Project Description

On 16th February 2017, Martin Webster, the joint owner with his wife Jessica, of Selectafly, was our guest speaker. He spoke about the early origins of Selectafly on Deeside from 1980, the eventual purchase of the company in 2012 and its transformation into the company that it is today located in Gerrards Cross.  The company develops its own fly patterns with the help of the Selectafly Pro-Team including Matt Harris, stillwater nymph, dry-fly expert David Malpas, Colin Macleod (Mr Mullet) and Gary Hillary, the well-known Head Ghillie from Bywell on the Tyne. All the company’s flies are tied either in Kenya or Sri Lanka to their pattern and recipe. Additionally, Selectafly also sell the full range of Fulling Mill flies.

Martin described and illustrated the difficulties and obstacles of having designed a particular fly, then getting it tied by suppliers to the exact pattern and high standard required by Selectafly. He showed some examples of “what they wanted” and “what they got” to illustrate the difficulties of achieving their precise requirements.

Martin completed the evening by tying the snakelet fly (see Pic) – a smaller version of the popular snake fly with some interesting variation – especially the use of fish eyes and Veniard’s Layered Fringe Wing for the under body. This fly has proved to be extremely successful.