This is why I want to know if they are now, in fact, manufacturing Rods in China. I reported this possible copyright infringement to Winston Rod Co. they said is they’re looking into it???? They did not answer my question regarding Chinese manufacturing.

Chris Roche: Is Winston currently manufacturing their Ascent line of fly rods in China? Can anyone give a straight and factual Yes or No answer?

That’s a question for Winston. Didn’t they used to have a public forum on their Web site?

Recently retired from my “real day job”, I have been working for Orvis, Barnsley Gardens as a casting instructor/guide and the local Orvis shop in Chattanooga, TN in roughly the same capacity.

We have two fly shops here and one “Big Box” operator. The big box boys have no one with any experience in their shop… you may come away with a 8ft 9wt and a 3 wt fly line mounted on an open face spin reel. The other shop has people with roughly the same experience, but I hear unsettling things on the wind. They no longer carry fly tying materials just when we have doubled what we carry. Jobbers tell us they will not buy from them if we carry the same product. Lodges I have worked with for decades (I used to work for a major airline in outdoor sports marketing) tell me they get calls trying to undermine our relationship (and these are Orvis endorsed lodges).

What ever happened to the days when you could send a good customer over to the “other” shop and not have them be subjected to “real anglers don’t use Orvis equipment”?

When things are that bad, it hurts the sport and the customer and the economy is not going to get better unless we can work together.

Fly fishing elitist? Hey, blame it on marketing! The avid flyfishers around here wade wet in the summer even in near freezing mountain streams… shorts and t shirts and rusty pickup trucks. No Volvos around here.

As for kids…. Come to one of the Orvis Father/Son or Mother/Daughter Fly Fishing classes I teach. The same goes for our fly tying classes. The result?…. our business in the shop is up double digits this year and we are projected to match it or do better in 2009.

Again… the answer is just like Darwin said…. adapt or die.

Regards all

John

I’ve said it all along and I maintain my position: just about any problem, for the most part, has existed before, we’re just hearing about it more. The media outlets, and their competition, spoon it up daily. Fifty years ago, news didn’t travel as fast, so things that happened never got out unless it was rumor. Now, it’s in your face. Rememer, what lies before us and lies behind us is small matter compared to what lies right to our face.

As far as Winston goes, I’m not a big fan. Not that they make a rod I wouldn’t fish, I just can’t afford it. Rods of that price and calibre is a small niche market and the niche is getting smaller by the second. I’m a St. Croix guy, but I’ll fish anything if I can afford it and cast it. It’s easy to take pot shots at the big guy who have large pricetags. Perception is reality, no matter what. I think it’s great what Winston is trying to do to keep employees. I’d have that rather than an employer who casts off employees like used paper clips and state, “It’s nothing personal.” It is personal, you’re effecting people, so it’s personal.

You have to have some bad times to appreciate the good times….balance, it’s all about balance.

A lot will have to change – in fly fishing and the world at large. I guess that’s what the discussion’s really about.

Merry Christmas to you too!

The fly fishing industry seems stodgy to me, much in the same ways as the auto industry. Not all will survive for what I believe to be two reasons: First, it is most difficult to compete with a giant labor cost disparity and second the companies have done a very poor job of bringing new customers into the market on behalf of their dealers, the local fly shops.

I referenced the followers of The Drake and This Is Fly as a new wave in the industry. I read and do enjoy their every issue. Their presentations may be the future but I am not sure I want them handing out Deet and taking my grandkids on a float trip.

I am almost 68 years old and I love the sport. I am not sure what the future holds
but these discussions make it worth continuing to seek improvements.

Your discussions are great, filled with enjoyable intelligence, humor and cynicism.
Oh, and the occasional how-to’s are good too.

Merry Christmas to you and your readers.

Greg: Be interesting to know about Drukman for sure – could be an indication of internal unrest or even an ongoing purge of the old guard.

Turnip: I appreciate your perspective, but don’t know if I buy your enire argument. I keep hearing the term “elitist” thrown about, but I don’t really even know what it means. The tweedy rich guy is often held up as proof, but he’s more icon than reality, and hasn’t represented the core market of fly fishing for decades (if he ever did).

If you mean the industry is elitist because the it focuses overmuch on $750 fly rods and $10,000 trips to exotic locations, then I’d agree on the focus if not the terminology.

Where the wheels come off for me is the youth bit; introducing kids to any outdoor sport is likely a good idea, but the Drake and This is Fly are hardly aimed at the teen crowd, which means we’re talking about adults.

The industry is already funding the recent tidal wave of extreme videos, and it’s likely the return on investment of those projects qualifies them as “charity,” at least from a marketing perspective.

Then there’s the Internet, where almost anyone can publish their thoughts, and the readership of this blog is proof of that – there’s no way my perspective finds a home on pre-Internet fly fishing media, and fast-growing Singlebarbed would have been held up as an example of things that go bump in the night.

What comes next for the industry should prove interesting, and yes, I think a shakeout is true. It’s also likely other manufacturers are seeing significant slowdowns, but their layoffs aren’t finding their way to the news.

Thanks for a thought-provoking comment.

Fly fishing is elitist with no real emphasis by the aforementioned companies to entice the young into their markets. Oh, fly fishing clubs do a fair job with our youth considering their budgets, but where are profiteers? One per cent for the earth, okay. What about one per cent for young people? Every company that sells a fly fishing product should be banning together to fund a youth initiative……… yeah, that’s it………..a Youth Czar.

You want more evidence, just read the thoughts of the most recent generation to enter the “group” sport of fly fishing. Read “The Drake” or “This Is Fly” and you’ll get your answer.

Being curious I moseyed over to the Winston website to see what the guys on their forum had to say about the layoffs. Other than the usual socially correct expressions of “Gee, that’s tough” there wasn’t much in the comments that questioned Winston’s actions or judgement. Maybe there were some posted and Winston scrubbed them off.

Great stuff.