Yes, you can order on eBay, shop at the big box ‘sportsman’s warehouse’ or find little discoveries at yarn shops and fabric stores. However, when it is all said and done, picture the demise of fly shops (given these tough times and our refusal to purchase big ticket items at the shops) and the impact it would have on issues we profess to care about. The fly shop should be like the mercantile with the pot bellied stove…where shop owner, employees and customers gossip and pass on important information and total BS. The important information is often related to habitat, environmental and use/access issues. The shop provides a central hub for potential coordinated efforts to address important issues.This is a world wide call to support your local shop.
Logo Care of Ulf Börjesson and found at Eco Fly (FB)
SwittersB & Exploring 
i grew up in a region where there were neither fly shops nor flyfishers. kmart was my fly shop and believe me when i tell you that there was no camaraderie or gossip. merely the delight at having unloaded the ugly stick flyrod that had taken up space for the last three years.
like most people i read and read and read about others adventures and experiences. i developed a fantasy about fly shops like the ones you mentioned (or imagined). i have to say that my dreams weren’t realized until recently.
the only class of retailer more arrogant and unhelpful than fly shops were guitar stores. as a consequence i mail ordered, pawn shopped, etc., etc. even after a river runs through it brought our first real fly shop, it was geared more to some teal colored fantasy than a shop where a shared enthusiasm brought eveyone pleasure and information.
however in the last few years i ran across some great people in places as far flung as ennis, mt, viroqua, wi. and independence,mo., even a small shop in estes park,co. where you would think tourists at the end of season would be absolutely despised. the thing they seemed to have in common is that they were all anglers, they were all at least a generation younger than i am now and they all still had there dreams fresh in front of them.
cabela’s and bass pro have killed our “local” shops but their staff are at least enthusastic and helpful. so i get a taste of what i thought it should be like.
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