Beautiful days can really put a damper on a trade shows attendance, especially if people have been battling cabin fever for months coupled with the recent Daylight Savings Time change. But that said the Long Island Fly Fishing Expo went off without a hitch and had, to my estimation, a good amount of attendees. As with all shows the first push of humanity is usually the largest.
I left the house around 5 am and arrived a little after 7. I was lucky to just have a vice and materials to set up and that gave me a chance to say hello to some people and browse the floor before the gates opened up. Last year I scored at the Idywilde booth and did a repeat performance this year. A year ago it
was a Rod Mounts (interior) fly rod rack for my Jeep and a few big bags of marabou. This year I got a book by Jersey boy Mark Sosin and an interesting fly material holder set called Fly Hive. These are large velcro tipped heavy plastic storage bags which are great for bucktails and saddles. They came out in 2005 and a set was 8 large bags, two smaller ones, and a carrying case for $99.95. I scored 10 bags for $10. I also found a fly dryer/display (BELOW) that had an asking price of $5...SOLD.
I was lucky enough to share the Squimpish Flies table with Uptown Dave. Dave is a well known tier and had a steady stream of fans and buyers for his various flies. We had lots of stop, look, and ask
people and we hopefully were able to answer their questions and send them in the right direction which was either to a vendor at the show carrying the Squimpish line or over to their website. My trying-to-match-a-Spook fly had lots of pick-ups and put-downs. But the best put-down, literally, came late in the
day when an older salty looking fellow came over, picked it up, and said, "What the f%$k are you going to throw that with a 17 weight?". He put it down and walked away before I could give any kind of explanation. It was a mic drop moment. That's exactly how it went down, just ask Dave. It was that funny.
The show, to me, was exactly like it was last year, which was great. There may have been a few more presentations and I popped into a few. I saw Joe "Era's Tour" Cordiero teaching his Flatwing pattern.
Joe left home in January before the Somerset show and hasn't been home since. He's been all the way south down to Florida and back. His patterns, materials, and book have been received well. I also got to see author John Fields talk on his 50 Top Flies For Trophy Striped Bass. Fields has a book coming out in June called Fly Fishing For Trophy Striped Bass. He's very excited, and so am I as I have a picture
in there somewhere. He said the book went to print yesterday and it's all set to come in on time. If you like you can pre-order that book on Amazon, HERE. Joe "Galapagos" Calcevechia was in the house and
I got to hear all about striped marlin on the fly. Joe is in the process of hosting trips to the Galapagos and possibly Kenya to fish for hundreds of pound fish with sails. He will be booking for next year in the upcoming months. At one point he was catching up with Enrico and I jumped behind his vice to
dissect his big fly, which I'm not sure what he has named. But if you aren't going to tie a big fly and need one just in case I recommend looking up his store at Saltwater Custom Flies and ordering one, just one will do, as long as the big bluefish don't make a showing while you're in the middle of your cast.
Brad satiated anyone's need for bucktail and I watched as the below happy camper just kept flipping through the bins and handing them to his wife. Brad even had black bucktails, but not homegrown black, but they were fine if you found them. I was able to get some Ahrex hooks from him as well as
a Keogh saddle hackle in blue that he had on consignment. I used that on some herring flies I tied today. John Papciak had a nice photo booth going and of course I couldn't help but stop and say hello to Jim
Levinson and see his fantastic Montauk/striped bass images. I just have to get one. I said last year I was going to seal the deal, even if I had to make payments, but I never did. I have my eye on the "Five Horsemen", 6/250. It's mine..one day.
Mark Sedotti had a table with his "Sedotti Slammers" for sale. He did a casting presentation and I spaced out and missed it. From what I heard he casted a 17 inch fly with a 5 weight rod...148 feet.
Besides my Fly Hive finds, the favorite part of my day was watching the three young lads (above) tying up a storm and offering them for sale. Evan, Jackson, and Luke were just cool kids and it was nice to see some young life in the ballroom. Evan had tied up some, I think they're called Flexo Crab Flies,
and I bought two to use up in Martha's Vineyard sight fishing for striped bass, hopefully, this June. The ride home through he Bronx to the GWB was a mess and I think the St. Patrick's Day parade traffic may have had something to do with it. While in traffic my ADHD wouldn't allow me to sit still so I tried out
the Fly Hive's with some saddles I had. I think they'll work perfect as I always find my fly tying room a mess and me never able to find what I need at that moment. On the way home I stopped at two spots just because it was so nice out even though Mother Nature had the fan turned on high. My mummichog
Pop lip fly is more of a diver than a swimmer and that's because I have no curve in the silicone lip out front. There was no one home there or at the stop I made closer to home. There are no more shows,
meetings, or presentations left in this late winter and early spring so now it's just time to fish....hard.