Harvey Cohen and the Fly Fishing Show Room

If you haven’t bumped into the flyfishingshowroom.com yet then I guess its time, especially where many of you have been sipping coffee out of my colorful 15 Oz fish mugs every morning for years.  This new web store has added my fish to numerous great products.  You’ll find unique items anglers love from beer steins and travel mugs to beverage insulators and frosted mugs.  They also have things to suit the non angler too like Christmas ornaments and towels to cutting boards and trivets, every creation decorated with my fish art of your choice.  And if there’s a particular fish species you want and they don’t offer it, make that species a special order.  With a little time, I can paint any fish you request. 

The flyfishingshowroom.com was recently started by my friend Harvey Cohen.  Harvey lives in Alpine, Wyoming and like many of us, his passion is fly fishing.  I met Harvey through his son Adam.  Adam worked for me in the fly shop.  Like many of my employees he started as a sales clerk, then became a fly fishing instructor and finally on to be one of my top fishing guides.  Best of all he became one of my best friends, however because Adam is about ten years younger than I, he was more like a younger brother.  I can say that because I took him fishing at places I don’t take some of my closest friends!

In 1996 Adam was guiding for a friend of mine in Argentina.  I spent a month in Patagonia that winter and made a week long visit with Adam.  Something was wrong.  This young full of life best friend of mine didn’t have the energy to walk three miles up the Malleo River.  It wasn’t just one outing; every day we fished he struggled.  Adam was falling in love with a fantastic Argentine gal at the time so I hoped that’s all it was.  It wasn’t, Adam was battling the onset of cancer. 

I watched Adam fight for his life over the next three years like you can’t imagine.  He was as courageous as ever.  And despite making an amazing recovery to where he guided for me again, the cancer returned and took his life at age 26. 

Many of us have been through similar situations with family or friends.  This was my first and the experience changed me forever.  Adam is the reason I live the way I do – like every day is my last.

I got to know Adams family well and we’ve kept close.  Harvey knows I’m even more of a fishing bum than I used to be because of Adam.  But when Harvey tried to get some of my coffee mugs and found out I had been out of them for months because I was too busy fishing, he was ticked,  “If you have a product that people want and it makes you money – you can’t be out!”, he barked over the phone at me last winter.  That was it.  A week later Harvey generously volunteered to help me out.  And in a matter of months he’s taken “Currier Art” to a whole new level with the flyfishingshowroom.com.

Today Harvey and I did some fishing together.  I’m trying to build up photo stock of rising trout so Harvey took me to private pond he has access too.  We assumed the huge trout would graciously accept my offerings of live grasshoppers, but they have been fished too so much with artificial grasshoppers that they wouldn’t even consider eating a real one.  These are some finicky trout!

After a few lousy photos, I floated Harvey on the South Fork of the Snake from Husky to the Spring Creek Bridge.  I know this stretch like the back of my hand but wouldn’t you know, today was the slowest day of fishing I’ve ever seen.  Harvey has fished enough to know that’s fishing.  We had a great time together and polished off some enormous burgers with cold beers on the banks of the river during sunset.  No complaints. 

Be sure to check in with Harvey and the flyfishingshowroom.com.  He’s just getting started and would love to connect with my friends.  I’ll guarantee there’s something there you can’t live without.  As for me it’s back to work.  I’ve been putting together my winter speaking schedule and I can tell you I’ll be busier than ever in 2013.  If you’re looking for a speaker for your club or fly fishing show than contact me quick because this angler will be working more than ever.

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing