This is big news! We are very pleased to announce that Ontario fly fishing guide & outfitter Rob Heal has joined the team at WILSON’S and will be working in our new Fergus fly shop when it opens in the coming weeks. Rob has been given the task of heading up and coordinating our fly fishing education and outfitting programs and we could not be more delighted to have him on our team!

If you are familiar with Rob Heal you already know that he is one of the most experienced and respected fly fishing drift boat guides in Ontario. Getting someone of Rob’s calibre is a coup by any measure and it is a union of strengths that will produce a level of outfitting, education and fly fishing retail in Ontario that has never been seen in the Province. To be honest, we can’t wait to get started! Anyone who has fished with or been guided by Rob over the past 16 years knows that he is passionate about teaching people and being on the river. This is a great opportunity for WILSON’S to take our fly fishing guiding and fly fishing school programs to a new level. Rob has been given the responsibility of putting together our new program and he has gathered together some of the other most skilled, experienced guides and pro-staffers in Ontario to create the most formidable team of drift boat and walk & wade fly fishing guides in the Province. Keep watching our website for more details in the coming days…

To learn more about what is happening with our new fly shop in Fergus, our schools and our guiding program please make www.CanadasFlyFishingOutfitter.com a favorite. We will continue to keep everyone updated via this blog and on Twitter @WILSONSFlyShop. In the interim please feel free to contact us with any questions or comments you may have – and of course guided trips! Rob is currently booking guided walk & wade trips on a number of destinations including of course the Grand River, the Credit River, Whiteman’s Creek, Bronte Creek, the Niagara River, the Humber River, the Ganaraska River, Bowmanville Creek, the Trent River, the Bighead River, the Mad River, the Beaver River, and the Saugeen River. We are also now booking fly fishing drift boat trips on the Grand River, the Saugeen River, the Maitland River, the Sauble River, and the Nottawasaga River.

We trust you will agree this is very cool but we have more announcements coming!

Stay tuned…

This morning’s Globe and Mail has a feature story on Sail Outdoors which is the newest entrant to Ontario’s retail sporting goods landscape. A big box retailer based out of Quebec, Sail is the latest juggernaut small retailers like us have to respond to – and we are certain it will not be the last. The last big box retailer that came to the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) was Bass Pro in 2003 and at the time it scared the heck out of us. We were just entering our fifth year in business and finally getting our feet under us for the first time when Bass Pro announced they were opening. After an initial panic attack I scraped the money together to attend the Fly Fishing Retailer’s Trade Show held in Denver that year with the intent of getting as much advice as possible from fellow fly shop owners in attendance. I ended hijacking one of the breakfast sessions when I stood to ask a question, as I said at the time, “Not so much for the members of the speaker’s panel but rather for the 200+ other people in the room.” I went on to explain where I was from, that Bass Pro had announced they were coming to the GTA and asked two questions. First, had any other fly shop owner been in a similar position and secondly, if so, what they had done in response. I recall clearly the comments I heard that morning and what it came down to was this: the entrance of Big Box retailers to a market does not cause the demise of small fly shops but it hastens the demise of poorly run businesses. The other thing I heard loud and clear is that Big Box retailers cannot provide the customer service you find in a good small retailer. They do not do customer returns or special orders – but we do.

Our current circumstances are similar to what we faced in 2003. We are just now getting our feet back under us after the crash of September 2008 and Sail is the new Goliath with whom we have to do battle. I went to Ottawa a few months ago to visit their store there before they opened in Vaughan and what I saw made me feel a bit more comfortable. Sail has a nice loking fly fishing section in their stores but they do not have the scope or depth of inventory we carry. For example, they carry Simms waders, wading jackets and boots but only in the basic size run of small, medium, large and extra large. If a customer needs a medium king they can’t buy it at Sail. If a customer has a warranty problem with a purchase at a Big Box retailer they also have to deal with the manufacturer directly. If a customer has a question they need answered the people behind the counter often do not have the knowledge or expertise to answer it. That is not the case if you are shopping at WILSON’S.

So with Sail planning to open a third store in the GTA this spring at Sherway Gardens in Etobicoke and a fourth in Burlington, under the circumstances you might be asking yourself why we are even considering opening another store? Sail has millions of dollars to invest overnight in stock they can sell at a discount but our store’s inventory has been slowly built up over the years through the efforts of our team in the store and our owner whose income is earned solely through his ‘day job’ in commercial real estate. The odds are not exactly stacked in our favour but every member of our team believes in our shared vision to make WILSON’S the best independent fly fishing outfitter in Canada. To reach this goal we have to continue to build the business and our customer base and the best way to do this is to focus on expanding our guiding and school program. The quickest way to do that is to open a second WILSON’S Fly Shop on the banks of the Grand River and the recent closing of Grand River Troutfitters in Fergus has unexpectedly presented us that opportunity.

The last three years in particular have been incredibly stressful and, as we mentioned in a previous blog entry, we can’t afford to do this – but we can’t afford to pass up the opportunity. You can call it crazy, stupid, foolhardy… or perhaps brave. We just know that in order to survive in this business a good defense is a good offense.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/courting-the-granola-and-gun-crowds/article2338622/

That was probably what was going through the mind of Tom Brady last night as the Super Bowl came to an end. It is also something I have said to myself over the years as a fly shop owner. Well, if the plans we have in play at the moment continue on their current path we may end up having the opportunity for a fly shop “re-do” because we are another step closer to launching a second location. Stay tuned…

With the recent demise of the only fly shop on the Grand River we have been doing some ground work to determine if opening a second WILSON’S store in Fergus or Elora makes sense – and we are currently leaning very heavily in that direction. To that end we are now accepting resumes so if working in a fly shop is something that interests you please forward a cv outlining your fly fishing and work experience to Jim@CanadasFlyFishingOutfitter.com

As I sit at home battling the proverbial “mother of all chest colds” it is emails like the one we received this week that make all of the effort of running a fly shop worthwhile. It is always gratifying to receive words of praise and we thank Ken for taking the time to let us know what he thought about our hatch chart for Whiteman’s Creek.

“I just joined your site & was totally AMAZED that u had a hatch chart for Whiteman’s Creek. I have had a 35 foot trailer 20 ft. from the creek at a gun club for 23 yrs now & many members fly fish. I have taught many younger & older members how to fly fish (as I have been doing it for about 45 yrs) & taught my 2 kids boy/girl how to fly fish at the age of 5. I will shortly be ordering a few of your flies [and] will definitely be giving your address to everyone here & am sure they will pass it on to all their friends… I am very glad I found you! Ken”

If you would like more information on hatch charts for the Grand River, the Maitland River, the Saugeen River, the Credit River, the Nottawasaga River, the Humber River, the Boyne River Nd other fly fishing destinations in southern Ontario please go to the Members area of our site. It is free to join our Fly Fishing Club and we trust you will like what you find!