This is worth a look What Fly Shops Will Never Tell You! | Blood Knot Magazine

The rest of the site is interesting too...different anyway

Trish

For the UK…that most of the fly tying materials sold in shops are of poor quality but that it does not matter because most tyers “make do” with what they can get.

If only fly tyers insisted on translucent hackles and seals fur, un-scorched and correctly dyed squirrel, bucktail, fox, polar bear, hooks that don’t bend or snap, then the shops would pass the message down the supply chain. Though you think they’d “think” when quality capes sell out within 24 hours of them going on the shelves and yet the old capes (from last year) continue to fade with daylight.

Not that I blame a lot of retailers. They also have to “make do” with what they can get from suppliers who themselves often take an age (6 mths) to “supply” products (of which the quality stuff has been picked through and sold elsewhere) that you start wondering whether they really are running a business.

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Avoid any spey casting instructor who can't spey cast 35 yards of sinking fly line with a 15ft rod.

Very good!
I am still trying to pick myself out of that list.

Munro (somewhere between HUGE TRUCK Mc**** and Mr Shop guy)

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Well done for finding it Trish...I have got all self concious about which stereotype I match. What a great post for wet cold January saturday..Thanks for the smiles.. all the best for the new year!

Thanks for showing I know I am in that crew somewhere!

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Take a click on the wild side.....................Loopy's Blog

i read it and dont care what shops think of me lol, as its us that keep them in business at the end of the day if we stopped using them they would be no longer in business.

Funny read that.

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Thanks WP for good wishes - and all power to your casting arm in 2010!

I thought the Bloodknot article was funny too, but not everyone does, it seems

Trish

Three important ones missing there;

The expert - Male 40-60 - Fishing days 3-5 - Has been everywhere, done everything, and designed the t shirt, even though it's well known he doesn't really go fly fishing and gets his knowledge from magazine articles, to the point where you can predict what he'll talk about when you see the latest exotic article when it comes out. Normally betrays his ignorance by making at least one howling mistake that everyone in the shop notices immediately when boasting about his 'exploits'. On example would be the fly tyer who claimed to be a worldwide fly tying expert, who claimed that hundreds of his patterns are in commercial production, then proceeded to boast that he dyed his own 'malibou'! Stays 2-3 hours, buys nothing, insists on helping the casting of anybody near him despite not being a good caster.

The retired Gent 70 - 90 - Fishing days 0 - Has spent a lifetime fishing but bad health has forced him to give up. He desperately misses it, so at every chance comes into the shop to talk, rather than go, fishing. Usually knowledgeable and friendly, stays 4-5 hours, buys nothing, but is very welcome and gets free cups of tea, usually a sublime caster.

The 'price of everything' shopper Male 35-50 - Fishing days 10-15- research days 15-30 - Takes hours of your time looking at waders/rods/reels insisting on trying everything out. Then demands yoo match the price of a retired farm worker in Iowa who sells kit as a hobby for no profit, and his cousin Eugene will be visiting soon so there's no delivery charge either. When pointed out that it's impossible to match the price due to markets, exchange rates etc, the customer flounces out of shop in a huff buying nothing despite all the help you have given him. Same customer re-appears friendly as anything three weeks later boasting in a loud voice about how much he saved when buying his rod or waders from Iowa to the other customers, then asks you to show him the wading boots or reels that he needs to go with his new purchase, and 2 hours later, it all starts again. This man is cheerfully destroying the british fly fishing shop trade, and if anybody recognises themselves here, at least have the decency not to waste the shops time when they could be serving somebody who actually pays their wages!!!!

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Hi Darren

I think I would announce as he came through the door that the shop must close NOW because of an emergency and invite him to leave!

Trish