Pleasanton Fly Fishing Show

For me the show season comes to an end for winter 2010. Other than a club meeting talk I’ll give in Tennessee next month, the Pleasanton Fly Fishing Show was my last gig of the regular season. It’s been an action packed seven weeks of hard work and great fun, however now I will gladly take a deep breath and get ready for some hardcore fishing.

The Pleasanton, California Fly Fishing Show took place Friday, Saturday and Sunday this past weekend. It did not disappoint. In fact, it was one of the best shows I’ve ever been to. The show opened its gates to a long line of enthusiastic anglers at 10 am Friday morning. Usually you expect a light crowd of retired folks on a Friday, but this was not the case. Anglers from throughout California took the day off and were eager to hear about fishing trips, enjoy the many presentations and meet the various vendors and celebrities.

I gave presentations twice each day. I presented PowerPoint shows, “Four Seasons of the Yellowstone Trout Bum”, “Warmwater Fly Fishing” and “Trout Bumming the World” at the Release Theater. Then during the afternoons I gave casting demonstrations on the indoor casting pond. I had a ball and met a lot of great people. My highlight of the weekend was catching up with old friends such as Ken Holder, Derek Mitchell, Ben Byng, Steve Potter and many others. In particular, I hung out with Phil Rowley of Canada. As you may remember, Phil and I worked together in Boise two weeks ago. Throughout the three days Phil took on several friendly bets on Sundays Gold Medal hockey game, luckily friendly bets is all they were for we all know the final outcome. You can only imagine the drama around my art table as we read the play by play on Phil’s cell phone. Fun stuff and my congrats go to the Canadians.

Another friend whom I rarely get to see was Gary Borger. As most of you know, Gary has been teaching the skills of fly fishing for decades. Although I have been doing presentations at shows and clubs for years, I always pay great attention to the true masters of our sport when they teach. I made sure to enjoy one if his great casting demonstrations at the outside pond on Sunday. Gary and I spent some time catching up and I listened carefully as he provided me a few tips to help me with my new career. We all can keep track of Gary because like many anglers, he too recently started blogging. Check out what he’s up to at http://www.garyborger.com/.

At last, my fishing travel begins. Although flying home from the show as we speak, Wednesday morning Granny and I will head for the Amazon where we will meet up with my group of peacock bass anglers. The long awaited trip that I am hosting begins in Manaus, Brazil on Thursday. We plan to rest up on the banks of the Rio Negro then head into the jungle on Saturday morning. Water levels are near perfect and when we return on March 15th we should have some great fishing to report. Don’t miss it!

Global Fly Fishing web site

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

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