As I was flying back to Toronto from Calgary late last night I had the opportunity to watch a bit of television on the plane. I should probably explain that I currently live in a home that has no television and so on the odd occasion that I am sitting in front of one I sometimes do some serious channel surfing to see what I am missing these days… and I have to admit the thought that came to mind was, “Not much.”

I am old enough to vaguely remember when my family got its first television in the 1960s. It was a black and white unit with speakers and the whole thing was the size of a piano (I know. I said I’m old…). I also recall when my parents decided to upgrade from that first TV to a colour unit with something called stereo. Growing up in North Bay, Ontario our family was the definition of Canadian middle class in that our father was a high school vice principal and our mother stayed at home to raise the family. We did not lack for anything but our parents were also wise enough to know that they should not give us everything we wanted and, of course, thought we needed. Our parents also taught us to save our money for those extra special things on our ‘gotta have’ lists as children because they wanted to instill in us a pride of ownership and hard work. I remember the purchase of that colour television was a special event for our family that we all celebrated. Our household did not necessarily promote watching television but nor was it dissuaded. In order to get permission to watch TV we had to get our homework done and we were often forced to play outside (the insanity!) before we were allowed to sit down in front of the TV and turn our minds off. Now that I am older I am thankful my parents did not give in to our incessant whining.

So there I sat on the plane last night flipping from channel to channel and the thought that came to mind was, “This is noise.” For example, I watched a news channel and listened as the host droned on about some inane mental pap to fill air and realized after a few moments that the thing I most value now that I am older is not the opportunity to watch a false perception of life on a TV screen but rather to get off my butt and experience it myself. I guess it is the adult version of going out to play (thanks Mom!). Having now gone over a year without watching television on a regular basis I am astonished that I actually watched it in the first place. The old adage “You don’t know what you have got until it is gone” certainly works both ways… So I turned it off.

We have so much coming at us on a 24/7 basis that being able to sit and listen to nothing was a welcome break in my day. And the thought that quickly then came to mind was, “I am looking forward to casting a dry fly to a rising trout on a quiet early morning this spring on the Grand River.”

You know, I like fly fishing because there isn’t any noise…

When we published our announcement yesterday about hiring Rob Heal to head up our fly fishing guiding and education programs out of our new Grand River Fly Shop we thought the response would be fairly positive because, well, Rob is an incredibly nice guy, but we have been overwhelmed by the feedback we have received. The following brief conversation is one we had with a friend on FaceBook and it perhaps best reflects the kind words of encouragement and support we have received:

“Hi Jim, just read your blog, Im not sure how you pulled that one off, but in my book your a genius. Rob is an excelent choice to head the team.”

“I would like to say that this reflects how incredibly clever we are but truth be known it reflects just plain luck… but thanks!”

“Well whatever it is, its a solid move on your part, you’re right about it turning heads. I’d like to bet there’s a stomach or two [of your competitors] turning too.”

“Thanks. There are more announcements to come…”

“I can’t wait”

This person is right about one thing – Rob is definitely an excellent choice to head our guiding and instruction and we could not be more pleased to have him on board!

We opened WILSON’S in downtown Toronto in April 1998 with initial hope that our store would survive those first 3 critical years in business. Thankfully we did survive and in our fourth year we moved to a bigger location on Front Street where our retail sales really started to head in the right direction. After four years there we moved again into our current, again larger premises on Queen Street East. With each move our retail sales have continued to go in the right direction (with of course that prolonged hiccup we experienced from September 2008 until 2010…) to the point that we are now one of the premier fly fishing retailers in Canada. It has taken a lot of hard work and more than a few anxious moments to get here but there is one thing in particular that we have wanted to do better throughout this whole period.

When we first opened our store in 1998 we decided to focus on fly fishing retail. That is an important point to make because other retailers in Ontario who have in-house fly fishing guide programs are not even

in our shadow when it comes to inventory. These other fly fishing stores who focus on guiding first and retail sales second depend on revenue from their guiding to purchase inventory for their stores. What this means to customers is that if they do not have a good spring guiding season they do not then have the money to pay for inventory and the result of course is that there is nothing on the shelves for customers to purchase. In a nutshell, they don’t really care about selling customers anything other than a guided trip and their inventory levels reflect this. You will hear, “We’ll order it” in their stores but at WILSON’S will tell you, “We’ve got it in stock.” What is comes down to is this: WILSON’S fly shop has one of the best inventories in Canada.

While building our inventory and retail sales over the years we have outsourced our guide business to the handful of professional fly fishing guides in Ontario whom we know and trust. On that note it is worth emphasizing that there are many people in Ontario who call themselves fly fishing guides but in our opinion there are only a handful on the river who are truly professional. And when we say professional we mean guides who have the qualifications our customers look for: knowledge, experience, first aid and rescue training, proper gear and the proper attitude (and insurance) to do the job. You would likely be surprised at how many supposed ‘professional’ fly fishing guides there are in Ontario who operate without many of these qualifications let alone the permission from the Conservation Authorities to operate on the rivers. Where to fish is only a small part of what professional guides offer.

So why mention this? Watch for an announcement shortly…

This photo by Dennis Nazarenko is one of the 12 pictures we have received for our December photo contest. We would like to get 4 more pictures submitted this month so we can beat our total for November so send us yours today! Remember, pictures of trophy fish are nice but we appreciate receiving photos of everything and anything associated with people enjoying fly fishing so don’t be shy about sending us your favourite shots! You can check out the pictures at http://www.canadasflyfishingoutfitter.com/gallery-photos.php

‎”Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind”

Dr. Seuss