The Essential Fly Reviews

4.8 Rating 2,252 Reviews

97 %

of reviewers recommend The Essential Fly

4.8

Based on 2,252 reviews

Shipping & Delivery
Delivery Methods	Postal Service
Average Delivery Time	Within 5 Days
On-time Delivery	Greater than 90%
Accurate And Undamaged Orders	98%
Customer Service
Communication Channels	Telephone, Email, Live Chat
Queries Resolved In	Under An Hour
Customer Service	4.9 out of 5

About The Essential Fly:

Specialists in Fly Fishing with salmon, trout flies, and flies for lots of other species. We sell Fly Fishing Tackle and gear and a huge range of Fly Tying Materials and Tools - The Essential Fly is a leading supplier of gear for fly fishermen, rainbow & brown trout flies, salmon flies and flies for every species from our massive selection. Fly tying materials and tools to satisfy every fly tyers needs. With tackle from Greys to Wychwood, from fly rods to waders, luggage and all of the accessories you will need.

We have won awards for customer service and believe in value and quality. Check our reviews from thousands of customers all around the world. Having delivered to over 50 countries from homes to fishing lodges for that last minute requirement.

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The Essential Fly 5 star review on 16th February 2025

Anonymous

Anonymous // 01/01/2019

Filter: Rated 3 None 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Stars Helpful

“A little disappointing this time around. Admin problems aside, I found that I had to ring to establish the reason for the delay in my order. I was initially told about the admin issues, then that they were awaiting a stock delivery to complete my order [which had just arrived] and when my order did finally arrive the said item was not included and they apologised and said they would have to issue a refund.. Then I had to ring to chase up the refund and lastly it was a small order and it arrived in a large JIFFY envelope. I was charged the princely sum of £4.”

Helpful Report

Posted 5 years ago

We are very sorry to hear that you are disappointed. Unfortunately on this occasion we were impacted by a power outage which created a system error. Our entire street had the power turned off for many hours due to an emergency that day. This created delays and challenges for us which meant our usual service levels were not as we would like. Whilst we appreciate this is not what you want to hear, we did our best to catch up on all matters as quickly as we could. We hope this will not deter you from shopping with us again as we would very much like to demonstrate our normal service to you. If there is ever anything we can help you with, please do not hesitate to get in touch. With best wishes Team TEF

Posted 5 years ago

“did not supply one of the items ordered and did not offer an alternative”

Helpful Report

Posted 6 years ago

Thank you very much for your recent order. We are sorry that one of the packs of hooks was not available. These hooks were part of a range of hooks we were special ordering for you as shown on the site ie they were not in stock items. Unfortunately the distributor of these Fulling Mill hooks were out of stock of them too so we were very limited in our options for you for this pack. We do carry large stocks of tying materials and hooks but for certain ranges/sizes we order them in especially for customers. We rely on our suppliers to get the goods to us in a timely manner but unfortunately on this occasion one of the sets were not available. If there is anything we can help you with please do let us know. With very best wishes Team Essential Fly

Posted 6 years ago

“Regrettably most of what I wanted (grey mayflies to match our hatch) were out of stock (why??) and I had to make do with variations. Then having placed my order I was subsequently advised that you could only supple 1 Empheria bundle. Yes I was refunded but your flies are not cheap and having spent £40+ I have not really got what I wanted.”

Helpful Report

Posted 6 years ago

Hello and thank you for your recent order. We are very sorry that one of the Mayfly Collections was not available for you. With the start of the season, even though we manufactured great volumes of flies in preparation, we have received much higher than anticipated order volumes and our mayflies have been extremely popular. We are of course doing all we can to bring the stocks back up but as we manufacture our flies in thousands at a time, this can take a little time. We are pleased to see that all your remaining flies were shipped to you and hope that these are to your satisfaction. If we can help you with anything at any time please do not hesitate to get in touch. With best wishes Team Essential Fly

Posted 6 years ago

“Having difficult sending the right items first time. But the quality of things are fine.”

