The Heydays of Fly Fishing in Nor Cal......1970s

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Those Scientific Angler/3M videos were shot by John Fabian on 16mm movie film then converted to VHS.

We had a huge rental department of VHS tapes and later DVDs on fly fishing.

We only charged a dollar a day only so people would bring them back.

We watched those videos all day long at the shop.


I think that 3M made a 2 or 3 video series with Lani Waller on Steelheading and this made him famous.

Lani had a fly shop but his passion was fly fishing travel.

[Ned Morris]

John Fabian was a true gentleman. I fished with him with a group on the McKenzie River back in May 2007 when he had a horrible accident hitting an underground rock. My buddies and John flipped over into the river. My Guide Mike McCoy paddled like hell and I was able to grab John just as his waders were filling up. It was near disaster. We rowed over to shore while I was holding him as couldn't get him in our boat. Got him to shore out of his gear and dry clothes. Everyone was OK thank god. I had no idea who he was until my friend told me "That's the guy who narrated all the 3M Fly Fishing videos from the 80's we used to watch on VHS as kids". John was so kind and grateful. Never got a chance to fish with him again and heard he passed away last year. He had a great life and was an outstanding fishing guide not mention was the voice that introduced me to Steelhead on a Fly.

Those Scientific Angler/3M videos were shot by John Fabian on 16mm movie film then converted to VHS.

We had a huge rental department of VHS tapes and later DVDs on fly fishing.

We only charged a dollar a day only so people would bring them back.

We watched those videos all day long at the shop.


I think that 3M made a 2 or 3 video series with Lani Waller on Steelheading and this made him famous.

Lani had a fly shop but his passion was fly fishing travel.

[Dave E.]

Ah' the never ending videos...How many times have you heard: " I spot 'em, I got 'em " or " If you're going to make a change, make a definite change".

I'll bet some of the guys being mentioned in this thread are still around ( fly shops have a way of making people look much older than they really are. ), they would be the best way to get the real scoup on the who, what and where.

San Francisco Fly Shop / San Francisco Fly Fishers Exchange?

I knew Doug Park through the Ultimate Fly Shop and while we talked often about all manner of things, he never mentioned owning part of Matteo's shop and when Doug M. would stop in, it never came up.

Doug Park is a gifted tier of traditional dries and north coast steelhead patterns, a walking encyclopedia of old patterns and he could cook feathers with the best of them and could source just about any material you could want, that was well known in the material business. He was close with Cal Bird and my friendship with Cal came by way of their relationship.
He went on to start a small material house out of his home ( Late 80's - early 90's ? ) and I lost track of him sometime after that.

I believe he also worked for, or tied for Anglers Emporium in San Mateo ( up by CSM ) in the 80's. If Dale Carney is around, he could probably confirm that.

Anyone else remember Herb & Jim's in Redwood City, a shot's and beer joint with conventional gear up front and a little fly shop in the rear. Don Woodhams ( sp? ) ran the fly shop. He was great source of info about the waters in the northeast corner of the state and just an enjoyable guy to talk with. My wife bought her first fly rod from Don, a Fisher Original. I've yet to get him back for doing that..... ;^)

Dave

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

There were lots of combo businesses back in the day.


Drug store / fishing tackle

Hardware store / fishing tackle

Bike shop / Fly shop


**I wanted to open a used book store, coffee shop and fly shop in a small town near a destination fisheries.

Shop down stairs and apartment up stairs for a 6 month business?

.

[Darian]

My first exposure to fly fishing was thru a Ned Grey fly tying kit given to me by my Dad when I was 13 YO. I recall buying materials after that in SoCal (Inglewood) but don't recall the name of the store.

Herb & Jim's was the first fly shop I hung out in when I moved to the Bay Area. Much of the materials I purchased were from Hash's Herls & Hackle. I bought a Jungle Cock neck in that store for $9.95 (still have most of it unused). The second was Imbert & Smithers in San Carlos. Both small but well stocked.

When I started fishing the coast for Salmon/Steelhead, I found Ernies Casting Pond(??); another bar/cafe fly fishing place in Capitola.

North of the Bay, was King's News (Grant King) in Guerneville. Grant King was the first commercial tyer that I spent time with learning to tie flies in steps and organizing the materials in advance.

