Is the California Fly Shop dead?

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

In reality, it was not all Lance Kaufmann’s fault. When Randall left, Lance had to pay him off. Not only that, but the biggest reason for them closing was the death of their mother. She was the AP/AR part of the business. She ran the show!!

Thanks Lincoln for the real story which I know you were close to, being in the wholesale fly fishing business.



** "The best way to make a million dollars with a fly shop is to start with 2 million."


The fly fishing industry is so, so small.


If indicator fishing was outlawed in America it would totally collapse.

Two handed fly fishing has really been good for the industry.

The depletion of all our fisheries has not been good for the sport either.

[TigerLilly]

In reality, it was not all Lance Kaufmann’s fault. When Randall left, Lance had to pay him off. Not only that, but the biggest reason for them closing was the death of their mother. She was the AP/AR part of the business. She ran the show!!

Lance put about $1 million into the remodel and then realized how much effort was required to keep the catalog going and dumped it. The catalog was what put them on the map and shielded them from local fluctuations in the economies of North Oregon and South Washington. Dropping the catalog was the kiss of death and then the economy tanked and Lance pulled a number of stunts like selling future classes and trips on Groupon and collecting deposits even while he was in the throes of going into bankruptcy. I don't know if anyone got refunds from the court. Washingtonflyfishing.com has all the icky details in their forum.

[Carl Blackledge]

Bill,

There are lots of reasons that owning a fly shops sucks right now. I think one of the biggest aspects is the lack of fish. If we had lots of fish say like the old days I think owning a fly shop would be a cool thing......I always push fishing in Loreto because we have tons of fish, unlike most every other place we go now a days....My 2 cents

Carl Blackledge

[Lincoln Gray]

Tigerlilly, that is very true, plus Lance and his wife had serious medical issues on top of it.

In the fly fishing industry, we now call it the "Kaufman" They stuck a lot of good people a lot of money! Some manufacturers never recovered.