Monday, November 10, 2014

111014


A winter wonderland has arrived here in SW Montana…finally. Nasty, cold weather days make me feel more productive as I don't spend half the day wondering why I'm not fishing. This fall has been full of days with me sitting in the office, wishing I wasn't. But, things are wrapping up with the pre-season orders and the database issues are kind of coming together too.
Biggest news I have is that we are now officially a Sage dealer…first shipment arrived today. It has been a long battle to be able to offer Sage to our customers and I didn't want to say anything until they actually were in the shop…which they are as of today.
No, we are not dropping anything else or saying that anything is better than anything. Our 4 brands of rods…Orvis, Scott, Echo, and Sage each have something to offer and are quite a bit different to each other. More than anything, we are excited to have another quality made in the USA brand of goods to offer people. Kind of cool to be able to go to one place and cast several different brands of rods and find the one that fits your needs best…if you ask me.
There are several other premium, big brands of gear that we would sell if the mfrs. would let us buy. It's rare in the specialty fly shop world in which a retailer does not want to be able to offer as many brands as possible. Sure, there is a lot overlap between manufacturers, but they all have something that sets them apart. It's an ever evolving industry that one day will wake up to the reality of the internet and the fact that many of the distribution models were good ideas in the 70's and 80's but not so much the 2010's.
After fishing with so many rods the last 15 years, I rarely bump up against a rod that I hate, but it's really not about me. We just want to be able to help people get what works best for them and now it seems like when it comes to rods, reels, lines, flies, fishing stuff, tying stuff, clothes, maybe waders, maybe boots, packs and so on…we can pretty much get something good for just about anyone.

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