Show season has begun! I apologize for the lag since my last post, but for the next two weeks blog entries could be few and far between. I’m in the heat of the moment right now doing seminars, entertaining, painting, and promoting my art. Although it appears as if all I do is fish, every year at this time I work like a mad man for three straight months (Actually I’ll sneak to Baja for the first week of February to chase Pacific snook!).
I’m just back from the Denver Fly Fishing Show. The show was fantastic but now I’m beat as heck. Rather than fly to Denver like I normally do, I drove so I could bring more stuff. I left for the 10 hour drive early Thursday morning and arrived in Denver at about 6 PM. The next day came fast and soon I was setting up my table to display all my stuff ranging from my coffee mugs, books, Simms T-shirts, Gi-clees and even some of my original artwork.
The show ran Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Each day I gave presentations. On Friday I presented “Four Seasons of the Yellowstone Trout Bum” to over 170 people. On Saturday I spoke on Saltwater Fly Fishing and on Sunday I did a fly casting demonstration. The show aisles were packed on Friday and Saturday. I’ve been doing shows and speaking in Denver for nearly 20 years so I know a lot of folks. It seemed like every time I looked up there was an old friend. On Sunday a significant snow storm ripped through Denver and it definitely lessened the traffic. Nonetheless, it still was busy enough to make the day worthwhile.
The show ended at 4:30 PM and by 5 I was doing 35 mph on an ice covered I-25 heading for home. It was the road conditions of nightmares but I had to get home to repack and get ready to fly east for the Marlborough Fly Fishing Show that starts Friday. Luckily by the time I got to Laramie, Wyoming and I-80 heading west the roads were good. I pulled in my driveway this morning at 4:25 AM absolutely exhausted.
The show was a great one. People showed a lot of interest in my art and I had a blast doing my presentations. I also had lots of fun during and after the show hours with my friends. I have a lot of pals down the Denver area that I don’t see enough of. One of my personal highlights was spending some time with Dave Whitlock. Dave told me about his recent trip to Bolivia for golden dorado and I shared my recent adventure to Africa for tigerfish. Dave also spent about a half hour giving me one of the finest autographs in my Guide to Aquatic Trout Foods book that anyone could ever ask for.
I have a busy week ahead with travel east, fine-tuning presentations and some art projects. I doubt I’ll be able to blog again until early next week after the Marlborough, Massachusetts show. There’s good news as far as fishing goes however, I’ll be headed to Baja to chase snook and other cool species the first week of February. This means we’ll have some exciting blogs to look forward too in less than a month!
Jeff great show this weekend in Denver and it was good to catch up with you to talk about your travels. Nice presentations as usual and always good to hear more tips on Saltwater fishing from you! I'll let you know how we do in Costa Rica chasing Sailfish.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the sails. If they are in you should catch a bunch. Do your push-ups!
ReplyDeleteJeff