Some of the sharper Undergrounders may have noticed a slight downturn in the economy, and the Underground’s award-winning team of economists suggests the fly fishing industry’s noticed too.

Early in 2008 Scott Rods suffered some layoffs (though that had more to do with management issues than the economy). Then Winston laid off some rod builders, and recently, more bad news arrived on the horizon in the form of layoffs at Orvis (more on that below).

It seems as if I receive weekly notice of another independent fly shop going under, and yes, even the formerly flush pro BASS circuit is losing sponsors faster than I can LDR a skin-hooked 18″ rainbow.

Then the Baltimore Sun reported on the fading fortunes of consumer outdoor shows, and while everyone’s crossing themselves and hoping for a quick recovery, it’s clear that consumer spending in the “luxury” market (and fly fishing largely falls under that shadow) is in the dumpster.

Clearly, luxury boat sales are more affected than Chuck Furimsky’s Fly Fishing Show, which does offer cash-strapped members of the fly fishing community access to bargains, which may be the source of so much of AFFTA’s discontent with Furimsky’s shows.  (Following quote from the Baltimore Sun story, which is worth a read):

Timonium’s Fishing Expo and Boat Show, which began its silver anniversary run Thursday and ends today, is a shell of its former self. Walking the floor of a show that used to be nearly three times as big and attract celebrities such as Ray Scott, founder of BASS, is as depressing as the news from Wall Street.

“Everybody’s looking for value for the dollar,” says Chuck Furimsky, owner of The Fly Fishing Show, which still appears in eight cities across the country. “Instead of a $700 rod, they’re buying two $150 rods. … There’s still a light at the end of the tunnel for us; it’s just not as bright as it once was.”

The Retail Connection

Then news arrived of layoffs at retailing heavyweight Orvis:

According to Hathaway, 27 employees, mostly salaried, have been laid off from the Orvis offices in Sunderland. He said 12 hourly workers were let go from manufacturing positions in Manchester.

“We’re facing a historic downturn in our economy in this country and the world and Orvis is not immune to any of that. We have to make difficult, painful decisions that will ensure the health of the company,” Hathaway said.

Orvis employs about 220 people locally, and has about 2,000 employees worldwide, according to Hathaway. No retail store employees were affected by the job cuts.

In an interesting blogger death feud sidenote, brownliner Singlebarbed suggests Orvis is more susceptible to the downturn than other manufacturers, and I find I wholly disagree.

From my online marketing perspective, Orvis is pretty much cooking the rest of the fly fishing industry on the marketing front (especially in the online world), and it seems as if most of their competitors don’t even realize Orvis has turned up the heat.

The organizations that survive downturns do so because they got their manufacturing and marketing ducks in a row during the good times – something the historically backwards fly fishing industry hasn’t (by and large) done.

Rather, it’s likely there are layoffs occuring at other fly fishing manufacturers, but they’re simply going unreported.

The Media Hurt

Naturally, the fly fishing magazine world isn’t immune; Ad pages at consumer magazines are down 11% overall, and fly fishing mags aren’t likely any different. (Bored? Count the number of ad pages in your favorite fly fishing magazine, and be prepared to use far fewer fingers than before.)

In fact – as I’m noting in an almost-finished opinion piece about the future of fly fishing media – fly fishing’s print magazines are facing the double-whammy of a bad economy and an accelerating reader shift to online media.

In other words, things are pretty much as you’d expect them to be in a “luxury” market facing the worst recession in our lifetimes, and with news that all our bailout money is being viewed by most banks as a “no-strings-attached windfall” (hint: lending hasn’t loosened, and bank execs are basically sniggering all the way to… well, the bank), don’t expect it to get a lot better anytime soon.

Still, here at the largely recession-proof Trout Underground, ad revenues haven’t declined at all, but that’s mostly because we haven’t talked anyone into advertising.

As for the rest of the fly fishing and sporting world, I’d like to point out that the cost of enjoying the outdoors hasn’t increased all that much (gas perhaps), so my prescription is to take two fly fishing trips and call the Underground in the morning.

In other words, though credit has largely ceased to flow, that’s not true of our major rivers.

See you on the river, Tom Chandler.