Support Your Local Tackle Shop?

[hopper]

Looking at the photo you posted Fred you were in the wrong shop   :lol: I know where you are coming from went looking for hen pheasant and like you no we don't get asked for that sort of materials now days, and that was Neil himself

[Wildfisher]

What saddened me was I went specifically because I wanted to support the local tackle shop. Turned out it was impossible for me to do so.

I just bought a complete starling skin - on line from ............... believe it or not ........ Lakeland ........they had stock. You could not make that up.  :?

[Tweed]

I've known Neil since we were bairns - he fair knows his stuff, and he's a pretty good fisher to boot.  Agree though that it's a shame you can't get the more traditional materials as easily as you used to.  Sign of the times and all that - Ach well, leave them to it I reckon.

I love popping into my local tackle shop - an experience in itself.  Always a good natter, some decent advice and a chance to at least keep abreast of all the new-fangled stuff - not that much of it means anything to me these days.  I'm happy to pay a few extra quid for that - if indeed you do.  I've lost count of the number of freebies I've had passed my way - only small stuff (hooks to try etc), but enough to keep you feeling valued and not just a stat on t'internet.

[Wildfisher]

Neil's shop is well stocked and there is loads of fly tying stuff. I know they have to supply the demand but I don't believe for a minute there is no demand at all  for at least some more traditional materials.

Just reading some of the forums there seems to be a move, small, slow perhaps, but it's there, back towards fishing for real fish as opposed to farmed fish. In any case, would it be a huge ask for a tackle shop that sells fly tying gear to have the odd pair of starling wings or hen pheasant quills  to cater for a slightly wider clientele? I know how much that stuff costs trade, so we are not talking about huge outlay even if you don't sell a lot of it or very often. It's good customer relations, advertising even,  for not a whole lot of money.

[Allan Crawford]

Better, friendly more helpful service from the local shop, they will order something in for me so that I can see it before I buy and I dont have to pay for postage, even my wife enjoys her annual trips in before xmas, they know who she is and can recommend gifts which they also exchange if I prefer something else . Getting ones hand on something before buying or getting to try a fly rod and if you need to take items back for some reason, I've never had a bad experience.

I've had a few bad experiences online and once you add in postage its rarely cheaper, offcourse I live in the highlands this may not be the case for those nearer the central belt. Good things about online for me are, if I cant source it locally, worth surfing for bargains in sales which offsets the postage and probably the biggest thing is the local shops now have to be competitive with there prices to survive.

Dont most shops now do online as well ? My local shop will do a price match and was one of the cheaper places to buy Greys & Hardy until Hardys fell out with them for reducing the prices, so they will be stocking Sage soon.

[Wildfisher]

Had they held a stock of starling wings  I'd very likely also have bought hooks, some tippet material  and no doubt a few other things on impulse. As I said the reason I went was I WANTED to support the local tackle shop.

As it was I was a bit hacked off having just burnt 1/2 gallon of petrol for nothing (bridie notwithstanding). I was saddened and left with  the impression that perhaps tackle shops perhaps no longer cater for fly fishers like me and only for the up and at 'em stockie fishermen.

[Allan Crawford]

The fact that the shop did not have starling wings in stock reflects the change to suit stockie fisheries, but also the move away from tradition split wing dry flys or winged wets for our wild brownies. Did this shop just not stock them or were they out of stock, did he offer to get some in? I have to say I would expect my local tackle shop to stock some starling wings, though I always struggled to tie wings and try my avoid them with the modern alternative patterns instead. I'm sure the trout would like them just as much as in the past.

[Wildfisher]

They don't stock stuff like that.Eric could not get hen pheasant either. I'm not knocking them, just poiting out that if they no longer cater for me I have no option other than buy on line. To be honest I am not interested in  a shop "getting some in"  for me - I can do that myself, quicker and probably cheaper. I fully understand no shop can have everything - but a few packs of hen pheasant quills or starling wings that cost a few quid trade?

[Allan Crawford]

You might not be interested but he should be as it sounds like he has lost a customer. These items wouldn't take up much space on the shelf and cost nothing to keep in stock.

[Allan Crawford]

As yet another email arrives from Lakeland flytying trying to get my custom.