selectafly.com

What is Selectafly.com?

Selectafly.com is a UK-based, family-owned fly fishing supplier that has been trading since 1980. It sells artificial flies, fly boxes, leaders and accessories to anglers worldwide, with a catalogue organised into ranges such as Pro, Original, Barbless and Fulling Mill, plus a special offers section. The site also runs a monthly newsletter with fishing advice, and it publishes customer feedback about fast dispatch and order accuracy.

H3 What you can actually buy

• Flies: named patterns and selections, including grayling and other species-specific boxes, plus branded ranges such as Fulling Mill.
• Terminal tackle and accessories: leaders, gink (floatant), strike indicators and fly boxes.
• Bundles and offers: pre-assembled selections and discounted stock, useful if you want a ready-made kit rather than picking individual patterns.

H3 Who it suits

• UK and European trout and grayling anglers who want a broad pattern choice from one supplier.
• Buyers who value a long-established, family-run business and personal service over a large corporate retailer.
• International customers, since the site states it supplies worldwide and provides phone and email contact for orders from outside the UK.

H3 Practical considerations The main trade-off is breadth versus specialisation: a generalist supplier like this is convenient for mixing flies, leaders and accessories in one order, but if you need a very specific regional pattern or a niche tying material, a specialist tier may have more depth. Delivery speed and accuracy are recurring themes in the customer comments shown on the site, though those are individual buyers' experiences rather than a guarantee. For a first order, pick one selection box in the species you actually fish, add a leader and a fly box to reach the free-postage threshold mentioned on the site, and use that order to judge hook quality and tying consistency before committing to bulk patterns.

How can I choose the right fly pattern for the fish I want to catch?

Match the fly to the fish's feeding habits, the water you're fishing and the season — not to a favourite pattern. Selectafly's own range structure shows how a supplier tends to organise this: Selectafly groups flies into a Pro Range, an Original Range on Kamasan hooks, a Barbless Range and the Fulling Mill brand, with boxes, Gink and strike indicators alongside. That tells you the practical starting point is category and hook type first, pattern second.

Start with three questions

• What is the fish eating now? Match the life stage, not just the species: grayling and trout on small nymphs and bugs, surface feeders on dries, predatory fish on streamers and lures.
• Where in the water column? Nymphs and bugs fish sub-surface; dries sit on the film; streamers and lures cover water quickly. A "Grayling Selection" style mixed box, or a bung/drop-back selection for stillwater, saves guesswork when you don't know the venue.
• What hook do you need? Barbless is often required on catch-and-release waters and is easier to unhook; barbed suits beginners losing fish. Selectafly's separate Barbless Range exists precisely because this is a rule, not a preference.

Pattern choice by target

A workable method

1. Ask the venue or a local tackle shop what is hatching and what is working this week.
2. Buy two or three sizes of the same pattern rather than six different patterns — size usually matters more than exact imitation.
3. Carry a mixed selection box for your main species and one or two confidence patterns you can fish well.
4. Keep a note of what caught fish, on what date, in what conditions; within a season you'll have your own local reference.

Next step: if you're buying for a specific trip, pick the range that matches your hook requirement and species first, then choose sizes. Selectafly's range pages let you filter that way, and the "Take Me To Your Leader" and fly box sections cover the terminal tackle that affects presentation as much as the fly does.

What are the differences between the Pro Range, Original Range, and Barbless Range?

Selectafly groups its flies into ranges that mainly differ by hook type, tying quality and price positioning. Based on the shop's own range descriptions:

The practical decision comes down to three things: whether you need barbless by rule or preference, how much you value premium tying, and whether you want the value-focused Original patterns.

If you fish waters that require barbless hooks, the Barbless Range is the straightforward choice — you get the popular patterns without modifying them yourself. If you want the best tying Selectafly offers, the Pro Range is the premium option. If you want dependable flies at a fair price, the Original Range is the middle ground, and the Kamasan hook detail is the concrete difference worth noting.

A useful next step: pick one pattern you already fish well — such as a damsel or a gammarus pattern — and compare how it appears across the ranges. That tells you more about hook choice and tying quality than browsing the whole catalogue.

