Best Online Flyfishing Equipment Retailer?

Lowest Price & Free Shipping on Fly Gear

Why Buy Online?


If you want the lowest price, you don't live near a fly shop, your local shop doesn't carry all the brands you prefer, or you prefer shopping online period, click through from our blog (top right side) or website to Fishwest.  You'll get the guaranteed best price and support Fly Fishing Fantasies at the same time.


Reasons Fishwest is the Best Online Fly Fishing Retailer For You


Top tier and price point fly fishing equipment combined with a lowest price guarantee, secure shopping, 30 day no questions asked/satisfaction guaranteed return policy even on sale and closeout items, free shipping for all US orders and for international orders over $300.


Why Fly Fishing Fantasies Chose to Affiliate with Fishwest

1. Lower threshold for free international shipping than other online retailers.
2. 30 day no questions asked/satisfaction guaranteed return policy.  If your waders don't fit or the rod wasn't the perfect match for you, back it goes.  This makes shopping with Fishwest no risk.
3. Ability to return closeout and sale items.  You don't find this one often.
4. Thousands of products available to match every budget.
5. Lowest price guarantee.  Can't get any lower than lowest.
6. Secure shopping.

How to Use

Simply click on the Fishwest logo on our blog (top right side) or website and you'll be taken to a page listing all subcategories to help you quickly find what you're looking for.  These subcategories include rods, reels, lines, wading gear, fly tying, etc.  Fishwest accepts PayPal and all major credit cards.

Added Benefit

Your click through business will help Fly Fishing Fantasies further the fight against Run of River Hydroelectric and other projects detrimental to our environment.

Too Many Rivers, Too Little Time

Trip of a Lifetime--Book Now Before Prices Go Down

For all you folks that've wanted to make a trip to fish British Columbia's incredible steelhead, trout and salmon, buy the ticket today.  Not too many tomorrows from now your backcast may get tangled in the transmission lines and your fly may land on the rocks or on the pipe that's transporting the water that used to run over those bare rocks.  This is BC in the midst of the provincial government's "green energy" plan.


Oogle No More


There are apparently over 600 BC rivers fingered for Run of River Hydroelectric projects.  Having oogled maps of the BC coast since my childhood wondering what some of those remote rivers must be like for fishing, it saddens me to find out the hard way just how good they are.  Heli-fishing guides are now exposing the secrets they've coveted for decades in the hopes of saving these rivers.  George Bush senior is one of the clients shown in a fishing photograph in Bute Inlet.  Something tells me wilderness values are extremely high if former US presidents are fishing there.  Guides speak of sea run cutthroat averaging 18 inches and running to 24 inches.  Trout fishing days of 20 fish landed are mentioned as average.  They also speak of incredible bull trout and salmon fishing.


Cheap Power?


The projected cost of power sounds pretty scary.  BC Hydro is currently in the midst of massively jacking up rates.  BC Hydro produces power at $6 per megawatt hour and residential customers pay $70/MWh.  Contracts signed with Independent Power Producers (IPP's) guarantee purchase agreements for $120/MWh.  BC is also locked into exporting power at $60/MWh so we'll be losing money for every MWh we must export.  As a result, citizens will pay for this.  It's been suggested that over the long term BC Hydro itself may be bankrupted out of the agreements our government has been signing.  Adding to these losses will be the losses of habitat.  Fishers, hunters, hikers, whale watchers, grizzly bear aficionados, and many others may no longer be able to find the animals/habitats they came to see--and those industries may dry up also.  Even if you were willing to ignore the transmission lines and power generating stations, I can't imagine that the fish populations will survive when the power project removes up to 90% of the river's flow for much of its fishable length.


Long Term Jobs


Oh ya, there are basically no long term jobs.  The jobs will dry up once the project has been built.  The power companies will have next to nobody manning the facilities which are nearly fully automated.


More?


Debbie Downer assumes you probably don't want to hear more about this.  If she's wrong, check out the link right here.  It shows the public fighting for their resource and it shows some sweet fishing shots.  Unfortunately, many of these public consultations are just window dressing.  Just ask the citizens and municipal councillors of the Squamish Lillooet Regional District.  They voted the Ashlu River proposal down by an 8 to 1 margin.  The BC government soon passed Bill 30 to take away municipal governments' zoning rights over these proposals.

