Our Products

Becoming recognised as a market leader for any product is seldom easily attained and such is the position in relation to our flies. From conception to final production, The Donegal Fly Fishing Co., and it's stable of feature tyers are involved in setting the standards which have made us what we are today.

Rigorous targets are set in relation to product choice, materials, styles, colours, dressing weight, size availability, hook aptitude and appearance on each and every one of our products before we introduce it to the fly fishing world. Should our products fail any one of the above list, we tweak, fiddle and test some more until we have what we would regard as a suitable product for our range.  

This is no accident; we adhere stringently to values of the craft of fly-tying as they would have been in the bygone days of custom fly production. We endeavour to produce durable and long lasting flies which are true-to-dressing in as much as the dressing we decide to tie. Many of our dressings are slight variants of established products; this is not a whim, but a reflection on the progression of a pattern that has been gleaned from experience, usually from our feature tyers.  

"The Essentials of a Good Fly-Hook - The temper of an angel and penetration of a prophet; fine enough to be invisible and strong enough to kill a bull in a ten-acre field." - G.S. Marryat

Product specification begins with hook choice, and then progresses through material choice, material colour, dressing weight, overall proportion and style and finally, finishing. All of our fishing flies are double whip-finished and triple varnished. Other tie-in quality assurances employed involve double-layering of tinsel, doubling of hackles, reverse ribbing, loop dubbing, feather locking and in some cases lacquering of tags and tinsel bodies. The processes above involve time, labour and materials which are not employed on products that claim to compete with our products. We believe in tying a fly up to a quality and not down to a price.  

Whilst purist anglers would probably prefer to see us tying some of our fishing flies on lighter wire hooks, we are reluctant to, due to the popularity of put-and-take fisheries. The size, weight and power of the fish stocked into these fisheries are much greater than what the original flies were designed to catch. The original dressings may have called for light wire hooks because they were being used for small wild Brown Trout which may have averaged two-to-a-pound, reducing the onus on the hook to be super-strong. The reality is that a fully-finned 4lb. Rainbow Trout, on the right day, will straighten this hook. Modern designs of low-diameter leader material coupled with fast and powerful rods also add to this problem. We have overcome the traditional problem of over-weighting floating flies with heavy hooks by adding CDC and other highly buoyant materials in the dressings, ensuring that the fly fishes correctly, represents what it should and finally, when it matters most, maintains its hook-hold.  

Finally, don't take our word for it - go and see for yourself. Our dealer listing contains all the contact details necessary for you to go and see the range. Better again, go and buy some and feel the difference!