Where in the lower forty eight?
Hey all,
Believe it or not, if you wade through this I will eventually get around to asking a question.
In business I had one simple motto, "Keep them fishing". In practice, one example was handing out thousands of copies of hand drawn access maps of various day trip fisheries over the years. In there day, some of those fisheries were pretty obscure. Twenty years ago there weren't a lot of fly fishers tossing flies from the finger reefs and beaches in my old neck of the pacific.
As a matter of fact, twenty years ago, with so many species out there, we weren't altogether sure what to use on any given day and many of those new to it, couldn't correctly identify the fish they'd caught. But if you were up for the challenge, we could point you at several areas that held fish.
On the other hand I wouldn't have ever imagined anyone getting on a plane and traveling thousands of miles to fish these places. Yet visiting anglers did fish them and some found the experience a refreshing break from their usual fishing destinations.
If you couldn't wait for opening day of the general trout season, you would have found free handout maps on places within an hour or two of the shop that were open. Those handouts included basic tips, tackles and techniques. They weren't meant to be a treatise on the subject, but simply enough to get an angler started. The same held true for our local warm water fisheries. Their existence wasn't by any means a secret, in most cases they were just not well known to the fly fishing public or the fly fishing public didn't know how to successfully fish them and I saw that as our job to rectify. Of course over the years we offered plenty of classes on some of these, but again the objective wasn't to fill our classroom or to give our customers something to do on a Wednesday night, it was to Keep Them Fishing.
In effect, we kept them fishing, all year round. Did those maps get re-copied or re-worked and placed into general circulation by other shops, clubs, friends etc.? You bet. It's kind of a compliment if you think about it. Did the fisheries get pounded? No.
Why? Well for one, you had to get there and then there was the issue of gear. Do have the right stuff? Remember, we were in the fly fishing retail business - sometimes I think that many fly shops today have forgotten what business they are really in.
In any case, to fish these places took a commitment of time, money, confidence in ones ability as a fishermen and of course an openness to the idea of trying something new.
The vast majority of fly fishers in my old area were first and foremost trout anglers, so after the first briny face full of water from the slap of a rogue wave they'd get the message. If you weren't ready to rumble - you'd best stick to the crick.
The alternatives we offered to their usual conifer lined, granite based freestones were in grassy rolling hills studded with oaks. These weren't meant to be the stuff that dreams are made of, nor were they blue ribbon trout streams, although today I'm sure a few that have fallen in love with those places would argue that point. They were simply "other " places to fish and enjoy.
Did we invent the idea of handout maps? Of course not, it was done in shops for as long as I can remember and that's getting to be quite a while back. Although in my travels, I can say that it's not as common a practice today as it once was. Today if there is a map available, more often than not, it's glitzed up, it's not exactly up to date, it'll be ad laden, comes in a zip lock bag and carries a very unfriendly price tag. So you see, in many places it's not about to much pressure being generated by the availability of a map or giving up a spot. Some shops will gladly give it up, for the jingle of silver. Again, it's retail. What one guys see's as a promotion, another see's as a missed opportunity to profit.
I've probably rattled on to long about maps, this isn't really about maps. It's about fly shops on lesser known waters promoting themselves and their local fisheries to a broader base of anglers, outside of their home territory in a time of a slowing economy.
With the sales shrinking in fly shops and with towns feeling the pinch of ever slowing tax revenues, each must know that in order to survive they'll need to expand their customer base.
I would think you'd see far more in the way of " Cozy Fishing Destination " promotions with D.I.Y. based themes.
In a time where people are scaling back and taking no trips outside their own area, or greatly reducing the amount of travel and possibly the number of fishing days. I'd think that some enterprising shops and communities would band together and see this as an opportunity to say, " Hey spend your vacation here. We may not have a blue ribbon tailwater, world class skiing, yacht racing or cruising bonefish, but we think we can put a tug on your line and a smile on your face without emptying your wallet. "
" Please give us a try. "
I'm not talking about the overblown network blitz on television or what the metropolitan, state or Wallyworld areas are engaged in. I'm speaking of small towns and fly shops promoting themselves and their lesser known local fisheries through sites like this one, or their own website's. Getting out the word that there is something in their backyard worth trying and then following up with some simple background information.
If there are many engaged in this type of campaign, I'm sure not seeing it and I've been looking.
Along those lines, my wife and I are celebrating our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary this year and as part of that we're looking around the country for that " comfortable fishing destination ". We've grown bored with the usual suspects.
I'm not particularly looking for any one type of fishing, it can be fresh or salt, none of the glamour species need be present. It doesn't have to be world class, just reasonably fly friendly.
We're not looking for that romantic little hideaway. Romantic for us is sharing the day on a flat and splitting a Turkey & Swiss sandwich at the top of the tide.
What I'm not looking for is a guide, private waters, pay to play, dude ranches, fashionable fishing lodges or a boat rental of any kind.
We're looking for a place that is new to us that offers D.I.Y. walk in / wading trips with multiple and confirmable public access points.
In other words, if you were coming here, I would have no problem pointing you in the direction on any number of possibilities and chewing over the tips, tackle and techniques that you might find useful for a given time.
I'll even go further out on a limb here and say that if your timing was right and your angling skills are sufficient to the task, you'll catch fish. They may not be the fish of your dreams, or worthy of a lifetime achievement award, but they'll keep you busy for a few days.
This area isn't the center of the fly fishing universe, but we've got fish and you're welcome to come give them a try.
Can you recommend your town or fishing destination?
Let's call it doing our part for the economic recovery of our own little corners of the world.
What's in it for your area? Lodging, ground transportation and meal expenditures along with taxes, tips, license fees and shopping at any one of a number of local stores, including of course fly shops....can't go to a new town without hitting the local fly shops.
Maybe we could make this a whole new addition to the F.A.O.L website. We could call it "Our Town" or " Home Waters " although I really don't care for that term. A listing of what there is to do, fish for and the seasons in each members home range.
Mull it over and let's see what this gang comes up with.
Thank you, Dave
P.S. Typo's always typo's.
