On sale!
Some things make no sense, but we do them anyway - like driving 3 hours out and 3 hours home to go shopping.
Yesterday I did a silly thing! I discussed it with my wife in the evening, and when she asked "Does it really make sense? Is it rational?" I had to reply "No! It doesn't".
What doesn't make sense is to drive three guys in a car all the way across Denmark (small country, but still 3 hours each way), pay bridge toll (about 40 US$ each way), gas and whatnot to go to a sale in an outdoors shop!
No sense at all!
But we did so anyway.
We met at my place in the morning, saddled up and rode across Sjaelland, Fyn and half Jutland to go to the annual winter sale in the large shop Korsholm.
I won't call it a tradition, but we have done it before, and it's a nice trip. We have time to talk on the way, we eat a meal on the way and we shop for 2-3 hours in the largest hunting, fishing and outdoors shop in Denmark. This year we even planned to bust another shop on the way - Go Fishing midway on the island Fyn. Unfortunately we didn't make it, because they closed before we got there.
There's enough to buy.
A couple of pictures from our last trip to Korsholm. A nice, large shop.
I filled a basket with some fly tying material that I needed anyway, found a magazine, leafed through some books and finally dumped a fly reel, which I have been looking at for a while on the pile. The reel was half price, so that alone earned me more than the cost of the trip.
Kasper and Lars, the guys I was with, each filled their basket, and we saved lots of money! More than enough to make up for the costs. On the other hand we probably spent more money on fly stuff on that single day than we do on an average three months. But that's what shopping is about, isn't it?
Rational, no!
Nice, yes!
By the way... we noticed an odd thing about feathers in the colors used in the pattern The Pink Pig (Pattegrisen), which has become a hype and a fad beyond anything sensible on the coasts of the Baltic. It seems like some people think it's the only fly in the world, which can catch sea trout. I personally never fish it and never tied it. It's too big for my taste, and I find it hard to believe that it should be able to draw more fish from the water than many other patterns. But it's in fashion right now.
Since it uses some fairly rare materials - mainly Whiting Spey Hackle in a very bright pink - there seems to be a shortage of this specific material. And shortage combined with demand means high prices. That's logic.
But this particular material breaks all logic. If you go to the rack with Spey Hackle you will see all colors including the pink one. Turn them around and check the price.
Blue: 35 dollars
White: 35 dollars
Gray: 35 dollars
Light pink... 130 dollars!
I have seen small, low quality necks of this particular color sold at almost 150 US$ here in Denmark.
What!?
It's the same material, same size, same packaging, same labeling. Only the price differs.
It's about four times as expensive as all the other colors.
You can "save" money by buying a Pink Pig kit.
Pink materials for about 10-20 flies: 35 US$ or about the same as a whole neck... if it's not pink, of course!
It makes no sense.
Why does it cost four times as much as the other colors?
Simple answer: because some people are willing to pay that!
Market economy for you...
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Comments
Wow!! In the us aver
Wow!! In the us average bridge crossing one way is from 1$U.S. to 8 dollars!! Petroleum is around 2.70 U$ per gallon not litre. I wonder how much are danes paying for per litre of petrol ? When I go to DK someday public transportation is not a problem to get where I need to go to fish. In the USA everyone MUST have a car due to lack of public transportation and also a very, very, big country. Where I live the public transportation is nothing just a simple bus that goes around the town not out of town also a long wait for the bus to arrive!!
Matt, Flies vary
Matt,
Flies vary in price. Sea trout flies are not that expensive, but expect 3-5 US$ a piece.
Korsholm IS the shop. The flyshop is inside and is just a part of the main shop. It's located in Jutland near Skjern on the address Jægervej 5, 6900 Skjern, Denmark. But if you are on Fyn, consider Go-Fishing in Odense, which is much nearer.
Martin
Martin,
Martin,
In the us flies varies from .85 to 5.50 for fresh to saltwater. How much does it cost in Dk for average sea run trout flies and where is Korsholm located and what is the name of the flyshop there?
This late afternoon
This late afternoon I had very interesting discussion with local dealer of Orvis tackle. According to his info Whitinng decided to stop producing and selling Spey hackles because only a small number of flyfishermen need this material. Probabbly the biggest seller of Whiting Spey hackle has been Go Fishing from Odense :-) So there is probabbly problems with Withing too. This company finds Spey hackels as a minor and not interesting product and it seems that only salmon pink colour is requested by flytyers. Honestly who needs different colours?
The pink-piggy-mania
The pink-piggy-mania has overruled Denmark and the rest of the seatrout hunters owing to enormous marketing pressure... Articles, videos etc. have simply exaggerated dreamy power of this fly for some reason and the fly-fishing enclave has just fell for it :) It's as simple as that.
To be honest, I have never tried one myself as I am too stubborn just to follow the crowd.
I stick to those flies I have had in my fly-box for years, partly because I found myself too lazy to spent hours tying this pattern (it is considerably more difficult pattern to tie than other conventional ones, isn't it?) and I still have been catching fish.
No doubt the piggy may be a successful fly, however, which one wouldn't be, if used by 90% of fly-fishers fishing the Danish coast? Do you remember when nearly everyone was tying a honey shrimp a couple of years ago? Does it sound similar?
I can bet "we"Â may invent another "catchy" fly this year. And again, it all comes to promotion I guess. Just like fashion!
Nice article. I abso
Nice article. I absolutly agree with you. I can see Pink pig has become very popular here in Czech republic for anglers who go fishing to Denmark. Everybody wants to tie Pink Pig, everybody trusts this fly and everybody must have this fly in his flybox. The main reason should be DVD series produced by Nils Vestergaard which is very popular in Czech republic. Word of mouth is important too. My first seatrou was caught on very simple orange fly and this fly is responsible for other fish.
BTW: Go fishing is excellent shop with good stock of flyfishing tackles. If I am right they moved from old house next to Odense river to another location.