Are Fly Fishermen Chronically Underappreciated By Rural Tourism Businesses?
Last weekend I served as ride director for the Mt. Shasta Summit Century, a one-day supported bike ride, the 139 mile incarnation of which climbs four local mountains for a leg-sapping 16,500′ of vertical climbing (to clarify, our riders are pedaling about three miles straight up).
It’s a truckload of work to organize (I’m more tired the day after organizing it than I ever was when I rode it), and it raises $19K-$20K annually for under-funded local youth sports like the high school’s x-country team, track team and others.
In essence, we turn lightly traveled rural roads into cash for kids and local businesses, and even a clueless businessperson couldn’t miss the fact that for one weekend, the town’s jammed with expensive cars wearing $7,000 bikes (and you thought fly fishing was expensive).
Fly fishermen aren’t so lucky; outside of publicly wearing waders, we’re not so easily identified by business owners. We don’t routinely gather in large, obvious groups, and we’re rarely seen roadside in brightly colored spandex (for that, I’m grateful).
Mostly we’re up early and out on the river, eventually sneaking back into town under cover of darkness.
Simply put, we’re largely invisible. As a result, I’d suggest fly fishing’s economic impact is under-perceived by local business owners, especially in rural areas.
(The battle over Dunsmuir’s Big Fish program suggests this is more than a theory.)
Years ago Chris Raine suggested fly fishermen write “These dollars brought to you by fly fishing” on all their paper money before spending it, which feels satisfyingly subversive.
But it’s probably not enough.
So what can fly fishermen do to raise their economic profile in rural destinations (granting us the leverage to make changes that work for us)?
Loudly repeating “Wow — can you believe all the fishermen in town and on the river these days?” probably won’t work. And you’ll eventually feel like kind of a jerk.
What else have we got?
“My dollars are now your dollars because of the fish in the river” t-shirts?
Magnetic “Fly Fisherman On Board” signs for your truck?
A “I paid $750 for my fly rod, imagine what I’m spending in your town” bumper stickers?
Any good ideas from the Undergrounders?
See you working on that rural economy, Tom Chandler.
In some rural towns they seem to really know I’ve been at diners in some tiny places and “were they bitin hon?” is always the first question… but most places don’t have a clue … I suppose in other areas we could wear our vests? or uniformly go to henry blake hats with fles attached? sorry you asked for “good” ideas I got bupkus
marty(Quote)
Wonder if there’s any demographic info on fly fishermen that could be put out? You know, average income, disposable income, education, etc.. There’s gotta be, else why does Orvis send out newsletters featuring $1600 tweed hunting jackets and $50 t-shirts (er, um, casting tees)? Not that I’m buying, but someone must be.
Steve(Quote)
Start reciting numbers and figures to a small businessperson and their eyes glaze over (unless you have numbers for their town or business).
My experience suggests they need to be confronted by the evidence, which is what we’re exploring here.
Tom Chandler(Quote)
“The squeaky wheel gets the grease” (or something along those lines is what my grandpa use to tell me)
Being squeaky is the key. I have always interrupted squeaky as the PETA people outside McDonalds with signs saying “animal killers” as annoying. But they must be doing something right because they have a lot of political leverage. That is because they are being squeaky. Today, most fly fisherman (I say most because I have met several obnoxious fly fisherman) are very quiet and to themselves. Hence why most fly fisherman like to fish in quiet secluded areas. This is the opposite of squeaky.
I will say though, that TU and other organizations do a pretty good job at making fly fisherman known in the political areana, but as far as getting noticed by the rural towns, it’ll take being a squeaky wheel without being obnoxious.
Jacob(Quote)
This is a useful aphorism when you want something fixed, but in this case, I’m looking to get rural communities focused on the economic benefits of healthy fisheries, and the best way to do that might be to remind them how much of their revenue derives from the sport.
I’m uncomfortable with the “squeaky” wheel concept because it implies complaint; we’re looking for positive ways to make our presence known.
Tom Chandler(Quote)
Steve – there is plenty of info out there showing the positive economic impact of fisherman on a community. There’s also some similar stuff on fishing magazine subscribers available. It’s good stuff and in many areas, we have a big impact on local area businesses.
You have to ask yourself – if fly fisherman were more appreciated by business, what would that garner us? Would that translate into increased business for fly shops, manufacturers, or guides? What’s the goal? If increased participation is the goal, turning a river into a big-fish fishing contest would certainly raise an area’s visibility. If we’re looking at increasing participation in fishing, that may be a great way to do it. Many places this just isn’t possible due to regulations or fisheries management. I think we’re all caught on the horns of a dilemma – we want to see fly fishing thrive as a sport and a business, but we don’t really want to share our water with other anglers, and we don’t want to turn fly fishing into a video game where it’s all about fish size.
