In 1978, the term “fly shop” was far from a household phrase. The few who understood what it meant represented a tiny, specialized segment of the broader fishing population. Trying to run a business that relied solely on catering to this minuscule market seemed daunting, if not foolhardy. So when Mike Michalak and Brad Jackson left their “real” jobs nearly 50 years ago to start what they named The Fly Shop, they drew many sidelong glances and head shakes from friends and family.
Yet they shared a deep passion for fly fishing, as well as the energy required to make the fledgling industry their lifelong venture. Perhaps most important, though, was a mutual drive to combine their fly-fishing obsession with their endless ideas for reaching others who were similarly infatuated, offering a place to find innovative gear and knowledge.
Their first decision was where to open this business. Ostensibly, they could choose anywhere in the country, as they planned for the core of the business to revolve around a mail-order operation. Yet they also wanted to be a destination shop, where people would stop on their way to fish an abundance of nearby rivers and streams. Both being California boys, they recognized the incredible year-round potential of Redding, with its profusion of world-class trout streams, steelhead rivers, wilderness areas, and warm-water options, all within a short drive of this hub. All of which were accessed via the interstate that funneled anglers right through town, I-5.
Deciding on Redding, they leased a small shop in a backstreet strip mall and got busy bringing in items to sell. It is difficult to imagine today what that was like in the late 70s. Today, many vendors sell a wide range of fly-fishing gear, more than at any time in history. In 1978, there were only a few fly rod manufacturers; Hardy owned the reel market; and commercial fly tying as we know it today was still in its infancy. The vast majority of the trinkets that now fill fly shop shelves did not exist, and staples like leaders were still very basic in design (Berkley Not-A-Knot knotless extruded tapered leaders were considered groundbreaking). Waders were still primarily Hodgman canvas duck-hunting products with built-in rubber boots; latex Seal-Dri and nylon Red Ball Flyweight waders, along with separate wading boots, were a new concept just starting to catch on.
The two partners spent days on the phone tracking down and piecing together whatever gear they could from across the country, while simultaneously renovating the small, empty building to display it. When the dust settled and the shop opened, there were a couple dozen Scott and J. Kennedy Fisher graphite rods on display, some Hardy (high-end) and Berkley (affordable) reels, and a single wooden fly display filled with the basic patterns of the day, many of which were tied locally or by Mike and Brad (or by me, as I became their original employee about six months after they opened). In retrospect, it was a fairly modest little shop, but to me—an 18-year-old kid fresh from an exceptionally humble basement fly shop of his own in Chico—it was like walking into a dream.
The first mail-order catalog, created on a drafting table with an X-Acto knife and glue, went out the following year as a tabloid-style publication and was an immediate success. Not only did mail orders begin flooding in, but people in the larger metropolitan areas to the south who received the catalog and annually trekked to the area to fish now knew there was a shop they could conveniently stop at to get gear and the latest fishing knowledge. The pieces were falling into place.
In the early years, our guide service played a critical role in keeping the doors open. Mike and Brad would be gone for weeks at a time in the fall, guiding anglers daily on the famous “half-pounder” steelhead run of the Klamath, while I minded the store. Then in the spring and summer, they stayed home, working brutally long hours operating and promoting the shop, while I guided the storied trout streams of Fall River, Hat Creek, Pit River, and the McCloud. Guide service remains an important part of the business to this day and received a huge boost with the transition of the Lower Sacramento River from its former polluted self into what it is today—one of the finest wild trout fisheries in the country. Along the way, we also developed a private waters program, leasing waters that had previously been off-limits to the public and offering them on a limited, fish-for-fee basis. These remain remarkably popular today.
Because Mike and Brad had already traveled to fish in their prior lives, they wanted fly-fishing travel, a relatively new concept, to play an integral role in their business. They began visiting lodges around the globe, building relationships and sending anglers to the best of them. Along the way, the shop played a pivotal role in developing fisheries such as Los Roques, Christmas Island, Chile and Argentina, Alaska, and more. Today, the travel department is one of the shop’s most successful components.
A couple of years into the business, Mike and Brad began looking for a Redding property that would allow them to expand. Their dream was not to renovate another building but to design and build a fly shop from the ground up. A local real estate agent, customer, and soon-to-be employee, Sandy Watts, found an amazing, if oddly shaped, piece of land for sale right on Interstate 5. This was an unbelievably fortuitous discovery, giving The Fly Shop exposure to thousands of cars a day! Mike Michalak held a contractor’s license, so he designed the building to fit the property, hired a local crew, and in short order the new building was in place.
About 10 years into the shop’s existence, Brad decided to change careers, selling his half of the business to Mike and entering the world of professional money management. Since then, Mike has remained the sole owner. The following decades saw remarkable growth in the fly-fishing industry, thanks in no small part to the movie A River Runs Through It, which came to the big screen in 1992. The Fly Shop was well-positioned for the fly-fishing mania the film created. I recall that in the years following its release, we would routinely have a crew of 4-6 employees pulling all-day shifts taking phone orders (by hand, scribbled onto pieces of paper), followed by all-nighters wolfing down pizza and soda to stay awake as we filled the hundreds of mail orders the postal service delivered daily. It was good to be young!
While the fly-fishing market has certainly evolved quickly over the past 20-plus years with the advent of computers and the internet, at its heart, The Fly Shop is still just a bunch of guys and gals who love to fly fish and to help others discover and enjoy the sport. It has been an honor and a pleasure to work with all the great people and amazing talent who have played critical roles in The Fly Shop’s success over the past 48 years… here’s to another 48!
