We’ve commented before on the fly fishing industry’s woes – both those due to the economic situation and  those that appear to be self-inflicted.

Now, an article from a Mount Washington publication lets slip the information that Sage rods have also suffered layoffs (as we suspected), and that the industry’s less capable of putting the screws to small, independent dealers (judging by the emails I’ve received, small dealers aren’t exactly enamored of the treatment they’ve received at the hands of a couple big fly fishing companies).

For example:

Companies that once demanded large yearly orders to maintain a dealer ship are begging small shops to take on their lines at greatly reduced entry fees. I spoke to a sales representative from a reel company the other day who was promoting a new reel. When I asked how much it was to open a dealership he said it was normally a $1,000, but at present they would only ask that you buy three reels.

Even more interesting is the continuing “Big Boxification” of upper-crust brand Sage:

One of the most shocking renovations announced a few weeks ago was that the Sage rod company would market a rod exclusively for Cabalas. Any shop that has been one of their dealers for any length of time and has maintained the inventories that Sage has required over that time period must be mortified. In my opinion the company sold out their dealers and sold their soul to Cabalas.

Sage fly rods is a business after all, and they go where the money is, but it’s interesting to see this change occur, which – like telling someone their baby is ugly – is pretty hard to take back. For that matter, I’m counting Sage among the companies that have been slow to recognize the tectonic shift occurring in the marketing world, though you’ll soon see that one of the Sage family of companies is making some noise on the Internet.

In fact, it appears that several companies are suddenly (desperately?) acquiring Internet religion, and I’ve been contacted a couple times with what I’ll label as somewhat dubious propositions.

Singlebarbed and I are huddling in an attempt to develop an editorial policy that’s fair to us and our readers, and we’re on the verge of announcing something that should provoke a little discussion from the brownliners and Undergrounders alike.

For that matter, it’s clear to me the Trout Underground probably won’t continue in its present form forever; I can safely say the Underground won’t end 2009 the same way it began it.

Change is inevitable, but until then, see you on the river, Tom Chandler.

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