I've been trying to remember the tyer I met in Sebastopol who created/produced the Salmon Creek Special. Very nice guy who took time to explain to me how to fish small estuaries like Salmon Creek near Bodega Bay (I'll probably remember at 3:00 AM, tonight ).

On the road to Eureka was (is??) Grundmans' Sporting Goods in Rio Dell; an interesting combination of hunting and fishing store. Small but stuffed with inventory. Always good for info/flies, etc.

There was a fly shop owned by an older couple along the Lower Smith River (Fed Haight Dr., outside Crescent City). Can't recall their names but they were very nice and had everything I needed to fish the Smith from the park downstream.

All of this occurred during the 60's/70's. Fond memories....

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Great stuff Darian........

I listened to stories from all the old time fly fishers from the Greatest Generation who lived in Sacramento, were in World War 2, and lived through the Great Depression.

Before I went to new places I felt like I had been there from listening to all their wonderful old stories.

[OceanSunfish]

There were lots of combo businesses back in the day.


Drug store / fishing tackle

Hardware store / fishing tackle

Bike shop / Fly shop


**I wanted to open a used book store, coffee shop and fly shop in a small town near a destination fisheries.

Shop down stairs and apartment up stairs for a 6 month business?

.

Anyone remember the fishing department in the Longs Drug Store in Redding? Big reseller of Fenwick fiberglass rods back in the day......

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Anyone remember the fishing department in the Longs Drug Store in Redding? Big reseller of Fenwick fiberglass rods back in the day......

Longs in Reno too use to be the place to go ~30 years ago for fishing tackle and some fly stuff.

I think Longs was pretty good about letting their individual stores carry what they wanted.

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A friend went into maybe Thrifty's in South Sacramento where they had some tackle in the 1970s.

The Fenwick HMG Graphite fly rods just came on the market.

He was looking a them there and noticed they were $39.95 so he bought one.

I told him their pricing gun probably only had 4 digits so $99.99 was the highest it would print.

The rods where $139.95 the next day he told me.

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The sporting goods stores were always behind the times and only carried the new Fenwick HMG Graphite fly rods up to 8'6".

At our shop we also ordered the HMG 905 (9'#5 - 2 pc) and the HMG 908 (9'#8 - 2pc) which were the hottest sellers.

We were the only place around Sacramento to buy 9 foot HMGs.......

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When I opened the first real fly shop in Sacramento, The Fly Hutch, with partner Neil Bohannon in 1975 we had terrible competition

from the big discount stores on Fenwick fiberglass fly rods and Pflueger Medalist fly reels so we had to run with their low prices to

make a sale. Fenwick rods were always 50% off.........That is why Don Green sold Fenwick and opened Sage.

I had just come from 10 years of working in real top sporting goods stores so i knew about competitive pricing.

Thank God we were a Cortland Pro Shop and had a very large profit in fly lines and backing because we made almost no profit on the

discounted Fenwick rods and Pflueger reels.

After work I would go around to all the sporting goods stores and discount store to check prices on stuff like Maxima tippet spools, etc.

Now you just look at their prices online........

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Being in the fishing tackle business for 50 years in Sacramento I witnessed all the changes in the industry.

It is all way different today.....

[wineslob]

I still remember Broadway Bait and Tackle (I think), and drawer upon drawer of Fenwick blanks............

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Sadly I think Broadway Bait & Tackle has closed.........?

Chris Fulster sr was an icon in the fishing and hunting business in Sacramento.


Growing up in south Sacramento we started going there to the old location across from the Tower of Records when there was a dinner

next door in the 1960s. The dinner was in the same building with entrances into the bait shop. We would eat at the dinner very early

and then go next door to get stuff to go hunting or fishing. There was a big gang of us south Sac boys who all hunted and fished

together.


One memorable early Saturday morning I was at KFBK AM 1530 radio station with two of my favorite icons in the fishing and hunting

business, Chris Fulster and Bob Simms. Between the 3 of us we have seen at lot of change over the past 60 years of history in the

fishing and hunting world in Sacramento. The 3 of us could just talk for days about all that we have witnessed in this great Northern

California outdoors.