For those of you who don’t know, I work at a fly shop here in Bozeman. Not only is it in Bozeman but it is in downtown Bozeman. Right on Main Street. Due to our location we get a lot of tourist traffic. A LOT of tourist traffic. Which means we deal with a lot of people who have no idea what the hell fly fishing is or what any of the stuff in that shop is for. On the one hand, it’s pretty cool to be able to share this amazing area with people who have never been here. On the other hand, you get a little tired of dealing with the same questions over and over…
But I digress.
Working in a fly shop you hear the weirdest shit, the dumbest questions, and the stuff that makes it so damn hard to not just laugh in someone’s face. So, I am starting a new blog category: Sh*t You Hear In A Fly Shop. There is just so much to choose from…
To start things off, here’s something we heard yesterday from someone. We were all standing around chit chatting and the subject shifted to the Patagonia Simple Fly Fishing Tenkara kits we had recently received. He then said:
“The hardest part about Tenkara is telling your parent’s you’re gay.”
Thank God he hadn’t said it 30 seconds earlier as a customer had just bought one and walked out the door right before he said that. And for some reason we had more people asking about Tenkara yesterday afternoon after that comment than at any point in the past few weeks. Every time someone would bring it up, quick glances and poorly hidden smiles were exchanged amongst the staff… During busy days in the summer it’s nice to have something to laugh about.
As the summer progresses, expect lots more in this category. The list of memorable quotes and weird questions is getting pretty long already. When you get asked the same thing enough, you start figuring out creative and weird ways to answer it. For example, if you are ever in the shop please ask me why the German Shepard is wearing boots on his back feet. The story gets a little more epic every day….
