I also went on Friday to avoid the crowds. It was the same as last year, but it was nice to get around and see everyone again. The best part about those are the seminars and presentations. They just need a bigger venue. I'll bet the crowds suck this weekend. I was hoping to try the T&T or Loomis 15 foot heavy weight. Even brought a shooting head, but I took one look at the kiddy wading pool and new that wasn't happening. I would have had to keep my back cast over the vendors to the rear and would have gone through the wall toward the 520 interchange. Not really sure how Simon is going to do a demo in there. I did get a line for my 9 wt RPLXi at a low enough price that with parking and entrance fees, I still saved money. I always enjoy the show and always try to make an appearance.
Went there this morning and I thought it was alright. Not to many people first off but about 11:00 they started coming and it was getting crowded so I left. I wasn't to impressed with it. Seen some nice stuff but ddn't want to part with my allowance. Besides $12.00 to get in and $10.00 for parking was just a little to much for this kid. Maybe I should of gone fishing,but the get together before the show was the high light of this event, Lets see Roper,SAK,flybill,flasher,bart,Ty and friend,Mac,Paladin,Crump,and three or four others. I'm not much on names unless I have met people three or four times.
Overall I found it to be an advertising campaign for guides. I sat thru many of the lectures and found that two stood out. One was from Jack at the evening hatch. He gives a very in depth report on the Yak the other was the owner of blackfoot guides out of missoula. He was very informative but also stirring up business. It did make me wish I lived over there for the summer.
My own highlight was a class on Saturday morning with AK Best. I took the class because I have read all his books and developed the opinion that "Hey, I like this guy". It was an enjoyable couple of hours and I learned a couple of tricks (exactly two). Plus I had a few questions about color fastness using Rit dye, which he is a proponent of.
I also talked to both Harry Lemire and John Olschewsky about suppliers of good tinsel. Good, as in, better than the usual stuff available in most shops and catalogs. Both of them had some flies with beautiful oval tinsel that looked solid as opposed to the segmented look of Lagartun. Unfortunately, Harry bought out a lifetime supply of old Herters tinsel from another aging tyer, so was not in touch with current suppliers but John provided some good clues.
The exhibitors were the usual bunch with very little of interest to me but I was able to get a good look at the Spring Creek prams. I walked out with an orange ostrich feather for butts and a back issue of the Yale Anglers Journal that was missing from my collection.
BOOTY}( ! i got there a little after 4pm fri and asked for a discount as the show was only open for a lil while longer, and the lady nicely replied that my best bet was to buy the 2day show ticket at 20$ , hmmm, i tried to get in for 6$ and she says 20 is my best bet. i gave her the gas face x( and said forget it! and then they put a doorman next to the entrance who basicly hawked me for the next 20 minutes as we exchanged snide smiles . guess he thought i was acctually gonna sneak in.:hmmm i didnt miss anything i really wanted to see except maybe Jack Mitchell's deal and the cascade fishing by Marc Williamson. oh well. no loss here. They are around , im around, i ll get my info by other means. i did want to catch up for breakfast with everyone but waking up at 1:30 this afternoon doesnt cut it! bhudda
First, it was great to see old friends...some I've not seen for months. I can't wait for Dry Falls.
Second, I was dissapointed there wasn't much on rodbuilding. Though there were some builders whose work I'd not seen yet.
Third, bought some nice fly boxes from a great guy from WY.
Overall, I should have looked into Alaska trips better, but I recall someone on the board offering to tutor on how to do AK. on the cheap.
I doubt I'll go next year...
I had my 2 year old who I dropped off at his "Aunt Bee's" house. I had been looking forward to this show for awhile...Don't get off Vashon Island too much these days. I had about an hour and I could have spent more time there. The vendors and guide circuit was as usual, the interest I have in these types of events is the information exchange...seeing guys who are amazing tyers, fisherman, etc. I generally just lurk, and don't engage. These shows are always flash and stylized but it is a very efficient way to gather alot of good information under one roof. I guess the thing that struck me as I left was that sometimes it seems that these shows are more about the flash then the fish...You know, the big trips, the big stories, the new thang, what ever. For me, and hell I don't know... is that it really doesn't matter if I go down to the beach on Vashon,to the Metolious, or to Chile, just getting out is what I like. Maybe that is why I don't dominate the sport? I agree with Roper, wish that there had been more fly rod building information.
