Goodbye to a Fly Fishing Friend

Saying Goodbye is Tough!

8/26/05
For the past eleven years Bill Louthan, owner of Alpine Angler, operated his fly shop at the corner of Chambers and Iliff next to the Aurora Newsland in Aurora, CO. Before moving to the current location, Alpine Angler was located on the corner of Quincy and Parker Road for five years.

Bill's shop was always a joy to visit. Because Bill would gladly share a story, a joke, product knowledge or trout tactics with a customer. Bill was generous to a fault. He would fix a fly line attached improperly to the backing or reverse a reel from right to left hand retrieve for a customer. Often this equipment was not even purchased from Bill but from a discounter big box store. We, the regular customers, urged him to charge for this kind of service.

But Bill maintained that he could attract new customers through quality customer service. I have been in a lot of fly shops in 36 years of fly fishing and I will say that Bill's customer service was without equal.

Unfortunately, not even Bill's magnetic personality and great customer service was enough to save his shop.

When I stopped by the shop this Friday, to see my friend Bill, the shop was eerily quiet. There was only one other person in the shop besides myself. And he was one of Bill's long time friends and fishing buddies.

The shop was almost bare of inventory. On sale signs were posted on hooks, fly tying supplies, leaders, the book inventory and most every thing else. Two lonely rods occupied the rod rack and these were custom builts waiting to be picked up.

The shop condition was a far cry from its busiest. Then you might find ten to fifteen customers at any time in the shop. All of them purchasing equipment, fly tying supplies and talking fly fishing.

From October to mid April, Bill would open his shop up on Wednesday evenings from 6 p.m. to about 8 p.m. for the guys to gather and tie flies. At eight, Bill would supply pizza to close out the sessions.

At the end of August, these sessions will be no more.

Yes, at the end of August, Bill will turn out the lights and close the doors to Alpine Angler for the last time.

Did Bill want to close the shop? No, he wanted to retire and pass on the business to his son Billy.

But Alpine Angler along with eight other small independent fly shops from Castle Rock through the Aurora area have fallen victim to the big box discounters who started moving into Aurora within the last two years.

We , your regular customers, will miss you Bill. We will miss the stories, jokes and the good times during the fly tying sessions.

I will miss you as a personal friend and mentor. I wish you much success with your next business. A business where the discounters will not be able to compete very well. A business where knowledge and equipment use will not be free.

But that is a story for another time.

My next posting is going to be about the future of the fly fishing industry in Denver. Substitute your metro city for Denver and it could be about your area.

Marshall, Editor
www.fly-fishing-colorado.com