Thursday, January 28, 2010

Worlds Largest Fly Fishing Show Hits Jersey

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.

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing Web Site

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Warmwater Fly Fishing Peaks Interest in New England

My first show of the 2010 season is under the belt. This was the three day Fly Fishing Show held in Marlboro, Massachusetts. My purpose of being there was to present my PowerPoint’s “Warmwater Fly Fishing” and “Trout Bumming the World” as well as meet many of the folks attending and promote my books, art and even talk about upcoming trips I will host. Not having been to this show in over ten years, I really had nothing to compare it to; however, my feelings are that it was quite good.

I presented my Warmwater program at prime time on Saturday. Turnout for it was excellent and when finished the questions and interactions showed strong interest on the subject. It was six years ago that I released my book “
Currier’s Quick and Easy Guide to Warmwater Fly Fishing”. Like most books, immediately after its release sales were excellent, but once the elite group of warmwater fishers got their copies, sales slowed. Warmwater fly fishing offers far more opportunities for folks to get on the water because it’s close to home for nearly everyone. I hate nothing more than to hear fly fishers complain that they have no fishing where they are from. Usually these are folks that have a bass pond down the street or tailing carp at their city pond, but stubbornly they only fish for trout. In recent years, my warmwater book sales are back on the rise, meaning anglers are finally enjoying the many great warmwater species close to home. The attendance at the program further proves this good news.

Presently, my wife Granny and I are visiting the family in New Hampshire where we will spend the next three days. On Thursday we will make the six hour drive to New Jersey to do it all again at the Somerset Fly Fishing Show. Hope to see some of you there!

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing Web Site

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

It's Show Time

I really didn’t know what to expect of self employment. Deep inside I wondered if I might be hitting the pavement looking for a job before spring. But to my delight, I am extremely busy and keeping my head above water. It’s not solely the art, lecturing or the hosting of trips, but literally all aspects of the business are kicking in.

I knew there was plenty of artwork to be done before the first of the year. Even before the end of my career at the fly shop, I planned to restock the
Wyoming Gallery of Jackson Hole. A gallery attached to the Jack Dennis Fly Shop, they have represented my watercolors for several years. It had been awhile since I last delivered new work. I also took on a daunting art project with a website soon to be released. They purchased licensing rights to nearly all fish species that I display on my website. Soon after providing them, they requested another 29 species that I have never painted in my life. And you can bet on it, I took the order and have been plugging
away at it every chance I get. In fact, watch the art section of my website as these many new species get posted.

With all this going on came the chaos of Christmas. I always get a few commission orders this time of year. I already had several orders on the books. Just as I got these orders done and a mere two weeks before the gift giving holiday, some last minute orders rolled in. I thought that after retiring from the fly shop, which consumed my time, I’d never need to do an all-nighter again, but boy was I wrong. From December 10 - 24 I was pleasantly surprised to be painting all hours of the day. Selling more art than expected was the best Christmas present I could ever have!

Amongst all this, I was organizing and filling slots on a trip I’m hosting to the Amazon in March. You can’t imagine how much emailing it takes to organize such a trip for eight people and then in turn actually book the people. Fortunately, I got it together and as of last week filled the final two spots. If you have never fished in Brazil for peacock bass, I highly recommend you contact me to reserve a spot for 2011. In addition to this, expect to see an opportunity to join me in Egypt, India and or a few surprise destinations between now and 2011.

Today I am heading east to speak and promote my art at the
Fly Fishing Shows at both Marlborough, Massachusetts and Somerset, New Jersey. In fact, this is the beginning of an eight week tour of travelling from show to show that doesn’t end until the end of February. It should be great fun and give me the opportunity to meet up with old friends and make plenty of new ones. To see exactly where I will be going the next two months, visit the schedule on my website to see if you can catch up with me.


Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing Web Site