Part of me hesitated writing this but because of the number of inquiries we continue to get on a daily basis we thought we should let you know what is going on… which is this.

We went live with our new website 5 months ago and our website traffic jumped by over 30% but so too did the number of calls and emails asking when the ecommerce part of our site will be live. To our surprise the biggest stumbling block has been the difficulty in getting the right information in a downloadable format from our suppliers. We require high resolution images and product descriptions in a CSV file and when we have approached the majority of our suppliers most have said, “Ummm, we don’t know what a CSV file is. Just go to our website and start cutting and pasting.” This would be okay if we were only dealing with a few hundred items but we have over 10,000 items that we have to transfer into our system so the cut and paste route doesn’t quite cut it (no pun intended).

Well, after a bit of insistence from us many of our suppliers have stepped up to the plate and we have downloaded a considerable amount of product into the site and we are now in the process of screening it for mistakes to prepare for a staged launch that will feature a limited number of products from a select few suppliers. Our ecommerce team is continuing to work feverishly (they have even been threatened with not getting dessert) and we hope to surprise everyone by actually having the site live in the coming weeks.

No one is more anxious than us to have the site live and we hope that you will like what we have done when you finally get a peek!

If nothing else we’re keeping the folks at UPS busy because Sage, Simms, Patagonia and Orvis all arrived this week and Billy, Hugo, Ian and Sheldon are all pulling their hair out at the moment trying to get everything unpacked, into the system and onto the floor.

If you are looking for Canada’s best selection of fly fishing gear now would be a good time to pop into the store! Just an FYI…

The main benefit of being in fly fishing retail is having the opportunity to meet some truly wonderful people from all walks of life and one of those people is a passionate fly angler and professional water colour artist who currently resides in Nanoose Bay on Vancouver Island by the name of Diane Michelin. Originally from Montreal, Diane’s fly fishing art is appreciated in private collections throughout Canada, the United States and in Europe and if you are lucky enough it may eventually appear on a wall in your home as well.

There are a few artists whose work in particular captures fly fishing in a way that many may appreciate but only anglers truly understand and Diane is one of those artists. As she says on her website, “My water colours describe the essence of fly fishing as told by exotic paraphernalia, rusty pick up trucks, fishin’ dogs and snazzy tackle. The story is about optimism, bits of fur and feathers, solitude and companionship. Each day on the river is notable in the mist off the water or the misadventure of the moment. Consequently, I am inclined to depict the everyday aspect of our passion amid the complexity of the water, light and colour. For it is this that fuels us in our inordinate conservation commitments and the nonstop chatter in the fly shop.”

For more information on Diane please check out her website at www.dianemichelin.com

Ooohh Baby – it’s a work night and it’s late… Better put the coffee on extra strong tomorrow morning! We finished loading the new categories onto our new ecommerce site tonight (Monday) and we will start loading inventory tomorrow. It looks like we are going to load fly fishing reels first and make sure everything is kosher before moving on to other categories such as fly fishing rods and fly fishing waders and will eventually make our way to the fly tying materials… Hold on – why do I keep typing “fly fishing” in front of everything ? Oh ya, I am now into the habit of typing “fly fishing” onto the site for search optimization so we appear on fly fishing searches for people in fly fishing looking for information on fly fishing rods and fly fishing reels and fly fishing waders and… Holy Andy – enough already!

Sorry…

This past weekend Aimee and I ended up driving to Port Stanley with her mother for an afternoon and I had the opportunity to check out The Kettle Creek Inn. I don’t know about you, but I think you get a true indication of the kind of service an Inn or Hotel provides when you pop in completely unannounced to check it out. From a business perspective I recognize this is completely unfair but I do it anyway because if we are going to recommend a place to our customers I want to know that we are sending them to a place that will jump through hoops. What I have found is that the good places are not phased by this kind of thing but the mediocre and bad places stick out like sore thumbs.

So, what did I find? Like the other members of Ontario’s Finest Inns that I have visited, the Kettle Creek Inn is a place I would not hesitate to recommend. Although it is small Inn with only 10 guest rooms and 5 suites they are spacious and very clean and the Inn has a nice, intimate feel to it. I was impressed with the small pub at the entrance to the Inn and, having never visited Port Stanley, I was also pleasantly surprised with the town and have it on my list to places to come back and visit.

The reason I wanted to check out the Inn is because we are scouting places in Ontario, New York, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania for potential destinations to which we will be organizing trips for the members of our Fly Fishing Club in 2011. Watch our blog for details in the coming months… and make sure you sign up to become a member of the Fly Fishing Club so you can join us!