Well today was it. Sold some raffles for TU, went to some lectures and bought some dubbing and hooks. I attended Matt Grobert's NJ and PA Hatches class and went again to hear Joe DeMarkis speak about the Lehigh River where he runs most of his North East Drift Boat Guide School. But for me the best was Capt. Rat Stachelek from Rhode Island speak about catching large stripers- over 25 pounds on a fly rod- in the spring, summer and fall- on bright sunny days, on flat water, with no blitzes or birds overhead. It was packed with information and proof that a fly fisherman can catch huge stripers. It was all boat fishing close enough to see the shore using sinking lines, and big flies. I did pop in to a presentation on the Cascapedia River in Quebec, always looking for interesting places to go and photograph for the magazines.
So all in all, a good weekend where I felt I learned a lot, met some great people, and made some connections. My highlights were Aaron Jasper's lecture, speaking with the guys from Restigouche, meeting Eric Stroup and passing on my kudos on his new book, and learning about the drift boat school. John Dembeck always gives a great lecture on the Delaware ( NYDEC # 0189 WOW! ). I did forget but today Ian Bechtel from the Delaware River Club gave a great presentation on the Upper Delaware from spring through the fall. Lefty- what can I say. I can't believe how light the new Sage reels are. I was able to get information from Project Healing Waters from fellow TU member Bob Cowen who gave me the schedule for fly casting, tying, and fishing outings they run in our area. Now I can go through the 500 pamphlets and brochures that I have and try and decifer the notes and codes and contact information I got over these three days. Hopefully this show will help me get through the next few weeks until I travel to the Salmon River for some steelhead.