From: "Tim J."

Almost the opposite. Two of the stores in the very local area are small
sporting
goods stores. They appear to be just dropping the FF stuff in favor of using
the
floor space for stuff they're still selling, like guns and archery equipment.
As
all tyers know, needs are many times very specific, so either a store carries
a
bunch of supplies in variety or they may as well carry nothing because true
tyers will quit shopping there.

To compound the problem, the major supplier for tying materials for our local
shops, ( Tim and I live in the same town), is going out of business as well,
thus forcing the mom and pop shops in the area to buy from the same
distributors as the online outfits at a much lower volume. There seem to be two
ways for a fly shop to survive. Either diversify to sell to a broader sporting
market and limit fly tying supplies, as shops in our area have done, or go
online like Walt Winter did. There doesn't seem to be much middle ground.

Dick's in our area missed a good opportunity because of bad marketing. When
they first came to the area, they had a decent selection of tying materials and
tools, and very little competition. Their downfall was timing. The manager of
the department considered tying supplies to be "fishing equipment", so he let
the stock run down in the winter, and restocked in the spring. Several of us
explained to him that the tying cycle was the exact opposite as the fishing
cycle, but he either wouldn't listen or was overruled by management.

Anyhow, since I am not a gear whore, (hell, I only have 8 rods and six reels),
and have been doing this for a long time, my needs are few, so, like Tim, I
depend on shows and online vendors. Ain't like it used to be, but what is
anymore?



George Adams

"All good fishermen stay young until they die, for fishing is the only dream of
youth that doth not grow stale with age."
---- J.W Muller