Two weeks on the East Coast have come to an end today as my wife Granny and I head back for Idaho. We have been back east combining work with pleasure. I was hired by the Fly Fishing Show as a guest speaker for both the Marlboro, MA show and the Somerset, NJ show. Both shows were on Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the last two weekends. Rather than fly all the way back to ID between them, we visited family and friends on the off days.
The January 18th report gave a rundown for the Marlboro Show, now here is the report for Somerset. It’s quite simple to describe – unbelievable! If this show isn’t the largest “fly fishing only” show in the world I’d love to see the one that is. The layout of the show was fantastic. Most manufacturers were there including fly rod, reel and line companies. In addition there were numerous lodges, travel services, fly shops and artists. At all times, more than five seminar rooms offered anything from fly fishing in Belize to striped bass fishing, a casting pond offered constant instruction and fly tiers demonstrated continuously. Lefty Kreh, Dave Whitlock and AK Best were just a few of the many pros giving presentations.
Best of all, the show was extremely well attended. The isles were full from Friday morning opener all the way to the kick off of the Jets vs. Colts playoff football game late Sunday afternoon. Literally thousands of folks came and enjoyed the programs and visited the numerous booths. I personally had a great show as well. Like last week in MA, I gave the talks “Warmwater Fly Fishing” and “Trout Bumming the World”. Both shows were well attended but again to my delight, the room was full for the warm water talk. At last, fly fishers seem eager to take advantage of the fish species that are closest to home.
In addition to speaking at the show, I was there to promote my artwork. I was given some space in with the celebrity fly tiers where I painted between my presentations. Interest in my work seemed excellent and hopefully in following months, anglers will commission me to paint their special catches or favorite pet. Best of all I met a lot of neat folks that love to fly fish as much as I. Many told of the great striper fishing in the NJ area while others wanted to hear from me about some distant water or how to catch a carp on a fly.
At this moment Granny and I are on a flight from Detroit to Salt Lake City. We are on the last flight into Jackson Hole tonight. It’s been two weeks since we left so we’re expecting we’ll need to dig out the car from the airport and an even worse, dig in to the driveway in Victor. However, no matter how hard it is these last two weeks were great.
The January 18th report gave a rundown for the Marlboro Show, now here is the report for Somerset. It’s quite simple to describe – unbelievable! If this show isn’t the largest “fly fishing only” show in the world I’d love to see the one that is. The layout of the show was fantastic. Most manufacturers were there including fly rod, reel and line companies. In addition there were numerous lodges, travel services, fly shops and artists. At all times, more than five seminar rooms offered anything from fly fishing in Belize to striped bass fishing, a casting pond offered constant instruction and fly tiers demonstrated continuously. Lefty Kreh, Dave Whitlock and AK Best were just a few of the many pros giving presentations.
Best of all, the show was extremely well attended. The isles were full from Friday morning opener all the way to the kick off of the Jets vs. Colts playoff football game late Sunday afternoon. Literally thousands of folks came and enjoyed the programs and visited the numerous booths. I personally had a great show as well. Like last week in MA, I gave the talks “Warmwater Fly Fishing” and “Trout Bumming the World”. Both shows were well attended but again to my delight, the room was full for the warm water talk. At last, fly fishers seem eager to take advantage of the fish species that are closest to home.
In addition to speaking at the show, I was there to promote my artwork. I was given some space in with the celebrity fly tiers where I painted between my presentations. Interest in my work seemed excellent and hopefully in following months, anglers will commission me to paint their special catches or favorite pet. Best of all I met a lot of neat folks that love to fly fish as much as I. Many told of the great striper fishing in the NJ area while others wanted to hear from me about some distant water or how to catch a carp on a fly.
At this moment Granny and I are on a flight from Detroit to Salt Lake City. We are on the last flight into Jackson Hole tonight. It’s been two weeks since we left so we’re expecting we’ll need to dig out the car from the airport and an even worse, dig in to the driveway in Victor. However, no matter how hard it is these last two weeks were great.
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