Fishing tip of the week: – 07/08/20

Fishing Tip of the Week

Tuesday, 07 July 2020 08:57

Virus effects on the fishing industry
by Mike Gerry

With all the problems we are going through with the Covid virus I thought I would give my readers an update of the fishing industry as it has affected what I consider the relative parts to the fishing industry.

Let me first say the most obvious thing is the cancellations of fishing trips. Although the month of June picked up considerably, there was a time when cancellations were mounting much faster than bookings. Certainly, if we go backward again, with the increasing cases as it appears, we might see that the cancellations will once again be the biggest issue for me.

However, there are many things going on that most weekend fisherman do not see; the first that comes to mind is getting fishing tackle. Many of the retail stores and local tackle stores have been unable to stock their shelves as the wholesale source for most of the stores have been unable to ship product. Some just shut their doors and had no one to fill orders while others just could not get product from their suppliers. Suppliers that many weekend fishermen use like Tackle Warehouse just lost their ability to ship quickly because of the lack of people to do so, and certainly their supply chain was also weakened.

Many of us who have fished often during this time have observed that the number of local anglers on the water, with many people working from home or just off work, has increased substantially every day.
However, the opposite was true with out-of-town fisherman as getting hotels and finding restaurants were nearly impossible or possibly dangerous based on your thoughts on this issue.

The boating industry basically shut down production, forcing boat sellers to rely on their inventory prior to the shut down; thanks to some who were positioned with inventory there were still bass boats to sell for many. Parts for repairs, however, were tough to come by as many boat manufacturers did not even have parts available or someone to ship them if they did. The same could be said for the outboard motors on the bass boats.

As with every industry, these times have been tough on the fishing industry as well. These issues are just a sample of the impact of the shut-down we have had to deal with.
Captain Mike