Pollack's Closing........

For fly fishermen in Toronto, Pollack's was a venerable institution. For years it was a sporting goods store, the kind where you could buy medicine balls and boxing gloves as well as fishing stuff. Then they decided to make a go of it as a fly shop. Even the sign changed to Pollack's fly fishing. It is a tough game to run a fly shop without a destination river, though. Consider shops like Blue Ribbon Flies in West Yellowstone. They are surrounded by fine trout streams and they guide all the time. Guiding generates dollars in two ways - there are the guide fees, but also, wealthy sports will often buy waders, rods, flies, you name it, at the same time. In Ontario, the only guiding business around is really on the Grand, near Fergus, and there is a fly shop, Troutfitters, right in town to grab that business. I'm sad that Pollock's is closing though. I haven't gone down there to score sale prices on remaining inventory. I did try to support the place when it was open. I hope the guys who worked there land on their feet OK. They're a good bunch.