COVID-19 is wreaking havoc on the outdoor business in Colorado and across the nation.
Typically around now, Colorado Springs’ staple fly fishing outfitter, Angler’s Covey, is loading up on inventory, booking trips, and scheduling guides.
“They’re all tying flies,” shop owner David Leinweber said of his river leaders.
And that’s about all they can do.
Like Leinweber and most every player in Colorado’s vibrant outdoor recreation industry, they have been put on hold, left to wonder if they’ll be able to soak up the sun and make money this summer.
LINK (via: The Gazette)
The Industry hoping that isolation will create valuable pent-up energy…?
Oh for f’s sake …
Angling, as something done by strangely fish-struck (and closely related water- and wild places-struck) individuals, people wo, if they’re the real deal, who tend not to march to some Grouping’s Buy This beat, is in a far worse state than I had imagined.
We all love to-die-for (my bank balance certain will) rods and reels and gee-whizz gadgets and gizmos, guys, but do please remember that selling the stuff (lots of it and at the highest price possible) is only a small part of fishy equation. Some of you, in your marketing and selling frenzy of the past 30 years, completely forgot that the clients and markets you created in an economic and demographic bubble-boomtime could go “pop” on you, that Angling – The Next Generation “I’ll have some of those old guys are doing” could no longer relied upon, that, in your desire to sell for “loadsa”gear for loadsamoney, you drove would-be beginners and less-affluent sorts away…..
This and a lot of other stuff, fellas. Big rethink required now, in this period of down-time, so that not only your “Industry” (please be aware that I am probably not the only person on the planet who goes fishing to keep well clear of any type of be-a-good-boy-‘n’-think-this-‘n’buy-that conformist industry) survives but Angling does, too. The latter will require LOTS of Anglers of all ages and degrees of affluence, people who can’t start with a Sage or a Winston and some Simm’s and Patagonia ancillary gear, but who will have to start with the modern equivalent of just-about-okay cheap stick and a Pfleuger Medalist (or copy of) from small mail-order outfit’s catalog(ue).
Back to the old Small Beginnings way of thinking and trading could very well be the only way that not merely you, The Industry, with your trade and customer shows and new season product launches, but everything Angling- and fish-related is going to survive. Fresh ways of thinking and doing are going to be vital the very different, post-Covid world that we’re ALL going to be finding ourselves in.
Please excuse excuse the bashed-out-fast demi-rant, but I felt that now might be the time to take a look at the mess some of us – a comparative but highly influential few of us – have been making of all sorts of fishy stuff in past years.
Posted without re-read for actual sense, let alone edit.
PB
Sounds like you have some interesting thoughts. Thinking maybe you should rewrite this sober or before the shrooms kick in. Cheers!
A very lucky, perhaps even gifted, don’t need shrooms or simply can’t hit the right spot other substances, few, Peter , are always WAY ahead of the “He must be on something…” (how I have heard this) plodders by more than the just a customary and dependab ly ever-disapproving, ‘just sayin’ (some folks always do), “Country Mile”.
Say … I could let you guys have some warped imagination, highly active and worryingly way ahead, ever- connecting synapses together with a few ounces of Real Deal Grey Matter … one problem, however … if you have to buy such rare stuff, it doesn’t come cheap, though….
Not every company dwells on selling high gear. I sell competitive priced gear that’s well made at lots of prices. Rods @ $129, reels for $60. I’ve focused on affordable nice things. So not sure what is too expensive for you but there are lots of options out there to have good quality gear that is affordable.