rb608 wrote:
"asadi" wrote:
You want the type of fisining shop (it need not be exclusively a fly shop)
that has a coffee pot and a buliten board...

Amen. Without such a place to get great, first-hand advice and steep
myself in the intangibles of the sport, I doubt all of the technical
and practical advice would have been enough to instill in me the level
of interest that takes flyfishing beyond a mere leisure activity to a
pleasure and passion.

I was lucky enough to have stumbled into a small place with a
wonderfully friendly and helpful proprietor, a cigar-smoking old-
timer, a rod builder, and a great variety of assorted customers in
various combinations depending on the day. The coffee was fresh, the
advice was good, and the camraderie was priceless. Find one. Go
there. Meet real people. Tell lies. Pretend to believe theirs.
There's nothing like it. :-)

(And one more "thanks" to Joe, Harold, & Hank at the now departed
"Fisherman's Edge".)

That's good advice, but someone in southern Illinois has to travel
quite a ways to find a shop like that. John's list of Illinois
fly shops included only two in southern Illinois, one in Marion
and one in Carbondale and neither has much to do with fly fishing.
I recommend a trip to St. Louis, Feather Craft and T. Hargrove are
both good shops, but a lot of folks, me included, caught the
fly fishing virus just fine without any help from Ye Olde Fly Shoppe.

--
Ken Fortenberry