at that fly shop in Maine before I made my decision.