We are immensely proud of our company name, established over twenty years ago! In the early 2000's, we even tried to trademark “The Canadian Tube Fly Co.” and were told that you cannot trademark a company name with “Canada” in it. We still have the application and government rejection letter…. we tried!

With current issues going on, we have had a few emails that wanted to know if we very recently added “Canadian” to our company name. Selling “made in Canada” products is tricky for a fly-tying shop, something we have well learned over the years. We sell a wide range of products. Feathers, fur, hooks, shanks, tubes (plastic, metal, hybrid), paints, dyes, fly boxes, tube fly hardware, cones and disks, synthetic products, and of course tied flies.

Let us break this down a bit:

Our flies. Though we used to offer a larger range of flies, all our flies in past and present have been made in Canada by a ridiculously small group of local tyers. We had to tone down the selection we offered years ago, specifically because we did not want to either import tied flies or have our flies produced for us overseas. If you have ordered a fly from us, they have been tied in Canada.

Feathers. The fly-tying world is unique in that many natural tying products (feather and fur) are simply not available as a “source product” in Canada.

o We bring duck, goose, turkey, and some pheasant from Canadian wholesale suppliers.

o Ultimately though, other feathers come from overseas. If a shop is selling Rhea for instance, it originated in South America. If you are buying peacock, it originated in Asia. We (for many years now) source feathers directly from the origin country / area.

o All feather products we bring in (from either overseas or Canada) are cleaned, processed, dyed (sometimes chemically burned), dried and packaged in our warehouse in Edmonton. Many fly shops bring already processed products in from US distributors that source (from the same countries we get them from), process them, and then sell them at a Manufactured Suggested Retail Price (MSRP). Usually, the work to make the final product is done in the US. If you have bought products from Hareline, Wapsi, Umpqua, etc this is usually the process. The Canadian Tube Fly does not import packaged or raw tying materials from US distributors or wholesalers, except for one item from a US producer (that we are very often out of stock on). We do however have two Canadian distributors (one located in Quebec and one in Alberta). We bring three or four items in from them.

• Fur. It is a similar process. We do source a few items directly from Canada (our seal, coyote, and racoon fur for example). Other items are sourced over seas, and we dye, process and package everything in house. Again (for example), if you have bought Snow Runner or Lamb Fur from another fly shop (with some of the big-name labels), chances are it came from an American distributor that sourced it over seas like us, but had it processed in the USA.

• Machined products. They are brought in from overseas, and Canadian machine shops. A mix of both (depending on the product). Again, they are brought in in large quantities and packaged in our shop. None of our tube tying “hardware” or tools are brought in from the United States.

• Plastic tube components. They are brought in from both Canadian manufacturers and from over seas. They are bought in large quantities and packaged in house. Though we did bring in a couple of plastic products from US shops before, we have not imported any plastics from the US in several years.

• Storage products. These (boxes, wallets, etc.) are brought in from the UK and other over seas manufacturers/distributors. Though some of the storage options we offer are available thru US distributors, we bring them in directly from overseas sources.

• We are proud of our Lanyards! We make them in shop (thanks Olivia and Caleigh) they look great!

• Synthetic products. Our dye, powder paint, Flexi Film, Sparkle Film, Fish-eyes, flash materials, etc. come from either Canadian or overseas suppliers.

Lastly, all of our tying tutorials, videos, articles, etc. Are made in our warehouse in Edmonton. We are still working on the professional shine on some of the final products, but they are (apologetically) all Canadian!