This is the 14th Christmas season in our store’s history and we hope it is going to be our best yet for one simple reason: we have more inventory in the store this year than we have ever had at this time of year. In fact, we are expecting a(nother!) fill in order from Simms before the end of the week and we have more fly tying materials coming to shore up the occasional holes we have on our material walls that are starting to appear. The fact that we have a few holes appearing on our fly tying material walls is also a great sign because this has never happened so early in the fly tying season. Word on the inventory we have has spread and we look forward to seeing many more of our customers in the coming weeks!

At this time of year we look at our suppliers and pricing for the coming year and double check to see if we are still dealing with the best people and getting the best price. It’s kind of the same thing that customers do but on a larger scale. One of the segments of our store that takes up a lot of time and needs a lot of attention is flies and there are a lot of suppliers out there who offer great deals but their quality is often suspect. One of the companies we are currently looking at is Idylewilde and the following quote appears on their website. We have to admit that they hit the nail on the head…

“Fact: If a fly’s worth only $.99 it not only sucks, but it was likely tied in a third-world sweatshop and we’d rather not have that bad mojo hanging on our conscience.”

We like their attitude and how they do business and would appreciate hearing from the readers on our blog on this matter – what do you think? We agree with Idlewylde. We focus on getting the best value for our customers at the lowest possible price but believe we should all support ethical business practises and that is why the flies we sell cost more than the wholesalers out there. Our flies last longer because they are made from better materials and we purchase them from reputable, ethical suppliers. Just an FYI…

We had our 13th Anniversary Sale to celebrate our anniversary last Saturday because we like to hold special sales in the store on weekends when more people are available to come in and last weekend made more sense than the coming Easter weekend that is also the trout opener. But this past Wednesday April 20 was the official 13th anniversary of opening the doors for business at WILSON’S. The anniversary almost went unnoticed but for something pretty special that made our day.

I was in the store mid-afternoon chatting with a customer as were Bill and Ian and the man with whom I was speaking had never been in and asked what year we opened. He had come into Toronto from Barrie after having driven to Kitchener/Waterloo thinking that at least one of the stores in that area would have the fly lines and tying materials for which he was looking. Not one of them had what he wanted and he had called ahead to see if ‘the store of last resort’ (us) could help him out – and it turned out we had everything he wanted. After he told me his story I asked, “Why didn’t you come here first?” and his reply both frustrated me and made my day. “First, I don’t like driving in Toronto and secondly, I had heard you were more expensive than the other fly shops. But to tell you the truth your pricing is better, you are the only fly shop with inventory and you have got great selection. Frankly, this store is a good reason for me to get over having to come downtown!”. He then smiled, thanked me for my time, congratulated us on our ‘official’ anniversary and headed to the sales counter.

13 years to the day we opened and we still hear new customers say they had never come in to to see us because they thought we were ‘the expensive store’ and then find out otherwise. Oh well, that is the nature of retail. But it’s still a thrill to win over a new customer… he made our day!

A while ago we mentioned that the store is organizing a fly fishing travel seminar to Cuba and if of interest you should reserve the evening of Wednesday March 30 in your calendars. Well, don’t. The new date you should reserve is Wednesday April 13 and this is the reason why…

Avalon Fly Fishing from Cuba is coming to Toronto to do a presentation beginning at 7pm on Wednesday April 13 at the Holiday Inn located at 590 Argus Road in Oakville. Doors will open at 6:30pm, the show will begin at 7pm and the price of admittance is $20 per person ($25 at the door). We have also invited a handful of local fly fishing guides to join us for the evening and we will be offering the following door prizes:

1st Door Prize: a free fly fishing trip in Cuba!
2nd Door Prize: a free guided fly fishing trip in Ontario!

You may wonder why we are not having this event in downtown Toronto and the reason is simple: we want to make this event accessible and affordable for as many people as possible. Accordingly, to borrow an adage from the real estate industry, the Holiday Inn Oakville was chosen for the following reasons:

1. Location: The hotel is located at Trafalgar Road & the QEW (great by car)
2. Location: The Oakville VIA/GO station is 1 block away from the hotel (great by rail)
3. Location: Unlike most venues in downtown Toronto, parking here is free

Unless numbers dictate otherwise, we are holding the seminar in the Argus Room because it can accommodate up to 120 and the ceiling height is sufficient to comfortably provide for a large projection screen. There is also a convenient foyer at the entrance to the room and we have asked the fly fishing guides who are joining us at the event to set up a mini trade show to promote their services to the attendees.

Last but not least, all money raised after expenses will be donated to Trout Unlimited Canada.

If this event goes over well in our community it will be the first in a series of similar seminars so we invite everyone to attend and learn about fly fishing in Cuba – because you just might be the one to win a great trip!

“I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!” If you tie flies you might think that this is commonly said by customers in fly shops that don’t have a good inventory of tying materials – and you would probably be right. However, the Powers that be must love poking fly shop owners in the eye on a regular basis because we read stories online about local people looking for materials around the world who don’t ever bother frequenting and supporting their local fly shops. One of the best stories we have read was a few years back when someone online in Ontario recommended a supplier for Polar Bear hair out of Australia to another tier in Canada. Let’s see, duties and shipping on (Canadian) Polar Bear hair from Canada to Australia plus duties and shipping on that same Polar Bear hair from Australia back to Canada = one insanely expensive bit of bear hair… and we had it at a fraction of the cost on our wall in the colour he ended up crying online he couldn’t track down. Good on ‘em I say! If he’s got the money to spend on shipping he doesn’t need and two-times the duty he should be shelling out for, more power to him!

If, however, you’re looking for a good inventory of fly tying materials locally that should cover all of your needs you should know that our inventory of fly tying materials is about to increase by close to 40% because Bill has been given the green light to spend an insane amount of money and the boxes will start arriving towards the end of next week.

Just an FYI…