I live in a small town and grew up in another. Local businessmen know the value of fishermen in their area, and most appreciate the business. Let them know what you’re doing in their town, store, restaurant or motel, and they’ll notice. I always do this, and business owners get it.
Hey Tom – I sneak in and out of town so people can’t see where I’m going fishing, how about you?
John Bleh(Quote)
Local and regional politics play a big role in fly fishing (whether people realize it or not). One example is Chris Raine, who got the Dunsmuir City Council behind the idea of a year-round season on the Upper Sacramento, which closed Nov. 15.
With the council’s backing he got fish and game to move, and by the end of the year the Upper Sac was open all year round.
By contrast we have the Klamath. One supervisor has repeatedly stated that fishing has no economic impact in Siskiyou County, which is a convenient way to ignore the fisheries issue entirely. If a dozen local businesses reared up and slapped her for that kind of stupidity, believe me, the rest would notice.
Tom Chandler(Quote)
John, I take your point. Keep it on the down-low.
Steve(Quote)
Collectively we have an economic impact on small towns, but mine is pretty minimal. I may stop to get gas, coffee, a candy bar and if I’m desperate some fried chicken strips and jojos or a bean burrito…… and don’t forget the Tums.
Steve(Quote)
@Steve
I found the 2011 report a few weeks ago, here is the 2012 report. The report on fly fishing is on page 25. Interesting stuff here.
http://www.outdoorfoundation.org/pdf/ResearchFishing2012.pdf
John(Quote)
We could all adopt some sort of hipster identifier, perhaps something like an Emo haircut?
John P(Quote)
I’m getting body parts pierced as we speak.
Tom Chandler(Quote)
Thanks John for the link to that fishing report.
There are towns like my town, Dunsmuir, CA, that know how important you are to our economy – really.. we do. But I travel all over the country and find that fishermen are pretty secretive about your needs and desires.
What can a small town do better to make you all come back? Does planting big fish make a difference? Is it our restaurants or lodging?
Joanne Steele(Quote)
Joanne – for me it’s important that a fishing town have a fly shop with friendly and open and knowledgeable staff. Then restaurants that are open early in the morning before my fishing day starts and after sundown when my fishing day ends. Then a mix of lodging, some basic places when I fish with my dog and some fancier places when my lady friend tags along.
Dunsmuir does a good job at all three for me. I wish some of the restaurants were open later since I hate to have to decide between eating a real meal and leaving great twilight fishing. But that’s a quibble.
Greg(Quote)
I disagree. The fight over the efficacy of the existing Big Fish program suggests a lot of people in Dunsmuir don’t recognize the value of fishermen to the city. I’m suggesting one reason is that fishermen aren’t visible enough, though local politics play a role too.
Tom Chandler(Quote)
Tom, Locals’ concerns about the Big Fish program fall into several categories. One is that we’ve been told for years that planted fish aren’t that important to fly fishermen. And we hear that we are a world-class fly fishing area. Also, locals watch those big fish go into the frying pans of other locals and wonder if a donation to our local food pantry might be a better value than $7 a pound big fish.
So, my question still is do Big Fish make a difference to your readers???
Joanne Steele(Quote)
If F&G is going to plant a couple bazillion “catchable” trout in the Upper Sac, then dropping a few large fish in there to draw anglers falls under the header of “good marketing.”
Last I checked, dollars spent by conventional anglers still accrue to the bottom line.
The program seems to be working. It’s generated press, and anecdotal/endorsement evidence from anglers, business owners and guides (even fly fishing guides) tells us it’s having a positive impact on the town and its businesses.
With Dunsmuir needing all the help it can get, I don’t really understand the opposition, especially given that the city isn’t funding the program.
Which leads us back to my post. The larger question here isn’t the big fish program, it’s the relative lack of visibility of fishermen in rural areas — coupled with a willful lack of knowledge on the part of rural businesses about who is walking in the door.
If businesspeople aren’t going to ask who is standing across the counter, then fly fishermen — who aren’t very visible as a group — won’t enjoy much in the way of leverage when access and fishery issues pop up.
If fly fishermen had done a better job of making themselves visible, then perhaps Raine wouldn’t have taken that beating from some locals and guides when he worked to extend the Upper Sac’s fishing season.
Or maybe there would have been local support to limit stocking on the Upper Sacramento instead of extending it, which is what happened the last time the regs were instituted.