What you get by joining the fight


If you write to your elected officials about these projects and manage to have them come to their senses, maybe we can get the BC Energy Plan changed.  And maybe you can take advantage of some of the beans these heli-guides had to spill.  Write, email, donate, attend, etc.  Please be active in saving one of the world's greatest river fishing provinces.  You can email Rich Coleman, Minister of Energy, Mines and Housing at EMH.Minister@gov.bc.ca.  You should copy your email to Ron.Ptolemy@gov.bc.ca. You can donate to Fly Fishing Fantasies on our website if you want to help us create video pieces to energize fishers about the incredible fishing opportunities BC has to offer and to energize them to speak up to save them.  In addition to enjoying the incredible fishing BC has to offer, you will find out about some awe-inspiring new spots to cast a line.  Hopefully some of these video pieces will get enough people writing in about the dollars they've spent or that they hope to spend in the future if the fishing is good enough.  Maybe then the elected officials will see fit to change their energy plan.

Fishing closed, whale watching closed, grizzly bear tours closed, etc, etc.

Business Casualties of Run of River

Could the title of this blog entry simply be a news headline in BC's future?  BC's government is looking to privatize power generation in our province through "green" power initiatives such as Run of River Hydroelectricity.  Green power, it is not.  Not only that, but BC currently uses less power than it produces.  The whole plan seems to be good for big businesses and bad for the environment, and therefore, bad for many existing BC businesses which make money off our incredible natural assets in sustainable ways.

I think it's far better to make money from our environment in sustainable ways that don't undermine other businesses' ability to continue operating.  Whale watching companies, grizzly tour operators, fishing guides, and others will be the casualties of Run of River Hydroelectric.  A company that's approved for a Run of River project has the right to continue producing power on these gifted lands and rivers forever.  Once we cross this bridge, there's no turning back.



Collateral Damage

Informed BC citizens are standing up to fight atrocious and stealthy attempts to steal the veins and arteries of this province, but many of us hardly know this battle is going on.  I for one, only really found out just how major the Run of River issue is a few months ago, and I pursue the fish that are among the first casualties of these projects.  When the fish populations plummet, and I'm sure they will when you steal as much as 90% of a river's water from its most productive reaches, the next casualties are sure to be seals, fishers, eagles, whales, bears, forests, tourists, and on and on and on.  I assume if we removed 90% of the blood from our veins and arteries, we'd experience some difficulties.  In fact, after googling this question, it appears 30-40% blood loss leads to death--I shudder to think of the after effects of Run of River.  I also don't want to be left wishing I'd done more to help stop Run of River projects in BC.


Let Your Voice Be Heard

To see how far reaching the effects of giving away BC's rivers will be, you should check out Powerplay, the groundbreaking documentary series on the theft of bc's rivers and public power.  Although I haven't had time to view all the episodes yet, this series is a major eye opener and requires a major response from citizens of BC, Canada, and the world.  Please let your voice be heard by BC's government.  I'll list government contacts I was given for the Kokish River Run of River project.  I assume they'll be involved in many Run of River projects.  For different areas of the province, I expect there'll be different Environmental Assessment Managers but I hope these individuals will forward your opinions to the appropriate government representatives.  Here they are:  Ron.Ptolemy@gov.bc.ca; Martha.Anslow@gov.bc.ca.  Ron Ptolemy is listed as an Instream Flow Specialist and Martha Anslow is listed as one of a number of Environmental Assessment Managers.

Thank you for any assistance you can provide, BC's incredible rivers need your help to remain that way. It's my hope they'll be around for you to enjoy if and when you make your first or next trip to our province.  If we work hard and work together, they may be even better.

Fight Run of River Hydro in BC

Fight Run of River Hydro projects by emailing your displeasure to all three of the following contacts:  Ron.Ptolemy@gov.bc.ca ; Martha.Anslow@gov.bc.ca; mjl@telus.net. 

You can also donate to Fly Fishing Fantasies via our website at flyfishingfantasies.com.  We are using exhilarating fishing footage to help people understand what's at stake.  We hope to spread the word far and wide to enlist as many supporters as possible.  The number of BC rivers targeted for Run of River projects numbers in the hundreds-please help.  Your donations will be put to use to create additional videos aiming to stop all Run of River projects--not just one river at a time.