I had a great Fly Show....as did just about everyone I talked with. If you work it it can be a long and tiring weekend. I remember putting together and breaking down The Fly Hatch booth....that was a ton of work. But it always good when the weather is good and there's no Super Bowl on that weekend.
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| Fly Show Somerset, 2000 - The Fly Hatch booth |
The big thing for me was testing for the FFF Casting Instructor certification. The cert includes three parts, a class, a written test and a performance test. In short, I passed the class, passed the written, but spit the bit on the performance part. I had great evaluators and I just came up short. I choked when it came to the instruction portion of the exam, which isn't usually like me. I can re-test within 1 year and look to sharpen up a bit and meet the standard and pass.
Outside of the testing on Friday and Saturday I spent most of my time at the Jersey Shore TU booth where we were selling raffles. We are offering three prizes one being a charter trip for 2 with Captain Jason Dapra of Blitzbound Guide Service. Most folks that took a chance want the trip with Jason, who's a great skipper and fly fisherman.
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| Joe and Jim at the JSTU booth |
The floor of the show looked great and I enjoyed as always watching Lefty for a while and seeing old and meeting new friends. I was even able to meet my best friends in the world for the first time face to face, well they're not really my friends but Facebook friends!, and that was fun. I stayed over Friday night and Jim and I had a good time meeting up with some friends of friends and then doing a bar hop between the hotels.
For me though, this show was all about the fly tyers. For the first time I was really into watching them on fly row and taking in a few lectures. John Collin's assortment of Sculpin flies tied with the Fish Skull heads are great and Joe Calcavecchia's Striper Dragons looked like they push a bunch of water while on
the continuous move so I purchased them in each color. I really enjoyed watching and sitting in on Bob Popovics. By chance I stopped into a class after getting out of a great as always Jim Freda of Shore Catch Guide Service Fall Blitz lecture. Bob was talking about how he maps out his flies on paper by filling in what he is trying to tie. He draws a bunker, and then figures out on how to fill it in from hook to head.
I also sat in on his Bucktail Deceiver class, again being able to watch him layering the bucktail to make big Deceivers was great. That will come in handy while I'm tying big bunker flies for the spring. On the last day I sat in on Bob Clouser's class on tying the Clouser Minnow and Half and Half. It was great to watch and hear Bob explain how to tie probably my most used and go to fly.
And finally, if you were at booth you must have met Frenchman Rene Gregoire as he made his way around giving out samples of the next great invention in fly fishing. The problem is, no one I saw could understand him or figure out what he had handed out. I got home and still don't. I think it's a way to fly fish without using a rod. Similar to fishing with a soda can. Here it is...what the f@%k is he talking about?
On a side note, on Saturday I covered the Friends of the Upper Delaware (FUDR) booth as Lee, Sheri and Dan went and gave a lecture. I proceeded to goad my fellow JSTU buddy Jim in buying a few chances for a 10 ft 5 wt Helios that Joe D donated on Orvis' behalf. Well, Jim won. That's a nice win. I was really gunning to win the Atlantic Saltwater's fly assortment of 250 saltwater flies, and, I didn't. Then I went and watched the Bayshore Flyrodder's draw for their 250 flies, and, I didn't win. And then, I stopped at the Coastal Flyrodder's as they drew their ticket and, my fellow JSTU buddy Bill won it! I gladly offered to take them home for him and....since Bill doesn't fly fish in the salt much (yet!)...he gave them to me. That's over 150 saltwater flies. WOW! Thanks Bill. I'll be putting some of them to good use tonight-it's time to get back on the rocks!