I've been to the Kingfisher fly shop in Missoula, and I'd go back again in an instant. They were nice and helpful and not one bit condescending -- even after American Express declined my charge because the day before, I'd gone on a multi-state gas-buying spree. (What good are credit cards if you can only use them at home?)
So they're nice guys, but I was still shocked when
Alert Underground Reader [Name Redacted] sent along this startling announcement:
In response to lots more people coming to Montana and an unrestricted growth of the fishing industry, The Kingfisher has decided to back off the amount of guiding we will do now and into the future. We are doing this with the same concerns in mind that prompted us to pull our guides off the rivers 2 full weeks before FWP mandated fishing closures due to rising water temperatures during the drought of 2007. We have NEVER felt the rivers "owed" us a living. Quite the contrary, we feel ALL users, but particularly commercial users, owe the rivers the best we can give them.
For the past 2 years the shop has been actively cutting our trips by 20%. We have done this by reducing our core guide staff and pulling ALL of our printed national advertising. We are happy to accommodate our repeat and word of mouth clientele which we have generated over the past 29 years and a limited number of new clients generated by our website. It's our goal to stay ahead of the curve here, to help preserve the quality fishing experience that we still do have, for local fishermen and the reduced number of guided clients we bring to the river.
Wow.
A fly fishing shop/guide service
reducing their
guided trips to stem overcrowding on the river?!
This is either a bold embrace of a quality fishing experience, or a hell of a way to justify massive laziness.
Whatever the intention, I'm afraid other guide services will simply expand to fill the market (nature hates a vacuum), and they might not be so thoughtful as to pull their guides when the rivers get a bit too warm.
This raises a larger question about the "famous" waters which are being loved to death fly fishermen, and while I'm tempted to offer up the usual plea to "get off the beaten track" I'm hampered by two things:
- It doesn't seem to make a difference
- I'm already off the beaten track, and I'd rather everybody else didn't join me there
(Sure, #2 is pretty selfish, but at least it's genuine.)
Hopeless gesture, economic suicide, or Mankind's Last Hope For a Fishy Future?
Comments, anyone? Bueller?
See you on the water, Tom Chandler.