For a concrete scenario: if you are tying together a stillwater box for a week's fishing, the Original Range covers most of it at reasonable cost, the Barbless Range covers venues with hook rules, and the Pro Range is worth adding for the few patterns where presentation matters most.

You can browse the ranges at Selectafly.com.

How do I get free postage on my order?

Free postage applies to orders of £35 or more. The threshold is stated on the homepage as "Free postage on orders £35+*" — the asterisk suggests conditions may apply, so it is worth checking the delivery page or confirming at checkout before you rely on it.

For a practical next step: build your basket to at least £35 before checking out, and if you are just under, look at small add-ons rather than paying postage. A few low-cost items can close the gap — for example, a single fly such as Rob's Pumpkin Head Damsel at £1.75 or BL Juglaret's French Gammarus Yellow at £2.25 — though the better move is usually to add something you will actually use on your next trip, like leaders or a fly box, rather than something purely to hit the threshold.

If your order is well below £35, paying postage is often cheaper than padding the basket with items you do not need. If you are ordering from outside the UK, check the delivery terms first, since the free-postage line is a UK-facing offer and overseas shipping may be handled differently.

For anything unclear — including whether the asterisk conditions affect your order — the site lists a phone number (01753 883366) and email ([email protected]) for direct contact.

Does Selectafly ship internationally and how does that affect delivery?

Selectafly’s page explicitly addresses customers outside the UK ("Based outside the UK?") and offers free postage on orders of £35 or more, marked with an asterisk that signals conditions. The page does not state which countries are served, what international postage costs, or expected delivery times, so the practical answer is: international shipping is clearly part of the business, but the terms are not visible in the supplied page content.

For a reader in, say, Norway or the United States, that distinction matters. Domestic UK buyers can judge a £35 basket against free-postage thresholds easily; international buyers usually face customs handling, VAT or import duty, and longer transit, none of which the page evidence covers. Treat the asterisk as a prompt to check the delivery page or contact the shop before ordering, rather than assuming the UK free-postage rule applies to you.

A sensible next step is to email [email protected] or call 01753 883366 with your country, order value and the patterns you want, and ask for a delivered total and estimated transit time. If you want to compare how other specialist fly shops present international terms, Fulling Mill is a relevant reference since Selectafly stocks that brand, and John Norris is another UK retailer worth checking for delivery policies. Decide based on the landed cost and delivery window you are quoted, not on the UK threshold alone.

What do customers say about Selectafly's service and fly quality?

Customers consistently highlight two things: fast dispatch and reliable fly quality. The feedback quoted on the site is unusually specific about speed — one reviewer ordered late Thursday and received the order Saturday morning; another joked that an order placed one afternoon arrived the next day. A third mentions ordering ahead of a coastal trip and having the flies in hand in time to fish them the following week. On quality, reviewers describe the tying as "lovely" and "great," with one long-standing customer saying the flies "always catch me fish" and that they would not buy elsewhere.

A few practical points worth noting:

• Service complaints are absent from the quoted feedback. Every testimonial shown is positive, which is typical for a retailer's own feedback page — treat it as a signal of what the shop chooses to promote rather than a balanced sample.
• Speed is the recurring theme. Three separate reviewers mention dispatch or delivery time without being asked, which suggests it is a genuine operational strength rather than a one-off.
• Quality is judged by results. The comments tie quality to catching fish, not to appearance or hook brand alone. That matters if you are buying patterns you already know and want consistency rather than novelty.

A concrete way to test this for yourself

If you tie or fish regularly, order a small batch of patterns you already know well — say a dozen of a standard nymph or dry fly — and compare hook sharpness, thread coverage and wing/tail alignment against your current supplier. Combine that with a single time-sensitive order (something you need within a few days) to check whether the dispatch speed holds up for you, not just for past reviewers.

For context on the wider UK fly market, Fulling Mill is the brand Selectafly says it stocks in full, and Fly Fishing Forum hosts independent angler discussion if you want views from outside a retailer's own page.