It's been a while since I paused from the chaos of all the moves to throw up something about fly fishing. One thing I now see it that it took six months for us to work our plan for all of our moves and now it's going to take six months to unpack and settle in. I'm not complaining by any means but we have stuff all over the place that needs to be found, unpacked, edited down yet again, and then put where it belongs. We closed on our new Cape May place last Saturday and spent the week with the fam at Congress Hall. It was a great time but now it's time to start our new normal lives.
While we're up here our contractors are starting to trickle in to our home in South Carolina to get work done before we move in down there. Right now all of our belongings are baking in the garage and after the floors, countertops, paint and electrical work is done we can unload and set up shop. Working remotely with the craftsman isn't easy from a distance and most of it is done by text and email.
We'll be back here in New Jersey for about month and part of that time will include heading back up to our neighbors houses to grab those last minute items we stored on their porches and in their basements and garages. And during the second week of August it'll be a trip up to the ADK's to visit my sister and her family. And then then by the August 22nd we should be back in South Carolina.
So what about the fly fishing Colin? Okay, here it is. Before I left South Carolina I went online at Drew Chicone's Salty Fly Tying website and ordered his two books on tying redfish flies. While there are a plethora on on-line resources for tying buggy and crabby flies for the Lowcountry
Chicone offers a great two-book starter kit for anglers new to the redfish scene. While I'm 750 miles from my vice and materials having the books up here will give me a chance to mentally prepare and get psyched for this new fishery I'm about to be a part of.
And as I caught up on the hundreds of emails in my Inbox I saw one from Chuck Furminsky. Just when I hoped it was a message letting the fly fishing world that the International Fly Tying Symposium (IFTS) was no more it was the announcement that it will be moved to Lancaster, Pa, for a two-day run November 21-22, 2026.
You know I write all things good, bad and ugly here and I've been hard and The Fly Fishing and IFTS Shows over the years. Truth is these shows aren't what they used to be. Venue changes, the internet, the aging out of the Legends of the Game, and the risk vs cost game for the vendors and fly tyers are all reasons these shows have, well, gone down hill. What used to be a no-miss and even fly-in three day event have become a few hour visit only if you're within a few hour drive of the venue. don't get me wrong, there's still money, are electronic transactions, being made, but it's all not the same. Both shows, in my opinion, haven't changed enough with the people and times and they are suffering for it.
My interest in both shows is all about the saltwater game. Early on, in the early 1990's I was all about trout and then the Catskills, and then that changed over to striped bass and the East Coast fishery. Having an International Fly Tying Symposium in the middle of Amish Country may morph, and maybe save, this show from ending its 35 year long run, but I doubt it.
While I hear, because I've never been, Lancaster is a great venue, and Chuck's favorite, what kind of numbers will that area pull? If you aren't getting it done when the show is in Edison and 35 miles from Manhattan how will it go being 165 miles away. Yes Philly is closer, and you have that whole Pa limestone trout crowd, and some Susky smallmouth folks, but without that salty NewYork/ New England presence I think the show will be small in content and in attendance. Again, for vendors and the bigger manufacturers, it's a game of financial risk vs gain.
Add to that the tyers from overseas who take long flights, well they used to, to get here. There's a big difference between catching an affordable flight from Sweden to Newark, JFK, and LaGuardia then Lancaster or Harrisburg International Airports. It was always an International show, but last year it was more Inter-state.
And then there's The Fly Fishing Show. No doubt I'll be taking a pass from the show in Edison and hitting up my "local" show, which is in Athens, Georgia held during my 59th birthday weekend January 9-10, 2027. It'll be a quick 223 mile drive, that's five hours away, I just hope it's worth it. What's interesting, yet again, is this years change of not starting the run in Marlborough, Ma. Now some vendors and tyers will have to head south, then north, and then south again. It's a circuit and hopefully the powers that be looked into who has held the show down for years, like where they're coming from, how many shows they do, and made the new adjustments accordingly. Otherwise it'll be Tim Commissa, I still don't know who he is, and more gutter guards, chiropractors, and local pickle people filling the aisles with kids and amateurs sitting at the fly tying tables around the perimeter.