Is Fly Fishing a Dying Sport?

[mantis]

I was spurred to post this by an interesting comment made by Rich Ward in the 'fly shop" post that is worthy of it's own Heading.
The buzz I keep hearing is that fly fishing/tying, in numbers anyway, is declining.It peaked right after "THE Movie" came on to the big screen, lasted a half dozen years but has been on the down swing ever since. This is what I keep hearing.
The huge crowd of 25 thousand who came to the first Somerset show hasn't been matched since and if half that many show up now a days the promoter is very happy. Is some of this because there are just too many shows now?
I keep hearing about and experiencing myself the continued crowds of people on the rivers. You would never know there is a decline by the number of people on any of the pools on the Beaverkill , or the Ausable for that matter. New rod companies keep springing up. Way more people are building and selling cane rods than 20 years ago...or even 10 years ago. Are they all being sold to us old guys?
Since most of the shows that I tie at are between November and April they are subject to winter weather. Other than that initial drop after the first 2 years the attendance seems to be holding steady.
Mike makes mention that he sees very few young people getting into the sport. I have to agree that I do not see a lot of teen agers at the shows. Could this be though that they just have so much more to do now with computers, electronic games, many more sports to participate in than when I was a kid. Maybe they just have to get past that stage of their lives. Maybe they will even have to wait to get past the stage in their lives where they are raising a family. Maybe the new medium age for people to get into FF will be once the kids have grown...or when they retire. One thing I do see is a lot of older people just getting into FF.
It would be hard to go by something like, say, ask Denny if he is selling more capes now than years B4. Even if he said he is selling less couldn't it be because more people are selling necks now.? Lots of questions...What are some of your answers? ..Your thoughts?

[This message has been edited by mantis (edited 13 October 2005).]

[dudley]

At our club meeting last night, we had close to 200 people in attendence.
The last couple of years it's been hard to find a seat!
I had a couple sitting on either side of me while I was tieing. I don't think they knew the first thing about fly fishing.
They told me that they had seen the notice in the newspaper and it sounded like fun.
They seemed to be having a good time and asked a lot of questions. They'll be back.

If anything, Fly fishing is getting more popular.

When some one askes me if I play golf, I tell them,
"No, but I love the game. It keeps people off the water".

[This message has been edited by dudley (edited 13 October 2005).]

[D. Micus]

i think maybe the peak has been reached already. you will see the smaller companies closing shops, and the larger companies diversifying.

[Rich Ward]

in the flyshop post I painted with a very broad brush, I will try to explain my opinion. the reason that flyfishing or fishing in genrial will never grow (in my opinion)is sumed up in 4 reasons
#1 good fishing is harder to find today (private land, new fish managment plans and ect.)
#2 cost of travle it now takes 100.00 to fill up my truck
#3 a complete lack of intrest in most kids to do anything that requires intertaining themselve.
#4 and this one is a sleeper a push from the educational system to not cause any pain to anything in the inviroment. (example I ran a trap line in grade school the teachers all agreed that was a neat thing for a kid to do. ask a teacher today what they think of a # 4 victor leg trap.

in closing I will say that there will always be new people start but it will be at a rate less than we die or quit untill some of the things i mentioned change.
i make this opservation from 40 years in the sporting goods business.

Regards
Rich

There is a group called B.O.W. Becomming an Outdoors Woman. I used to do a lot of volunteer work for them.

They found that, becuase of divorce and several other factors, the number of kids getting an introduction to hunting, fishing, etc was going downhill FAST.

They found that kids were seperated from thier fathers for several reasons. When the kids were with thier dads, they were doing "city" things because it takes so much time to get something going outdoors. It is also a FACT the majority of outdoors people are male.

They tried to get the moms involved in the outdoors. Results were, at best mixed. So we continue to loose that "next generation". Until we stop that slide, things will continue to decline. Not only in fly fishing, but all outdoors sports.

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Ken

"The memory of a fisherman is more like fiction than journalism, that is, it doesn't ignore the facts, but it is not entirely bound by them, either."

John Gierach

[cklenske]

Around here, it seems to be growing in popularity. There seems to be more fishermen on the streams with fly rods in hand.

Economically, it seems to be shrinking. It's getting harder and harder to find anyplace to buy stuff for fly fishing and fly tying. Even the local WalMart has cut their stock way down. Traveling to other cities in the area, I see the same thing in the different sporting goods stores that seemed to have a good stock of merchandise just a few years ago. I have to do most of my shopping by mail.

CJ

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The only limitations we have are the ones we put on ourselves.

[Jax]

Seems this could be a world wide trend. Reports here in New Zealand Talk of rapidly declining Lisence sales in the trout fishing areas of the North Island. Not too sure about the South Island, but I guess the tourist influx was keeping things going down there untill the Rising Dollar became a factor.

Young People seem to be more inclined toward Home Entertainment. Computers Games Videos and Music. Pitty but That seems to be the way of things nowdays.

I have given Casting Lessons as extra-mural activities at a College, But very few takers. Those who have given it a whirl have mostly carried on as fly fishers.

As to the future. Time will tell. Jax

Bob,

Perhaps fly fishing just reached its apex because of 'the Movie' or any combination of reasons. Now some of those who tried the water found it not to their liking and backed off. Is it dying? I don't think so.

Allan

[Jordan]

Just a little silver lining, I guess:

In the places I've lived recently, (Durango and Boulder, CO) younger flyfishermen seem to outnumber the older folks. Maybe it's just a local demographic, but there seem to be quite a lot of younger (under 30) flyfishers on my local waters.

Perhaps there is an economic factor too. Maybe in uncertain times, potential flyfishers are less willing to drop the big bucks on equipment and travel. This can be a very expensive sport.

[Canoeman1947]

A flyfisherman in Oklahoma where I live was a very rare bird indeed about 20 years ago. When I first took up the long rod about 15-16 years ago, it was rare to see flyfishers on any of our local streams or ponds. Now when I go to Blue River or the Lower Mountain Fork, there are fly rods everywhere. We have never had many stand-alone fly shops; I think we have about six now, scattered across the state. However, we now have two Bass Pro stores and a Sportsman's Warehouse opened a couple of weeks ago. I think the reason for the fly shop closings has more to do with large mass marketers such as Cabelas, Bass Pro, and also the ease and convenience of buying online. I almost feel guilty in thinking it might be nice for flyfishing to decline in Oklahoma as some of my favorite streams are becoming rather crowded, especially on weekends.
Larry Compton