Helpful Report

Posted 6 years ago

We are sorry there was a picking error with your order. As soon as you brought this to our attention, we did all we could to remedy this and dispatch the correct pack of hooks to you as quickly as possible. We sincerely hope all will be well from here. Thank you The Essential Fly

Posted 6 years ago

“You were slow, other suppliers get my orders to me much quicker”

Helpful Report

Posted 6 years ago

Thank you very much for your order and for your feedback here. I would like to take this opportunity to respond to your point about our time to deliver. Your order was placed after we and all our suppliers had closed for Christmas. Our suppliers and ourselves did not open again until 2nd January. We do carry a large amount of stock but we also offer a special order service for customers. This means we order in special items directly for a customers - back to back with the manufacturer. This just takes a few days. It is also shown on the site and at check out, confirming the length of time it takes for these to come in. Two out of the three items you ordered were special order items. So as soon as the manufacturer was open again after Christmas and the New Year, these were ordered in immediately for you. There is often a back log with our suppliers after a shut down, but I can assure you that your tying materials were dispatched to you as soon as they come in. I hope this helps explain the situation regarding your order and if we can be of any help to you at all, or if you would like to check on an order or its status, you are welcome to get in touch at any time. With kind regards The Essential Fly

Posted 6 years ago

“service was ok, i just think you should try to be more flexible, i sent an order and i had forgotten something so i placed another order, i sent an email requesting both orders be send as one package but they told me that was not possible even though they were not shipped out yet, also i wasn't given a tracking number, its been a while since i placed my order and i still havnt recieved it, it would be nice to know when its comming, i odered these material to tie some flies before a trip and im afraid i might not get them in time”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

Hello and thank you for your feedback. We are sorry you feel we have not been flexible as we genuinely want to do our best for our customers. We have looked into your query. We can see that you placed 2 orders, 4 days apart. They contained special order items that we were bringing in for you. As you will be aware, special order items take a little longer whilst we await delivery of them from the supplier - as shown on the site and at your check out. Your orders were shipped out to you as soon as the supplier items came in but because your orders were placed a few days apart that is why they were dispatched separately. They have been sent by first class airmail and we hope they will be with you very soon. Thank you Customer services.

Posted 7 years ago

“5 out of 10.”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

Hi and thank you for your recent order. However we note your feedback and want to see if there is anything we can do to help? Was there a problem with your order that we are not aware of?Having looked at your order history, we can see we shipped next day, with a free shipping offer. We believe all items were in stock and we hope they were to your standard. If there is anything we have missed or there is anything we can help you with, please do get in touch. You are welcome to contact us directly on 01757 333003 or customerservices@theessentialfly.com Thank you Ann and team at TEF

Posted 7 years ago

“Hook quality fair, dressing good, material quality fair The delivery time, 7 days could be improved Would I use Essential Fly again, Probably not”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

We are sorry to hear that your order took time to arrive. We are concerned because your order was dispatched within an hour and half of you placing your order and it was sent out by Royal Mail first class post. As part of the order process you should have received dispatch emails to confirm this and I am aware that a colleague has emailed you directly with copies of the documents. We genuinely want to do our best for our customers with the best customer service and speedy dispatch. It looks like Royal Mail has let us all down here. We sincerely hope this was a one off. Indeed we have not had any other reports of delayed or lost parcels lately. So we hope this will not deter you from shopping with us again. Please let us know if we can help at all. Tight lines

Posted 7 years ago

“The products were good. But delivery was slow because of a long lead item. Part delivery of the order would have been appreciated, followed by long lead item. More cost I accept, but greater customer satisfaction.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“I can't review my purchase yet because I haven't received it yet”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

Hi and thank you for your message. As our customer services have mentioned, your order has been dispatched to you in the States, it was sent within a few hours of receiving your order. We do hope it will be with you very soon and that you will enjoy some fantastic fishing trips with these flies. Tight lines!

Posted 8 years ago

“Metz Saddle quality not the best.”

Helpful Report

Posted 9 years ago

“A great product, very well packaged, shame it took so long.”

Helpful Report

Posted 9 years ago

“Can't rate since I have not received the package as yet”

Helpful Report

Posted 9 years ago

“Very prompt service but I ordered two lots of size 10 flies, one lot sent were size 12's.”

Helpful Report

Posted 9 years ago

“I recently ordered a purchase of flies etc from you and still await news of delivery. Need I say more? As the cost of.this purchase is now on my credit card bill, I would have expected the items to be in transit to me”

Helpful Report

Posted 9 years ago

The Essential Fly is rated 4.8 based on 2,252 reviews