We get the full update today on Togans Fly Shop and how the new owner Brad Babbage became a fly shop owner almost overnight.

We find out how he went from flipping auto parts to the corporate life and then went all in on the fly shop.

We also discover what Togans is doing to set themselves apart and deliver to their ideal customer every time.

That's you. This is the Webfly Swing podcast where I show the best places to travel to for fly fishing, how to find the best resources and tools to prepare for that big trip and what you can do to give back to the fish species we all love. Hey, I'm Dave, host of the Wet Fly Swing podcast. I've been fly fishing since I was a little kid. I grew up around a fly shop and have created

one of the largest fly fishing podcasts in this country. I've also interviewed more of the greatest

fly anglers than just about anyone out there. Brad Babbage, head man at Togins fly shop,

shares a story of how he purchased Togans and in one weekend made the long trek up to British

Columbia and back to Colorado with over 10,000 skews and all

completed in a long weekend. We get that story today. Plus, we're going to hear about the history

and how the shop passed from Canada and now has made its way to Colorado and how this is surprised

a few customers along the way. Plus, you're going to get a little bit of car talk. We love car talk. You're going to hear about Brad's passion for BMWs. We dig into that today. All right, Togans Fly Shop, the full story uncovered today. Here we go. Brad Babbage from Togansflyshop.com. How you doing, Brad? Good. Hey, Dave. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, thanks for doing

this today. We've been talking about this for a little while. There's been a big transition.

It's pretty cool. Togans was, for a period, was up in Canada, and I worked with Justin there,

and you and your partner recently purchased Togans and moved the operation to Colorado. I think there was already a lot of U.S.-based commerce going on with Togans before. But we're going to talk about that today, how you came to own Togans fly shop, and we're getting into all that. But before we get there, take us back to fly fishing. What's, you know, how'd you get into it?

What's your first memory? Have you been doing it a while or are you kind of newer to it? Yeah, sure. Wow. Okay. So, you know, my start in fly fishing, well, I guess take it back all the way. You know, I started fishing when I was like three years old. I mean, you know, the little like click button tiny fiberglass fishing pole standing off the end of my parents' dock as early as I could basically do it on my own.

And somewhere around the age of maybe nine or ten, my dad actually got an antique fly rod from like a garage sale or something like that. And I saw him,

you know, trying to figure it out and take a crack at it. And so naturally I got an interest in that

and wanted to start messing around with it myself. So I actually ended up with like one of those

all in one kits that comes to the rod, the reel the line, everything comes

of like a box of like really awful factory-tied, dry flies generic, you know, little woolly

buggers or whatever. And I think it was from Walmart. You know, the thing had to have been

the equivalent of a nine or ten-weight rod, three-quarters of an inch thick and diameter, like, you know, stiff as a rock. But, you know, and I would take that thing out of my parents' lake and just flick dry flies around for panfish, a little bluegills and crappies. This was in northern Wisconsin. Oh, okay. And I did that for a while, but to be honest, most of my life growing up, I was in the Midwest,

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