"But I Don't Have Enough Money!"

[DWFII]

Rocky,

My experience is just the opposite.

I used to teach flyfishing and flycasting through my local FlyFishers of America and the Community College. I would hand out pamphlets before the classes started detailing what kinds of rods and reels were of good, better and best quality. The list went from about $100.00 for a decent Fenwick starter kit (rod, reel and line) to close to $1000.00. But I had cast on all of them and knew that they all had the necessary dynamics ("action") to do the job.

I never did expect, or encounter anyone, who was an absolute greenhorn to came to the first day of class with the $1000.00 outfit but I had plenty who ignored my recommendations entirely (why take a class at all if you are going to do it your way in the first place?) and came to class with cheap fly/spin combos.

Now I can cast a fly rod...I can even cast a fly line without a fly rod...but I couldn't cast those fly/spin combos very well and the students not at all.

The upshot was that they couldn't learn to flycast or flyfish. And since they'd spent money both on the class and the equipment, they were frustrated. And inevitably they would drop out and never come back. Probably never try their hand at flyfishing, again, either.

Maybe you see the few who do come back after having bought a low priced kilt to buy a better quality kilt, because you offer that range. But how many who buy a low priced kilt never come back? I suspect that the numbers would be very revealing...simply because that's human nature.

It's also human nature to characterize those who have learned to cast a fly rod, or who do prefer traditional kilts, as "elitists"...or some variation. Sour grapes.