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| Wild River Outfitters. |
I am happy to announce, Virginia Beach has a fly shop.
Wild River Outfitters. This may pretty much be a technicality.
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| Fine, affordable rods. |
They have a few TFO rods and reels and some
Free Fly gear and that is about it, but, the word is it will expand in the future. They asked what I think they need. I said you can never have enough buck tails when it comes to tying saltwater flies.
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| so comfy |
The shop has great staff: a ton of kayaking, camping, and general outdoor gear.
Cory Routh is a local guide who is playing a big role in getting their fishing inventory (both fly and kayak) up and running. I'm sure he has some neat things in store for the future.
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| They gave me a free hat! |
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
David
ReplyDeleteTFO rods are good but this fly shop can't survive on just the TFO brand. Thanks for sharing
agreed, bill. Let's hope they start expanding!
DeleteThe 757 is notorious for killing mom and pop sporting goods stores that don't sell a lot of guns, surfboards, or kayaks. The region is saturated with Wal-Marts and Dick's SG, and folks are far too comfortable buying all their gear at those big boxes (not to mention the Hampton BPS). Hopefully this one will fare better than others have before it!!!
ReplyDeletetoo right. They have a huge kayak selection, so that is key. I think they would have a better location that the BPS, which, in my experience, has had pretty poor service with regard to the fly shop. Even if is not meant to be, I thought it was pretty cool :)
DeleteBPS Hampton's service leaves a lot to be desired in most categories. At their bigger store between DC and Baltimore, they actually have experienced guides working the counter in most of the "departments" including fly fishing, which makes the whole deal "passable" but not ideal.
DeleteI wrote a post awhile back about "what's wrong with local shops" and I won't link it here (that would be weird), but the biggest issues I've found are 1. crappy hours; 2. crappy service; 3. carrying the same gear as Dick's/BPS/Cabela's; 4. Poor branding.
Would love to see this shop break the mold on all of those fronts, and I look forward to supporting them the next time I'm back home (Va Beach).
Cool to see you have a local fly shop to support. I don't think a fly shop should fear Dick's SG- I've never seen one with more than a few pre-packaged low quality fly rod & reel combos in one of those stores. I would agree with Bill, they need more than just TFO, but that's a good start. When they asked you what they need you should tell them better service than Bass Pro as that will be their ticket to success with fly fishing gear. Maybe somebody from the shop will read this?
ReplyDeleteservice is where it is as. right you are :) I'm hoping they expand in the near future.
Delete
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