River City Fly Shop

Been going to this Flyshop since it opened quite a few years ago. Great place, good people, and great prices.
Don’s selection of materials, hooks, flies, and more are outstanding. There’s always something great you’ll find here for flyfishing or fly tying that is wallet friendly.
If ya don’t see it, simply ask.
Thanks Don!

A great selection of fly fishing gear and fly tying materials. This is the place to go. Everyone in the shop has vast knowledge and will help you any way they can. My favorite place to get all my fly tying materials. No shop in the area can compare.

Excellent selection of hardware for tying and flying. Lots of flies in an extremely wide variety, and about 75 rods at the time of my visit. Ralph behind the counter was very helpful and allowed me to browse without interruption. I would recommend this shop to any experienced flyer.

Sure wish I could go back there, but agree with most of the customer service comments, unfortunately. In addition, I’ve had a variety of flies fall apart just tying them on the tippet! I have a small container of flies which maybe one day I’ll take back just to see if they’ll do anything about them. But I can’t be the only one that’s hacked off about hackles falling off.

I honestly don’t know what the bad reviews are about. I like this place. It may be a tad disorganized and I sometimes have trouble finding what I need, but the service is good by my standards. The owner has always been willing to help me find what I need, and sometimes when I buy a lot of stuff he throws in a couple extra flies or so for free. For those people complaining about the gruff service, this is just the way these guys talk and if you want to be treated like a greek god or godess, stay at the grand hyatt. In conclusion, a great place to buy fly fishing gear!

This is the best fly fishing/​fly tying shop in Portland.

I was hoping for more from this shop given the generally good reputation River City seems to have around town. Most everyone talks about how great Don is. I don’t know who Don is but I hope he wasn’t the person working when I dropped in the other day.
My experience at River City was similar to many I’ve had in fly shops around the country: couple of guys hanging around, usually sitting on a sofa or around a tying table, the regulars indistinguishable from the shop employees, carrying on some conversation that is too important to be interrupted by the arrival of a new customer. No greeting, no acknowledgement whatsover. Eventually I interrupt them to ask a question, get pointed to some far corner, and the private converstation continues. This is pretty much what happened at River City the other day. The shop employee was distant, uninterested, and uninformed.
The reasons to patronize fly shops are dwindling: unlimited selection and availability, better pricing, product reviews, great customer service, great return policies, and yes, even good and reliable information, can all be had online. If fly shops like River City don’t figure out a way to add value, starting with making a customer feel welcome when they walk in the door, then they have no future.
I can’t imagine why I’d visit River City Fly Shop again.

I’ve been there twice to buy gifts for my son and my husband. Both times I was treated very nicely, and no one made fun of me for knowing nothing about fishing. I’m planning to go back again.

This place doesn’t even deserve the dirt it was built on. I have been here a total of three times. The first time was to go in and get my dad some flys for fishing in alaska. The first time was a wonderful experience from the owner. He helped me pick out some really special flies for my father for fathers day. HOWEVER…
The guy that watches this place when the owner is out of town is the worst version Jack Lemmon from grumpy old men. My dad came to visit me and wanted to check out the fly shop I had gotten his flies from. We go in and the guy is sitting at their fly shop table (which couples as a knitting table for dudes during normal business hours) and doesn’t even look up when we come in. My dad LOVES to fish-​especially for salmon-​so he tried to talk to the guy about some fishing around town. The guy wants nothing to do with it and wont give my dad anything but one word answers and still wont look up from some riveting fish magazine. So my dad gives up and looks around the store with me. Eventually my dad picks out an abundance of flies and I have found a couple beautiful ostrich feathers to take home. When we get to the counter the guy looks at me and goes «those are pretty expensive. and we don’t get them in very often, are you sure you want that?» Of course it was like $ 8 each. The guy did not want to sell them to us and copped a huge attitude for MAKING A SALE? are you serious? So we go home and my dad comments on how rude the guy was.
Well today I go in after getting some hair feathers put in thinking that maybe the owner would be in and it wouldn’t be so bad. Little did I know the knitting circle was there, including their righteous leader the owner. They seemed nice when i came in. As soon as I started to look at the feathers these guys start talking so much trash and laughing about me. Such as «why don’t we charge her twice as much. that’s what ‘so and so are doing at the other shops» and «its just a fad it will be over soon» and «don’t they get mites in their hair from those? i hope they wash them» and the best and last straw before i left was «i bet soon enough they will just go out and take a bird and chop!». SO RUDE! they just wouldn’t quit. even after one of the guys goes «well business is business». These D-​Bags do not care about their customers and treat us like crap. And I told them before I left «have a nice day you just lost business permanently». Little did they know i go there other than to get mites in my hair. These men are immature and rude. I don’t know how anyone can run a business like this.