It’s not that I don’t want to. Believe me, I used to work in a fly shop and understand the value of having a place to gather to talk shop, exchange info on conditions and tell some good old fashioned fish stories. And, I do want to support local businesses. But unfortunately, most of the shops in my area carry a mediocre (at best) inventory. They have a very pedestrian selection of fly tying materials and anything beyond that is considered “specialized” and has to be ordered (if they even can). And if they can order it, it usually has to go in with their scheduled orders which can add days to the shipment. A basic inventory might work for a beginner, but once you get a little more advanced, you can almost be guaranteed they won’t have the tools or materials you need and you’re better off going online.
To be fair, I should point out that over two decades, I’ve built up more than a lifetime supply of staple tying materials and gear. I’ll probably be handing down my collection of hare’s ear dubbing and grizzly hackle to my grandchildren. To make matters worse, now that I almost exclusively fish tenkara, no local shop can even order the eyeless hooks, silk bead cord, or other “specialized” gear I might need. And forget about finding a tenkara line spool or hi-vis fluorocarbon at a brick & mortar. Really about the only things they can offer me at this point are tippet material and thread (along with a condescending look when I mention the word “tenkara”).
It’s not the shops’ fault, mind you. I know the conundrum they face. Specialized gear or materials just don’t sell as much as the standards. Stocking esoteric tackle that may or may not sell, then having to pay inventory tax on it just doesn’t make sense from a business perspective. And a fly shop is a business after all.
I sympathize with this, but while they’re a business, I’m a consumer. And consumers go where they can get what they want. Just as it doesn’t make sense for the shop to stock things that won’t sell, it doesn’t make sense for me as a consumer to go to a shop that doesn’t carry what I want. It’s a sad conundrum.
Perhaps out of guilt, I sometimes think about trying to get materials through my local shops. But then I realize they won’t have what I need, will have to find it in one of their catalogs, order it (with the added delay of their ordering schedule), and then I’ll have to drive back to the shop to pick it up. Why would I do that instead of spending 5 minutes online and with a few clicks, have it delivered to my doorstep in three days (and for the time being, without sales tax)?
So while I do have this romanticized notion of “supporting my local fly shop”, I can’t support them because they don’t support me. At the end of the day, I’m a consumer, not an activist. I don’t spend money to keep businesses afloat. I spend money to get the things I want. So until something changes, the unfortunate reality is that my first instinct will be to go online when I need to get that purple dyed starling skin or Pearsall’s primrose silk thread.
Does your local fly shop support you?
I have the same issue, not a local shop around though we have one gentleman that comes once a month for the local club and ties and brings materials but they are mostly materials he likes and if he doesn’t have it you may as well go online. Someone was asking for Olive Thread and he told them he doesn’t like that color so doesn’t carry it, but had a couple other Olivish shades.
I can relate, and generally agree, but there’s at least one shop near us that has a pretty darn good selection of hooks & matls that are absolutely excited and thrilled to talk about tenkara when I’ve gone in. It sounds like they’ve been trying to get more involved with it without much luck.
As far as them supporting me, I would say that they did in helping me with a wader warranty issue. Long story, but it wasnt your typical issue, and at no benefit to them, other than wanting to keep me as a customer, they did go above & beyond for something I didn’t even purchase from them.
My fly shop does support me, but in all fairness, it’s Pat Dorsey’s Blue Quill Angler up here in Evergreen. Not your average fly shop. I do order unique hooks off the intramanet, and I understand your point. If I couldn’t drive 8 min up the road and get literally anything I wanted, I’d be in the same boat.
You left out the fact that a lot of local shops (at least in my experience) are complete jerks if you even hint at something non-traditional.
Too many times I’ve ran into complete bigots in those shops too! I went to a large shop last year in the biggest city near me and one guy was in there talking as loudly as he could about fishing up in the Driftless and “the rivers were full of *N’s*!” (obviously that’s the “N word”). At first I thought he was just a customer, then I noticed he has on a name tag that matched the name of the store. “Oh shit” I thought.
Was at a big box store not long ago too, the guy in the fly section was talking to someone about learning fly fishing, he recommended a Helios rod and a Mirage reel. To a beginner? Really? I caught the customer up later in the store and recommended he look at the Clearwater or a Streamline kit. Why would a beginner want to plop down nearly $1000 for something he might not stick with?
And don’t even think of mentioning that “Japanese cane pole crap” 😉
I’ve gone to mail order pretty much now, swapping materials with friends. I can jawjack anywhere btu that font of knowledge that use to be fly shops is fading fast.
There are a lot of interesting tribal currents in fly fishing. Not least because many people fly fish (or tenkara) in conscious or unconscious self-branding. Why else $600 reels? Or for that matter, a “quiver” of tenkara rods?
I met an old cowboy once, who shook his head and said his $40 fly rod was all he needed. I think of him to keep in check.
A successful business will cater to the high spending self-branders, but hopefully keep some basic gear in the corner for the old cowboys, and their ilk.
same problem here Im afraid. I like my local fly shop I just dont end up spending that much money there. as a matter of fact that goes for all the stores in my town. our little joke is that instead of the employees saying “hi! how may I help you?” they should say “Hi! No, but I can order that.” every time I hear that I think yup! I have the internet too 🙂
My local shop is about an hour drive, with a limited selection (who would ever want a scud hook #20?). They have a local fly club discount, which is nice, nut they close two hours before the meeting, which is the only reason I am anywhere nearby during the month…
My nearby saltwater shop has about a dozen random materials, but that is bout it, so the Internet is really my only option.
I forgot to mention, while at a conference in Chicago, I stopped by the Chicago fly outfitters, and they were really great about tenkara. All the TUSA gear, including line and spools. I live in ny, so too far for me, but there are a few out there maybe worth supporting.
Nah, none of the fly shops, except one, supports me in any way shape or form, but I have learned to sub in stuff to make due.
The one shop that supports me so to speak is run by a guy I know and like and I mainly go there to talk with him. I could go on a rant here, but I leave it at that.
The Internet killed a great fly shop here in Austin years ago, but I too shop quite a bit online for the more exotic items these days. On the others hand, today’s local shops in Austin are constantly hosting weekly fly tying with materials supplied and even free swag drawings and special discounts for tyers. They work very hard to bring in interesting speakers from all over, host fantastic trips, boat and kayak reps, sponsor the FFT and other large TU and CCA events and are genuinely interested in helping folks out with local info. Plus it’s also nice to touch and feel some products or cast that new dream rod out on their casting pond. I try to support local as much as I can and I also have way too much gear and tying supplies but I can sure kill some time browsing the gear pretty easily. For those of us who not only fish Tenkara, but still fish Western gear as well as conventional tackle in fresh and salt, it’s still all about the toys.
Hope you are all going to enjoy the pending tax on internet sales.Many web fly shops are small and if they have to collect tax for the 43 states that have sales tax, they will soon be gone too.
We tenkaranauts are a very small segment of the fly fishing trade and we must remember that and not get in a snit because there are no eyeless hooks for sale locally.
OOPS…forgot to say that my friends in the trade say that fly fishing sales are declining. Fly fishing too is a small segment of the larger fishing trade, like around ten percent. Can you understand why the smaller shops can’t afford to stock the esoteric bits ? Seems like one day soon there will be few shops and even less choice. Consider the book trade. The future of retail?
LAH, interest in fly fishing in general has been on a steady decline so it’s no surprise sales are declining. Look at this graph from Google Trends: http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=fly%20fishing
In my opinion, the fly fishing industry dug it’s own grave by perpetuating snobbery and exorbitant prices. When I started fly fishing, a premium Orvis rod was $385. I just looked through a current catalog and all the premium rods are $700-$800 (don’t even get me started on Hardy’s prices). So you want to get started in fly fishing–you walk in a fly shop and are condescended to if you can’t afford an $800 rod and $300 reel. I can see why many people would say “no thanks”.
The local Orvis here in Atlanta blasted Tenkara when I went in asking for some line for my rod. This, even though they now sell it in their catalog! I gave the salesman a dirty look to his comments. I didn’t need that. I’m cutting back my support of Orvis.
Excellent “op-ed” ! And hard to dispute . While I may dispute Rickles’ experience that fly shop operators are generally bigoted ; I certainly agree with his observation of “gear pimping” .
I love the idea of being able to go into a fly shop and pick up an Ayu or an Amago or eyeless hooks . At the sametime, I’d hate to have to feed my family off the proceeds of a Tenkara only shop that didn’t also offer on-line sales.
My local fly shop here in Logan Utah supports me. They kinda break the stereotype for a fly shop though. They realize that this is a daunting sport to get into, so they try to have enough reasonably priced gear to not scare people off. They also tend to move beginners towards Tenkara, since it’s is comparatively inexpensive and easy to begin catching fish with, it’s also perfect for the nearby streams. This way they get people hooked on fly fishing and like they told me when I first walked in without a clue, “if we get you once, you’ll come back for more”.
However, I know a lot of people who simply won’t even try fly fishing because it has an intimidating reputation. We as fly fishermen are the representatives of our sport, it’s up to us to portray it properly.
