ness

Just pokin' ya. I'd probably be in the same situation if I worked next door to the fly shop.

Are you implying you turned a profit? I don't know anybody with half the crap you've got

K&K lost my business a long time ago. Not because of anything unethical, they lost me on their service, attitude and atmosphere. Kevin has never understood how to treat people, and what he doesn't understand is that no matter how good his business is, it's only a fraction of what it could be. I'm all for making a buck, but when you've got a fly fisherman (I'm assuming that's what this guy was) in the shop and you tell him tough luck this time, you're thinking pretty short term. He would have been better off pulling the stuff off the shelf, saying it's not available and selling it back-channel if he needed the cash so bad.

Done

Very nice.

Good reason for a good screen name.

Hiding Out

I thought it was 'out to lunch' or maybe 'oughta tell Lilley'

Naw -- there wasn't any hackle there, according to him.

That makes sense -- I think the guy at Cabela's was misinformed, or maybe just full of it.

Welp, this stuff falls under the 'discretionary spending' category, and those are the expenses that get lopped off first. Food, fuel and medical costs are up, unemployment has been steady at ~9 percent, incomes are flat. It's likely gonna get worse before it gets better.

Dayum! ness, ness 2.0 and ness 2.1 will be down again this year! We want big browns.

Wayne -- yeah, Whiting bough out Hoffman a few years ago and has been working on improving the stock since then. I think they're better than they were. They've got a bunch of new designations now -- Gold, Silver, Bronze, Pro, and some other stuff. Also bought the Hebert stock that you used to occasionally see around. No clue what Euro is -- it's not currently listed as a product on their site.

That's interesting. I wonder if huge lips will catch on too? Well, I don't know how quickly you can ramp up chicken production, but if flysmallies ebay link is an indication, I'd be feeding those roosters a little Viagra with their chicken feed.

But -- anybody actually having trouble finding hackle? I'm good on my stock, so I'm really just curious about the effects of the fad on our hobby. The guy at Cabelas made it sound like there wasn't a feather to be found anywhere, but they had Metz on their site when I checked. None in the store though, which really isn't that unusual since I usually leave there without something I went in for. I hope the hackle suppliers ride the wave as long as they can. Like all fads, it will die though and things will settle back to (the new) normal.

So I was in Cabela's over the weekend, and noticed a couple ladies in there that didn't really seem like the fishing type. More like college kids. I overheard them talking to the guy about hackle and it turns out they were there for feathers. After they left, I talked to the guy. He said there was no hackle in the shop, and hadn't been since January. Also said that they weren't expected to get any for a year. I asked him if that was the case everywhere, and he said yes. He also said the hackle companies were getting twice the normal price, and when the fad was over they said they were going to maintain the high price to the tackle sellers. Now, I'm not surprised there's a hackle shortage, but this frankly smelled a little like BS, especially the part about the hackle suppliers announcing they'd keep the price high. Has anybody had a discussion with a fly shop about all this? Phil/Tim -- can you shed any light on the situation? I checked Cabela's website, and they seem to have hackle available there.

I'd love to hear more about this trip. I've always wanted to get up there, and have done basic research, but wasn't aware there were pictographs. That's very cool! So, did you do a multi-day pack and camp? Did you use an outfitter or strike out on your own?

Best place to fish it is right along the Danforth's stretch. Ignore the no trespassing signs -- just tell his goons ness gave you permission.

Well straw hat, don't believe everything you see on the internet

Heh heh -- Yep. Think post think edit!

Holy smokes -- what an adventure! Thanks for sharing it.

FWIW, I got your point. Lotsa folks out there without common sense or common courtesy.

We've stayed there a couple times. We rented the pool house and relatives took the smaller cabins for a reunion, so we got to see both. We liked it a lot, and the people are absolutely great, but we've got little ones in the group so we didn't like being right on the highway. Seems like we always had a frisbee or football going out in the road. Other than that, we'd definitely go again.

Jim, I get your point. That guy is clearly a knucklehead out to protect his little spot at the trout park or where ever, and doesn't mind being an a-hole to accomplish it. You did the right thing just letting it go -- taught those kids a valuable lesson. Teach them another by just going somewhere else next time. Lotsa places out there.