Today was my last day working in the Denver Bass Pro Fly Shop.
Towards the end of my summer of guiding in Estes Park it was decision time: pursue an engineering job somewhere, go back home to Minnesota, or stay out in Colorado and find work to get by until I headed back to Estes the next summer to guide again. I chose the 3rd option. A few weeks before my last day in Estes I applied for a few jobs in Denver and received a call back from Bass Pro the next day. I drove down to interview with Bass Pro a few days later and it was apparent early on to my interviewer that I would be suited best in the fly shop. After a solid interview and a nice chat he offered me a job in the shop and I jumped on the opportunity.
I was pretty excited and thankful to have received a job in the fly shop. Within a week or two I was feeling settled in and having fun with the job. Three months of selling fly rods, reels, flies, and sharing my passion for fly fishing with people followed.
Highlights of working at the Denver Bass Pro Fly Shop
- Range of customers: One of the cool things about the Bass Pro Fly Shop was the mixture of customers. Although we were geared more towards the beginner or moderate fly fisherman, we had people coming in ranging from no experience to people who had spent a lifetime guiding or people who had traveled all over the world fly fishing.
- Passion: I always tried to start up conversations with everyone who walked through the fly shop. The majority of the people were people who had never fly fished before but were interested in it. I was able to authentically share my passion of fly fishing with countless people and I really enjoyed that.
- Learning: Although fly fisherman tend to be rather tight lipped I learned a ton about fly fishing in Colorado from people coming into the shop. Where to fish, what to use, I was amazed at the amount of bits and pieces of information I was able to pick up during my days in the shop. I was also lucky to work with coworkers who had years of experience fishing and guiding in Colorado. I took full advantage of asking as many questions as I could think of.
- Bass Pro Discount: We got Bass Pro brand items at 45% off and everything else in the store 15% off. Now in my opinion the majority of the Bass Pro brand stuff was crap and I didn’t have enough money to purchase much stuff anyways but I still took advantage of the discount every now and then.
- Sunsets: My favorite time to be in the fly shop was in the evenings. From the shop windows I could watch the sun set over the rockies and take in the views. It almost never disappointed.
I had a great time working in the fly shop for the last three months and learned an incredible amount of fly fishing knowledge from my coworkers and people stopping into the shop. I’m thankful to have had the opportunity to work a fun job here and interact with some awesome people. Now onto Amazon!
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