It’s No Secret
It’s no secret we’ve long been admirers of a good fly shop.
A guy we respect greatly (Pete McDonald, writing at Fishing Jones among other places) noted on our fly shop post a few weeks ago that every town needs a fly shop and an Irish Pub. We couldn’t agree more.
The Fly Shop | Neighborhood Bar Analogy Again
Fly shops still remind me in a lot of ways of the storied old neighborhood bar; from the fly shop post a few weeks ago –
I suppose a lot of fly fishers feel about old, creaky fly shops the way a lot of beer drinkers feel about their favorite bar.
They’re both places we can, even if for a while, leave our cares at the door, talk a little treason among friends, touch things that make us happy, meaningfully contribute to the local economy and very often rub the patiently appreciative shop or bar dog.
A good shop guy or gal dispenses much sought after wisdom just like top-notch bartenders, often with just as much gravitas and even more bullshit included. (And both the shop guy and bartender have opportunity to witness some of the most inane acts of imbecilic humanity possible as they serve customers day in and day out.)
Try Walking a Mile in My Wading Boots
Fly shop owners, operators and staff walk a fine line every day.
They’re expected to be honest and true purveyors of general wisdom about fly fishing in their neighborhood and destinations afar; experts covering an extensive range of gear, clothing, flies and a damn wide assortment of nick-knacks and paddywacks; teachers, trainers, cheerleaders, and sympathetic ears; fonts of referral for all manners of food, drink, lodging and entertainment, legal and otherwise.
All the while relating to a customer base that for the most part is just fine and dandy yet includes a not-insignificant number of asshats, brobrahs and insert-favorite-descriptor here. (The same holds true for anybody working retail or in the hospitality industry these days…).
Walking a mile or two in the wading boots of your favorite fly shop team would be an eye opener for most of us.
Some days you even get to sweep the floors like Ethan’s doing in Bozeman just now (pic above).
Help Us Give a Shout Out to the Best Shops
We’ve been kicking an idea around for some time now about developing a directory of the good shops in our neighborhood and beyond; we get asked almost daily from March through October for shop referrals.
We’re going to start a feature that’ll run on Sundays mostly, we’re probably going to call it Fly Shop Sunday, where we do a simple sketch of a fly shop – what they focus on, maybe a bit about brands stocked, classes taught, tying supply depth, with a quick commentary about their regional favorites, contact information, hours, etc.
We’re working on a major site overhaul with a handful of new information resources that’ll be useful and we think a growing database of good shops around the region and country will be damned useful. We likely won’t have one up every weekend but we’ll see how things go – there are a lot of great fly shops around.
What are your favorite shops out there?