Peace,
Jason
Oh, and Jason, an interesting point about the graph you linked, it follows the years of the great recession. It is very likely that people wouldn’t want to get involved with a fairly expensive sport when they are worried about a house payment. The numbers will probably trend up again. However, the point is extremely valid, fly shops, the fly fishing industry, and to some extent fly fisher-people have made this sport very expensive.
Peace,
Jason
Same thing here where I live, to a point. They’re comparatively down to earth, but I still had to convince the old man that tenkara really “is” fly fishing. Not sure if I succeeded or not! In the summers I guide for a fly shop that is one of a few Tenkara USA dealers in Colorado, so I’m blessed for at least three months out of the year!
Well it obviously is a chicken and egg phenomena, sales are down so stores carry less and customers can’t find what they want so they buy from the internet. We haven’t had a local fly shop in town for years and I’m not sure that the last one didn’t go out of business because of poor management as well as the crash of ’01. I’d partially support a local store if we had one as I do all our local small businesses. I don’t want to live in a town populated by only big box stores, bars and restaurants. But the fly fishing market is based on everyone buying new rods all the time which is ridiculous. OTOH, I love those slow old Winston and Sage rods from the 90’s so I got some great buys when everyone switched to boron . It will be interesting to see if those same trends (i.e. buy a new rod every year) will occur in the tenkara market – I hope not, especially given that the rod market is so well developed in Japan — no need for annual “improvements”. But as for Orvis, I pretty much buy all my shirts from their sale site, good buys there . Onwards and upwards, g2
“snobbery and exorbitant prices” Heh, that applies to fishing in general but especially true to fly fishing.
My go-to western fly rig is my 4w Redington Crosswater. I think I paid $145 for the whole kit and kaboodle. My “serious” setup is my 8w kit – TFO LK Pro II, Lamson Konic II, Rio Gold line. For that setup I have around $450 tied up.
All my other fly rigs are a hodge podge of new and used gear – Bass Pro 5w, a South Bend 6w that I uplined to 8w, and a couple other off brands. These are my trash rods.
What am I getting at? I have maybe $1200 tied up in 7 fly rigs from 2-10w. The shops want you to spend that on one rig.
@Aaron – it’s not all of them, by no means did I mean to imply that on a racial tone. Just had that experience at this one shop (in a racial tone) and it totally put me off of the shop for good. I’ve heard from friends that the particular employee is no longer there. The others are gear bigots. 😀
I’m not pointing any fingers, but even the Tenkara market is a little whacked with pricing. I have 2 rods, one cost me $85 and the other cost me $169. For the life of me I see no difference in the rods other than color and slightly better cork on the $169 rod. The bend is the same, the feel and flex is the same.
…agree…ditto…uh huh…yup…no argument there…sounds familiar…right…amen…exactly…
Hi Jason,
Well you certainly know how to stir the pot. LOL!
At the over the hill age of 73+ I guess I’ve seen almost as much of FF history as most whom have been in love with fishing since they were knee high to a Dave’s Hopper as the saying goes.
Having purchased my first FF outfit 50+ years ago in the last century, things have really changed.I paid somewhere in the vicinity of $35.50 for my first outfit, consisting of a Fiberglass Shakespeare WonderRod, Pfflueger Medalist Reel & a level floating fly line. The fly of choice in those days on the South Platte near Deckers, CO was a nymph simply called the Colorado Nymph. Wow have things changed. Now you can’t find a Medalist reel unless you shop e-bay and a Shakespeare Fiberglass Rod? they are probably in the Smithsonian in DC or antique shop or maybe a garage sale. Oh, but wait, now the industry wants to re-introduce fiberglass rods, but at today’s prices of slightly more than what a pair of cheap gortex waders will cost you. LOL!
I blame the biggest portion of the FF industry crisis on BP (No not British Petroleum) the other BP that tried snorkeling to catch a large MT Brown trout while fishing the Blackfoot or was it Bitterroot river?
It seems like the industry jumped on the band wagon right after that by doubling or tripling the price of everything related to FF. Having spent my entire working career in marketing, sales & inventory control, I think I still have a pretty good knowledge of what goes on in industry when it comes to what’s hot & what’s not. Or to put it in today’s jargon, “contenders and pretenders”.
When 85 to 90 % of today’s product are made overseas, so why the high prices? Because Americans will pay it! Or you can fly overseas and buy the same things for anywhere from 50 to 70% less.
Should tenkara become the “NEW” hot, got to have it, can’t fish without it phenom, it’ll happen there too. All that being said I still feel tenkara is great for beginners that want to learn FF technique,or go back to the roots of FF, or just have a blast trying something that has been around for centuries. Me, I think it’s the next best thing $ex, and at my age it may just become the best. LOL!!!
My wife who hasn’t fished since her Dad taught her dare I say it: “cane pole fishing” is now asking me if I would take her tenkara fishing when we return to Estes Park next month for the summer.
Be careful what you pray for and long live tenkara.
Thus ended the sermon for today, tight lines Jason and thanks for all you do.
Bob T.
Wow, very well put Bob. As a fellow marketer I really appreciate your perspective. If you have time, I’d love to fish with you when you come to Estes Park!
Hola Jason como anda todo.
Saludos.
The nearest shop for me is about 1 1/2 hr drive. I do have one place that is only a bit closer. The problem I have with the fly shop (which has a huge selection of supplies) is that they aren’t very Tenkara friendly. They will listen to me talk about it and what I am doing to catch fish, but they could care less. They have one guy who used to help out there (still might) that is a big Tenkara guy and has worked with TUSA in the past (still might), With a big supporter working there, I am surprised at their reactions.
Morning Jason,
I don’t know if you are shoveling or snow blowing your driveway this morning, but I got a call from my WFF guru in EP this am and he said,”It’s deep”, but not top worry, it’ll be 70 by Sunday and the Big Thompson will have no standing room left. LOL!!
I may have converted another FF fanatic this am, when I took my wife to her knee Doctor for a shot and low and behold we started talking tenkara.He went on a mission for his church to Japan a few years back and remembered hearing of tenkara, but had forgotten all about it. Needless to say I re-planted the seed after we talked about Bone-fishing in Belize and other parts of the Carib. We both laughed when I said can you imagine a 5 lb Bone on tenkara? Ya sure, if you are an under 9 second 100 meter sprinter!
Looking forward to getting back to the high country in about a month and we will definitely have to “hook up” and tenkara our way through RMNP.
All the best and stay warm,
bob T>
I thought about what some like lah and rickles had said and it made me think about how the local fly shops don’t support me. The fact is I really don’t support them either. they simply cater to their clients of which I am not much of one. Maybe it was a good thing I haven’t had the money to truly spend like I wish I could sometimes. It has kept me honest so to speak an more down to earth. While there is a noticeable undertone of elitism here and there the simplicity of Tenkara is what drew me to it.
Regarding exorbitant prices and “X used to cost $Y back in year Z” –
I suggest you plug in the numbers into any inflation index calculator. You’d be surprised what you find. Add in the increased cost of labor, transportation, and “lifetime” warranty (these costs always get passed to the consumer) and you see how costs “spiral” upwards.
Funny how someone mentioned the anti-tenkara vibe they got from Orvis in Atlanta. Here in San Jose, CA, the fishing manager at Orvis is totally into tenkara and invited me to present a tenkara introduction for the local Orvis Days this weekend.
I work for Orvis here in England, I only found out that we sell Tenkara gear when I was Googling. No mention of it from the men at the top. I bought my Iwana, line etc. direct from TUSA the day before I found out. I’m not sorry about using TUSA though, they offer a truly excellent service. 99.9% of my customers decry Tenkara, just as I did before I’d researched the art and tried it. Since taking it up a couple of months ago, I’ve not so much as touched a western setup except when running a class. Hopefully we will eventually get the TUSA kit in our inventory, until then I will stand alone, beating the Tenkara drum and converting any that will listen.
I’m lucky, my local shop (Cohutta Fishing Co. in Cartersville Ga) is a great stocking store for tying materials, tippet, clothing and supplies. They aren’t your typical tweed jacket and pipe old-school fly shop which helps. They spend more time fly fishing for bass, redfish, bonefish and tarpon than trout. The crew range from Tenkara indifferent ( bass guide that works part time) to downright Tenkara enthusiastic. They got one of the TFO “Soft Hackle” rods in when they came out, and I have it now on loan to try out and write a review for their website. I told them they could get TenkaraUSA through their Orvis connection, but they’re hesitant to bring in something else yet. I’ve been trying to get on their schedule for their monthly after hours presentation; but the owner is connected with lots of well known coastal and trout guides that the summer schedule is pretty full. Maybe next fall. Of course I was a pretty regular customer before taking up Tenkara, and they already knew I was not normal 🙂
After they recognized me in a picture in a magazine from the first Summit wearing a Cohutta shirt, and saw how many people were there they got pretty receptive to my constant badgering.
I Iive in SoCal and Mail order is attractive due the state/local tax burden. Local Orvis has worked with me and if we get $25 of out out of state cost I ‘ll do a major purchase. Otherwise, no
R