2011 has been quite a year. Big fish, big floods and a new fly shop, to get up and running.
Apart from the awesome fishing we experienced this year on the White River, my strongest memory will be the enthusiasm, and the grins and smiles of y’all our customers, friends walking through the door with grins on their faces.
What we as owners and staff do in a fly shop is like a painter’s preliminary sketch work, we draw up the framework but it’s the family walking through the doors, who fill in the color, movement and breathe life into the place.
Those big grins I mentioned earlier were worth their way in gold, telling us you were getting what we were trying to do in here. Having a cavernous strip mall space is a blessing and a curse _ we could never hope to achieve the traditional cottagey wooden old-timey look but neither could we mimic the dour, grouchy intimidating stereotype. We wanted to imbue this place with the sense of anticipation, hope, and excitement we all get when heading to the water. And above all a sense of fun.
A lot of that comes from our team who stayed with us Chad Johnson and Faye Clark, and our new addition Bill Thorne who has been invaluable. Our expanded guide team too has had a great year and provided tremendous support, both with our new customers and regulars. Often it seems we can fit you in at short notice but on the other hand the numbers of days we have been scratching to find guides to accommodate y’all on the busy days is growing. We would encourage you too book ahead to ensure you can get the particular dates or guides you want. For instance we already are getting bookings for the 2013 streamer season.
In part that is springing from the track record of our team, 5 fish this year of 10lb or better is the cream, the bread and butter trips, teaching new comer the basics, or just putting friends, family members onto a fun days fishing is what our guys do so well.
And its not just the team who help fill this place, it’s the wives, husbands, partners, kids and friends, like Chad’s wife Tiffany, my own Rabecca and my stepdaughters, Jim’s Brenda and their grandkids. always bring smiles.
Finally I have to add a thank you to Jim and Brenda personally none of this would have been possible without their support and drive.
2011 has been an awesome year, and 2012 promises much again.
So here’s wishing y’all Happy and very Fishy New Year from all of us at Dally’s Ozark Fly Fisher
Cheers
Steve
