ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, May 19, 1996 TAG: 9605200018
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: OUTDOORS
Williamson Road isn't the place you'd expect to find a new fly-fishing
shop, out there across from the flea market where the Saturday night cruisers
are bumper-to-bumper, moving like schools of salmon on a spawning run.
You might say the area doesn't appear to be a good lie for the fly-tackle
business. That's the language anglers use to describe the perfect place, where
a fish is lying in wait, gently finning, peering upstream, ready to pounce on
anything enticing the current brings it.
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
A better lie for a fly shop might be the Salem area, or the Roanoke City Market, or Cave Spring, maybe Hunting Hills. But there it is, the Blue Ridge Fly Fishers, stocked with Scott rods, Stream Line waders, Lee Wulff fly lines, RIO leaders and bins of flies - on Williamson Road.
``I looked at several places,'' said Blane Chocklett, the owner. ``I was thinking the Salem area, out near the river, out near Roanoke College, but the [rental] prices are a little high there.''
It was the same story in the Cave Spring area, he said.
``Then I decided, no matter where I'm located, people are going to find me.''
It was a gutsy move, settling any place in the Roanoke Valley, where the 140-year-old, world-renowned Orvis Company has a national mail-order center and two stores, one with a good lie on the City Market.
His shop, Chocklett believes, is another choice for fly fishermen, where there are brands other than Orvis, where an angler can handle a rod by St.Croix, Thomas & Thomas and G.Loomis, where he can whirl the handle on a reel by Teton. Where equipment is designed for use in the hills and hollows just beyond Williamson Road.
Chocklett worked at Orvis for a time. He has been a fishing guide for six years, a fly angler for 12 - all this at the age of 23.
``Fly fishing is really on the upswing,'' he said. ``I just felt like it would be a good idea to open a fly shop here. There wasn't a place - other than Orvis - to get quality fly-fishing stuff within 130 miles.''
The response since the early-May opening has been encouraging, he said.
``I think it's great,'' Chocklett said. ``I've had a lot of people coming in and they have been praising me that I opened.''
Like all good fly-shop owners, Chocklett wants to be more than a salesman. He wants to be an adviser, not just on rod lengths and weights, but on hatches and fly patterns. He wants to be able to tell people what the trout are rising to on the Jackson or Smith rivers, what the smallmouth bass are taking on the James and New.
``I have a lot of flies for the Smith and Jackson,'' he said. ``I have a really wide selection. My initial order was like 1,100 dozen.''
Some are his own creations, the B.C.'s Crawfish an example. It is a pattern he designed to work the riffles of the James and New for bass. B.C., by the way, stands for Blane Chocklett.
He tells a visitor that a green drake pattern produced well for him during a recent evening on a section of Glade Creek where a new pay-fishing area has opened.
If you can't find the pattern you are seeking, Chocklett has a wall full of fly-tying materials. If you can't tie your own, he will sign you up for a fly-tying class.
``Really, I am here to help everybody,'' he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 64 linesby CNB