Shop Information: Hawaii's First Fly Shop

Nervous Water Fly Fishers closed on December 30 after 24 years in business. Mahalo to everyone who supported the shop.

History of the shop

Nervous Water Fly Fishers opened in October 1999 as Hawaii's first fly shop and became the local expert on fly fishing in Hawaii. For its first 16 years, the shop was a small "hole in the wall" at 3434 Waialae Avenue in Kaimuki, in east Honolulu, in the same building as a Chinese restaurant (see the old directions page). The shop later moved to a larger space on Center Street in Honolulu. You can read about the move in The New Shop.

What the shop carried

Nervous Water stocked quality fly fishing tackle from brands such as Sage, Simms, Tibor, G. Loomis, Hatch, Scientific Anglers, Renzetti, Rio, Abel, Beulah, Galvan, Echo and TFO. It had one of the biggest selections of tying materials in the Pacific, and it focused on locally tied flies for Hawaii's fresh and salt water. The shop also tied patterns for Christmas Island, many of them designed by Christmas Island guides and not sold anywhere else.

Many of those flies are still on the Hawaii Fly Page, with recipes and tying steps. For advice on tackle, seasons and rules today, read our Hawaii fly fishing guide.

The shop walls showed the lifelike fish mounts of Dennis Murawska. You can see more of his work at www.aa-taxidermy.com.