[Rob Brownfield]

I'll leave this with two questions. How many of you,  knowing Ben, would spend an hour in the park casting an Orvis rod and then go and buy it from Sportfish, £20 cheaper?
And how many would do it if Ben wasn't on here and he wasn't the chap we all know and love?

My answer to your first question, Sportfish don't do ADAA discount If they did it might be a different story 

To your second...Ben has actually talked me out of buying stuff! The man is a menace when you have a pocket full of cash that you want to spend on something your don't need!..

[FishermanMatt]

I know what you mean Hamish, my local shop closed a while back so I now just get everything from hartley fly's website. Huge range, quick delivery. Started off with bits and bobs, lines, leaders, tippets but now I just get it all there.


Do miss visiting a good old fashioned fishing shop though!

[Tam Greenock]

I was down at Leith getting my car serviced this week and took a wee walk to a shop that I used to frequent when living down that way.
Mikes Tackle Shop in Portobello, what a massive shock I got when walking in and discovering that half the shop had gone and the shelves were bare, lucky if there were ten rods in the whole shop. There used to be a whole wall dedicated to flies and tying materials. There was no tying stuff and one small four drawer clear perspex cabinet with blobs. At one time you had to queue with a little tray to select your flies and you could not see a wall for the amount of gear on them.
I was the only person in the shop and asked about a wee pair of snips, none in stock.
So sad to see the state it was in.

[David Blades]

I know it's a sign of the times but really it's really sad that all our local wee shops are closing. We try to shop in Turriff as much as we can to support local trade but products are a lot dearer. We still have 2 very good butchers and despite them being a lot more expensive the quality cannot be compared to supermarkets.
I used to live close to Huntly and 20 years ago it bustled.... it's a shame to see what 2 supermarkets can do to a small town. I can only imagine how hard it is to run a small tackle shop if for some reason you are unable to or don't want to work the internet. I know how hard the people of Angus Angling and Flybox have worked to make their businesses worthwhile.

Huge supermarkets are just too convenient and our lives seem to have become too busy not to benefit from them