It’s Day 47 of the Underground Home Hostage Crisis, and while sleep patterns are slowly returning, Trout Underground/Man Cave World Headquarters remain under siege – the target of insurgent contractors who have seized part of Trout Underground/Man Cave headquarters, demanding ransom (or the baby’s room gets it).

Oddly, the Underground’s newest tax deduction isn’t the only thing kicking, whining and soiling itself; it appears the AFFTA Board – when faced by the grim reality of a Fly Fishing Retailer show in steep decline – made An Important Decision.

They just don’t want to tell us what it is yet.

Oh.

The Seamy Background

Despite a great deal of industry cheerleading leading up to this year’s Fly Fishing Retailer Show (and a fair amount of post-event gushing by a few), it seems the FFR show is indeed struggling.

Wicked Outdoorsy posted this somewhat damming article on their blog, suggesting that something needs to change.

With the vendor list shrinking from almost 200 to 150 since 2008, it’s clear that things aren’t all peachy in FFR land, and in fact, industry 800 pound gorilla Orvis didn’t even appear at FFR until the last minute, apparently reversing a decision to skip the show.

The owner of one of fly fishing’s major retail sites told the Underground he rarely attends FFR since manufacturers and reps bring everything to his buyers, often long before the public sees them, so FFR offers little value beyond the networking.

Then there’s the elephant in the room; are anglers increasingly turning to online sources for gear, and if so, what affect is that having on traditionally fly fishing retailers – the FFR show’s primary target group?

What’s Going to Happen Next?

With FFR facing the double whammy of a recession and what appears to be a general decline in interest, what’s a fly fishing trade organization to do?

One possibility is a show that hits different regions every year, and another obvious idea is to fold the fading FFR show into the sizable Outdoor Retailers show in Salt Lake City.

Indeed, that’s the course favored by Moldy Chum (one of the Chum team works for Patagonia, and attends both shows), and Moldy didn’t seem all that happy when he learned the AFFTA Board had met and ruled out folding FFR into the Outdoor Retailer show.

The discussion in the comments section beneath the Wicked Outdoorsy post covers this possibility, and in fact, the director of both shows weighs in with good information.

The AFFTA Board apparently didn’t agree (as per this post from Angling Trade), though it seems as if they’re not going to tell us why until the end of the month.

One hopes they’ve got a plan, but then again, this is the same group that thought it was a good idea to go head-to-head with Chuck Furimsky’s Fly Fishing Show in the consumer show arena, and got their fingers burned.

Furimsky – who still hasn’t forgotten what AFFTA tried to do – is pitching an idea for a dealer show of his own, though this one would be held in Orlando (taking advantage of cheap airfares, lodging, etc).

Given the enmity between Furimsky and AFFTA, we can safely assume Furimsky would have to go it alone with a dealer show, and that he’d be fighting AFFTA for their own members.

Outdoor Retailer Plan a Boon, or a Bust?

While we already know the AFFTA Board voted against joining the Outdoor Retailer show (we just don’t know why, or what’s going to happen instead), I doubt this idea is going away anytime soon.

After all, a little cross-pollination with the outdoorsy set wouldn’t do fly fishing any harm; it’s a sport that’s in danger of erecting a wall around itself (witness the 8% increase in fishing license sales, yet the slow decline in the number of fly fishermen).

Still, would fly fishing simply get lost in the OR show (as some suggest), or is it about time the sport lost its isolationist tendencies (don’t pretend they don’t exist) and joined the rest of the outdoor world?

The Undergrounders Weigh In

This is what’s cool about the Underground – I let my readers do all the heavy lifting. Sure, I’m a brilliant writer who occasionally posts bikini pictures, but in truth, I actually ask my drunken barely conscious slacker readers what they think, and then ignore you when you answer.

It’s crowdsourcing at its finest, so I put the question to the the Undergrounders:

Should FFR try to go it alone? Should it stay Denver? Or should it fold itself under the massive wing of Outdoor Retailer, and hope all the outdoor jocks decide to give the sport a try?

We ask, you answer…

See you in the comments section, Tom Chandler.