Kaufmann's Streamborn shops closed

[8NoFish]

Kaufmann's shops have closed. Apparently, they have been in trouble for a while. Their website is gone.

http://www.washingtonflyfishing.com/boa ... Streamborn
If you read down into this discussion, some of the posters discuss the reasons (and theories) for the closure.

[tomsakai]

I visited (or attempted to visit) their Seattle store twice. I could see it coming. The first time in June 2009, they had minimal stock, once the salesperson determined that I wasn't going to buy a big ticket item like a rod or waders, he was of no help. The second time, I was looking to kill some time while the wife and sister in law was at Pike's Place. I went on their website and saw that they were open on Sunday. I went over there only to find that they were closed, although the sign on the door indicated that they should have been open.

It may have been a great store once but a store operating like that is no loss when it closes.

[8NoFish]

Lance Kaufmann was running the store. Apparently the more famous brother Randall hasn't been envolved for a number of years. In the late 1990's I visited both the Seattle and Portland (Tigard) stores. Both were nice places, but well before the decline.

I'm sure we'll hear numerous theories and stories of bad experiences at Kaufmanns. Their prices sometimes seemed a little higher than other places. I don't remember poor service there. I think that if you look hard enough, you can find people that have had less than great experiences at every shop in the country. I've been treated well at almost every shop I have been in. I think the one exception is the old Troutfitter Shop in Mammoth (before the merger with the Troutfly) - I never really felt welcome there and more than once it seemed like the guys behind the counter were having a joke at my expense. After that, I only shopped at the Troutfly across the street.

[meb]

Wow, that is hard to believe. I don't know anything about their finances, but in the 80's and 90's they were the place to go for steelhead information and supplies. Randy Stetzer who worked in the Tigard store was as helpful as a person could be. My experiences in that store were only good, and I hope all of workers land on their feet.

[fshflys]

I took a 3 day fly fishing seminar back in the late 70's early 80's with Kaufmann's Streamborn. They had a lodge in Maupin Or overlooking the Dechutes. The one thing I got from the class that I use every time, is stringing your rod. Fold the fly line & pass the fold through each guide, something simple but it's stuck with me all these years. I was hoping to get some instruction on nymphing, but as it turned out there was a heck of a salmonfly hatch going on. We tied some of Kaufmann's stones & slapped those on the water for a few days. One of the instructors was David Hughes, the prolific writer. On the last day after seminar was over, I went fishing again, walking back to the car I ran into David who had also been fishing, he said, "I should probably go back out on the water for 1 more fish, then it would be an even 100."
I remember Randall's car, it was a Datsun 280Z, license plate was NYMPH. On my 1st day of instruction I broke my rod, it was made by my father from a Lamiglass blank, one of the first graphite blanks that had come out recently. Randall let me use one of his, an Orvis 9'3" Western Spring Creek 5wt, graphite, a sweet rod. My parents were living in New Hampshire at the time so I had my father go over to Vermont & pick up a blank at the Orvis factory. My father built that rod for me, wasn't the prettiest thing but it served me until '98, the year after my father had passed. I was on the Falling Spring creek in south central Pennsylvania where my father had retired, cleaning up his estate when I broke it. Oh, one other thing I took home from that class, a bad case of poison oak, it was growing all along the Deschutes.