charlie kreitler
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Morsie, a dog trainer once described kelpies to me this way: “Kelpies? Ah, yes, they’re a bossy breed!”
That is interesting. Two things I noticed are the seasonality (lots of searches in the summer, dropping during fall, jumping before Christmas and then increasing again) and the number of searches coming out of South Africa.
What we don’t know, of course, is how tightly this correlates with participation in the sport. I.e. are fly fisherman changing their fishing habits, or their Internet habits? I don’t Google “fly fishing”, but I do read fishing sites.
It’s like PT Barnum famously said: “I don’t care what they print about me, so long as they spell my name right!”
I use one of two systems to determine what to wear under waders. My preferred system is a very analytical view of environmental conditions, expected changes through the day, exertion levels, solar energy conversion, and many other factors. The less preferred system (most commonly used) is based on whatever I find in the back of my car that day.
Water temp is the factor that decides it for me. I tend to wade pretty deep, so heat loss is an issue.
Water temps > 70, I wear shorts
Water temps 60-70, I wear uninsulated pants (jeans, carhartts, etc)
Water temps 50-60, out come the fleece pants, supplemented with long underwear on chilly days
Water temps 40-50, I’m wearing thick long underwear under fleece pants.
Water temps 32-40, I wear the above and don’t wade past my shins
Water temps < 32 I go skiing instead On cool days or nights I consider wearing more under my waders, but wearing more or less on top works and it’s easier to make changes as the day warms or cools or if I’m working harder. Thick wool socks are de rigueur regardless of temps because otherwise my boots don’t fit. 🙂Sounds to me like your system will work fine. Dressing for fishing is hard because you may be hiking, but then you end up standing in one place for a long time and can get cold.
Have fun!
CK
PS More than one pair of boxers for the week would be highly recommended…. 😀
I can see both sides of this. You have the existing relationship and don’t see why you should surrender a cut to the new shop. The shop is worried that you’ll be soliciting business on your own. You might eventually walk away from them, too, taking their existing clients away from them. You won’t be available when they need you.
I think both positions are reasonable. The question is how do you deal with it. In business it helps to lay out terms clearly on paper so everyone understands the terms and what happens if an arrangement doesn’t work out. In other words, you need a non-compete agreement. So I’ll throw a few suggestions at the wall and see what sticks:
1) Agree that you will charge existing clients the same rate the store charges them. This gives you a higher margin on those customers, and it doesn’t create price competition for the store.
2) Agree that your existing clients will remain yours and can book through you directly.
3) If you leave the store, you won’t solicit clients introduced to you through the store for 3(?) years. You may guide them if the client approaches you unsolicited.
4) The store agrees that they will solicit your clients for the same period. They may guide them if if the client approaches them unsolicited.You will have to make some sort of compromise on scheduling. The store wants their clients booked first. Your clients should be able to book in a reasonable time. This conflict is tougher. If you aren’t able to give the store the time they need on the dates they want, they will probably find someone else who can. Maybe you do it only on your days off.
Creating an agreement and then living by it will be hard and complicated. You have to decide whether it’s worth the hassle of going through this. How many clients are you talking about, and how much of your profit would you be giving to the shop? Is that offset by additional business from the shop? If the store can keep you fully booked, then it may not be worthwhile. Having them act as your agent and keeping you working is powerful stuff. If the store can’t keep you busy, then it may be worth maintaining your own book of business.
My two bits, hope it helps! Of course, free advice is worth every penny….
Thanks guys, that sounds like good advice. I might pick up the 1-weight if I can get a really good deal on it, but even then I’d still need to buy a reel and line for it. Suddenly the good deal is expensive and I might be better off with a short 3-wt.
I had always been told to insert the rod into the ferrule while twisting 1/4 turn. That was until I cracked the ferrules on a relatively new Orvis Zero-G 9wt when two of the sections separated. At Orvis they replaced it no questions asked, but they nicely explained to me that with that rod I shouldn’t be twisting it. Instead, they recommended pushing it straight in with a slight side to side wiggle to get the graphite fibers to seat firmly against one another.