And last weekend my ride committee flooded Mt. Shasta (and the surrounding towns) with cyclists, and while the concentrated affect was significant, I’d suggest fly fishing has a bigger impact on the local economy. Yet fishermen have far less visibility.
The goal of this post is to figure out how individual fly fishermen might reverse that, or even if they want to.
Tom Chandler(Quote)
Thanks Greg! I’ll pass all this along to our chamber.
Joanne Steele(Quote)
That was interesting: two percent of the population is into fly fishing, but those are mostly older white guys with a college or post-grad degree, and nearly a third of this group has a six figure annual income. I guess that explains those $50 Orvis t-shirts.
Steve(Quote)
Some in the industry see this as evidence that fly fishing is elitist or tweedy or not epic enough, and therefore doomed. As a marketer, I see a fairly desirable demographic.
Perspective is what it is…
Tom Chandler(Quote)
woah. this is perhaps the most thought-provoking fly fishing post ever bubble up from the inna-nets milieu. big words. i have a college degree. still working on the elusive 6-figs. apparently fly anglers could better talk about IRA’s than BWO’s. either way, i am always shocked by the lack of marketing towards fly anglers where i choose to “get away to”. this getaway is the driftless region in wisconsin, to which i go from chicago. the drifless has between 7,000 and 300,000 miles of spring-fed streams (depending on who you talk to) and great fishing is in hundreds of town that only have hundreds of people. even on the season opener, not even a sign on the local hardees or subway or ranch-style hotel have “welcome anglers!”. i;ve come to realize, they only care about the deer hunters. don’t they realize i spend, like, 50 bucks a night at the bar and i smell like fish?!
paul worsterberg of the deplacements(Quote)
@ Paul. I’m from Iowa and know what you mean. There’s very little attention to fly fishing in those driftless region towns. Then again, that’s not all bad. I’ll throw my one man tent, an air mattress and a cooler in the trunk and hit small streams along the Mississippi and southwestern Wisconsin for a week. Other than gas and beer, I have very little economic impact on a region that has surprisingly good trout waters. I’ve never needed a guide and I rarely encounter another fly fisher. Some days it’s just one or two bubbers with a Zebco casting in from the parking lot. Walk 50 feet and you’re alone all day. I sometimes hear people bemoaning the pressure on this Western trout mecca or another and think, “Meh, whatever.”
Steve(Quote)
totally steve. i’ve gotten to the point when i see one person on a stream, i think to myself, “damn, this place is blowing up!” I liked their old albums much better.
paul worsterberg of the deplacements(Quote)
Tom, some groundbreaking research in this field has recently been published in the UK as part of Substance’s 3-year investigation of the social and community benefits of angling. Assessing the remote (and therefore relatively easily measured) Assynt area of Scotland, the report concluded that angling tourism contributes between 25 and 31 equivalent full-time jobs to the area. Because this research was publicly funded, all outputs are freely available for download: just google “rural areas assynt case study” and you’ll be right in amongst it…
Theo Pike(Quote)
Tom,
Since you’re already at the piercing parlor…a fly through the septum perhaps? Something suitably gaudy, of course. Woolly Booger?
cdmoore(Quote)
Pretty sophisticated marketing conversation here; way out of my league. I just always wear a hat, and sometimes a shirt, that marks me as a fly fisherman. Sometimes that sparks a small conversation.
Kentucky Jim(Quote)
Add another question to the DFG Angler surveys located at many access points, something like ‘Approximately how much did you spend at local business for food/gas/lodging/supplies on this trip?’. Then aggregate and disseminate the results to the local chambers of commerce. Include free body piercing coupons to incentivize responses.
avid(Quote)
Perhaps distribute studies/propaganda (such as the one linked below) to small town/rural/county visitor bureaus or chambers commerce that act as a liaison between visitors, businesses, and fish friendly groups.
A Success Story: The Rebirth of Iowa’s Trout Streams
http://publications.iowa.gov/4694/1/trout%5B1%5D.pdf
Tonto Kowalski(Quote)
Economic appreciation is one thing, recognition is something different. I regularly fish areas where the locals have been known to slash the tires of out-of-county fishermen. I’m also not sure I want Big Ed to figure out that the truck with all the Orvis stickers points the way to my favorite honey hole.
So sure, we want to be recognized for our economic contribution, but the last thing I want is a fly-bedecked Harris Tweed Deerstalker or a bumper sticker declaring “I’M HERE TO RAPE YOUR FISH AND STEAL YOUR WOMEN!” The problem is how to keep a low profile while increasing our profile.
Lucky(Quote)