I've been fly fishing since the early 70's and have noticed many changes. Here are a few, add some you may have seen. -From a few elitist fly shops in the 70's to fly shops on every corner in the late 80's-90's after "The River Runs Through It" artificial boom to many flyshops going out of business in the early 2000's due to waning interest from newcomers, competition from each other, big box stores, mail-order and internet. -Fewer kids getting into outdoor sports today, preferring the internet, TV, video games or gang activities to getting into fishing. Urban sprawl, overly busy adults with other priorities and lack of closeby quality fishing opportunities have contributed. -Proliferation of Big Box stores have good prices and fair selection but lack individual service and knowledgable staffs like fly shops generally have. Fly shops can't compete very well with the buying power of big stores and big stores have captured much of the population based market that small shops used to serve. Try to get a big box store to order you something small they don't normally carry or teach you how to tie a fly and you'll know what I mean. -People are now getting much of their fly fishing information from the internet rather than from local fly shops, fly fishing magazines or books. Book and magazine sales are way down lately due to this and increased competition among themselves for a smaller market. -Old beliefs have been challenged and modified and continue evolving. An easily seen example is in conservation attitides. In the early 70's "catch and release" meant letting the small ones go and just keeping a limit of big fish. In the 80's "catch and release" meant letting them all go religiously (snobishly) and anyone else wasn't a true sportsman. The 90's brought on more science into management techniques, realizing that best management generally lies somewhere between strict catch and release or liberal limits. The 2000's have been as much about about managing people as the resource. Today there seems to be more diversity of ideas and tolerance for diversity than ever before. -We've gone from solitary fishermen to social fishermen that often long for but seldom find solitude. Personal watercraft such as pontoon boats has exploded in popularity in a large part due to this inate desire to escape the crowds and find your own piece of water away from the easy access clumps of people. -Fishing places used to be kept a secret among the few that fished there but there is no such thing as a secret place anymore. People pushed off the crowded waters will find these "secret" places so the attitude has changed to proper management and education rather than secrecy. -The search for underfished waters take people to all corners of the world now that local waters are generally crowded and there is little wild fishing left that is unexploited by guides, lodges and fishing writers. -Fly fishing manufacturers that used to rely on a base of loyal dealers are now going to big box and mail order companies that can produce large sales and pay their bills unlike many fly shops that are struggling. An example is Simms going to Cabelas and Orvis to increase sales, firing their out of house reps (which take a cut from all sales to dealers they represent) and going to partial overseas production to compete with lower end products by competitors and increasing product line to increase market share. The fly shops that have survived and continue to thrive have learned how to adapt to and expand their markets through sports shows, internet sales, unique items, generating new customers, sales expertice, stealing other shop customers, destination guide services, travel services, exploit a fishing destination, exploiting fishing characters, classes and seminars, partnerships with big box stores to handle customers they can't or won't service etc.. -There are so many serviceable fly fishing products now and at all price ranges, making choices diverse. Do you buy top end, good product for the money, cheap stuff, discontinued merchandise, ebay stuff, catalog fluff, OEM stuff, domestic gear, imported gear, local shop loyalty stuff, expert recomended things, internet reviewed items, lifetime guaranteed items and so on? Competitors are having to think out of the box to promote and generate sales, just creating a good product isn't enough anymore. Thats all for now but I could go on for hours. What's your views on these and other changes you've seen in your fishing life?

Larry Tullis

Flyfishing Consultant/Writer/Photographer/Guide/Designer