This was news to me, but I’ve followed their advice and had no problems since. Your results may vary, so the safest thing may be to ask the manufacturer or retailer what they suggest. Then if the ferrules separate, you at least know you’re doing it “correctly.”
MM
I have the short term memory of a goldfish, so my most memorable fish is definitely the monster striper that took me 150 feet into my backing before slipping the hook on Saturday. Dang, I wanted that fish!
Zach, that’s a fascinating look at some of the numbers. It would be interesting to know more of the details.
I suspect that a $25 service fee might make a profit on some individual repairs (i.e. cracked ferrules need reinforcement, a snake guide needs replacing) but not when viewed all of them. The cost of replacing a broken blank section must be higher than that. Again, this gets into more specific numbers than any company in their right mind would be willing to share, not because they’re concerned about consumers knowing but because they’re concerned about their competition.
So I took a crack at the numbers, a little different than yours, but I come to a very similar place. First, the mark-ups at each part of the process may be closer to 100% than they are to 40-60%. A rod that costs $150 to manufacture (parts, labor, marketing, customer service) would get marked up to $300 by manufacturer, and then the retailer marks it up to $600. Many shops give employees 50% discounts– they’re not losing money. I don’t begrudge them that figure– they have overhead like the store and employees to pay for, not to mention the money they have tied up in inventory. In a specialty business like ours that’s not uncommon or excessive.
So if the $600 (retail) rod only costs $150 to manufacture, then how much do they need to cover their warranty repairs? If your return figure of 3% is correct, then then the additional markup to cover full replacement on 1 rod in 33 would be $4.50. If there are profit markups (manufacturer and retailer) on that along the way it could be between $9 and $18, which is not much!
The big caveat is something that this is what I, in my past life as a marketing consultant for Fortune 100 companies, would call a “2007 FOMA” study. (All the numbers are “From Outa My Ass”) But the figures are awfully close to yours, and don’t come anywhere near the commonly cited “doubling your rod price” argument.
I’ve always suspected the service fee was just to reduce frivolous claims, but thinking it through more carefully I bet you’re right– it probably covers a large percent of their costs.
Very interesting– nice thread, Zach.
Yuhina, I use the Traveller, too, but I tend to only tie BIG stuff with it. I’ve had no issues with sizes 12 through 3/0. Mine is a C-clamp, which is nice when I’m cranking down hard on big salt water patterns. I’m sure there are better vices out there, but I feel like it was a good value for the money. No complaints.
Patrick, you can definitely see it in many of the kings. The ones who’ve been in the river longer look pretty beaten up, and you can tell by the fight as well. The fresher kings just explode when hooked up. The river is experiencing unusually low flows of 100cfs, and I suspect the low water is making their journey harder, not to mention the ever-present angling pressure. Many of them also had bite marks from lampreys, a less-desirable imported species in the Great Lakes.
Steelies are in the river, but not in great numbers yet. My understanding is that they should start moving in soon to gorge on the salmon eggs. It would have been great to hooked into one of those to have had the Salmon River ‘grand slam’– king, coho, steelie, brown. The occasional sucker fish is just a bonus.
Zach, we had to fight our way through a ton of kings to get that brown, but in the end it was worth it. 😉
I’ve seen the madness on the Salmon River during steelhead season. This past weekend it was surprisingly tame. I think negative reports on the conditions have kept people away, and the season is still early. I suspect that by next weekend it will become a place that I’d rather not be. Still, the draw of big fish within a reasonable drive from a lot of cities is pretty strong.
Now it’s back to fall stripers and blues for a while. Too many fish, not enough weekends!
I have a steelhead trip on the calendar for Nov 2, and very well make it up there in the spring as well. Any suggestions for other tribs to try? Preferably east of Rochester. PM me if you’d rather not broadcast!