Griswald
I thought the booths were okay, although most of the stuff there I had already seen or read about. I did think $12 was a little steep, and I can't imagine going more than once on the weekend. I did get to check out the Temple Fork Rods and saw a ton of tying stuff that was awesome.
The best part was hanging out around the tying tables. Picked up a few new tricks and just enjoyed watching the demonstrations. One of the guys gave me a beautiful shrimp pattern that would have taken me much longer to tie and got a good veiw and materials to tie a sand lance pattern from Chris West who run another local site. I would have liked to go to A.K. Best's class, but knew I wasn't going to be able to this year.
Only went to one session on fishing SW Montana, but the presentation was about the same as last year. Was going to go to Jack Mitchell's talk on the Yakima, didn't feel like waiting around for it to start.
It was great to meet up with everyone and am looking forward to Dry Falls or whatever else comes up before then.
It was hard for me to pass up this year's show but with money tight and with the new obligations to my family, I would have felt like a sixteen year old at a strip club if I attended. So I went out and fished instead and was fortunate enough caught my first winter fish this season. Needless to say, if the rivers were blown, I would probably have been at the show today or tomorrow.
I went on Saturday - mid day and there were a lot of people. I saw Jack's presentation on the Yakima and was very impressed. I mostly walked the show by myself and was amazed at how everyone seemed to be talking about the Yakima. I don't think I heard anyone mention some of the other great rivers around here.
Not many deals to be had, but it was a good oportunity to talk to some of the vendors about thier products. After 5+ years of flyfishing I'm just getting interested in tying. I was able to talk to several people about the art of tying and am excited to start.
I must admit that spending $12 to get in + $5 for parking is a drag, but overall I thought it was worth it. I wish I had more time to check out the presentations.
It would be nice if they were able to figure out a way to allow for a larger casting demo space. I was really excited to try out some nice rods, but the line was just too long - NEED MORE SPACE.
I took the bus $2.50. I noticed when I arrived there parking was $10.00 when I left it was $5.00. I certianly hope that the $12.00 will be used for a larger venue with more rod building,tackle,tools and more information on local rivers and lakes. I could care less about chile, argentina, new zealand or where in the heck is belize? I left this country once was lucky to get back alive won't leave it again.
that is true, but the money could help off set the cost of the booths which could allow someone who didn't want to pay a higher cost to rent one, along with encouraging other businesses or individuals to participate in the show.
I went on Sunday. Got a few eyes with my back cast trying out the Sage 11' 7Wt. I must say I am not used to that long of a rod:dunno
I got what I wanted out of the show. I got to cast every 10' 6wt on earth I think. TFO was nice, Elkhorne was a great price but not quite right. Sage, Scott, T&T good rods, very nice finishes and thread but way to much $$$. Loomis is a nicer rod than I remembered and St. Criox a little slow an not exactly what I was looking for. Echo cast like the higher price loomis and some of the Scott rods but for a lot less money. Ended up deciding to get an Echo. TFO didn't have a 10' 6wt. The 7 was nice but a seemed to have a little stiffer tip than the Echo 7 and no more power. Of course with the short fence it was hard to really find out. Anyway, Got interested in Echo's form prior posts on this site. Thanks for all the good information and ideas before heading out and about with the wolves.
I can't wait to see if I can actually make a cast to fish with it. Should be a very nice lake rod.
I also cast the multi tip air flow line. Interesting. Anyone have one and can you comment on the durability?
I sent you a PM, but was gonna ask you about tinsel. All the "oval" tinsels I've dealt with are like Lagurtan. By chance are you looking for the textured tinsel? Looks similar to oval, but is flat metal tinsel that is stamped. It's like the herters tinsels (if it's the ones that I had). I used all of mine up, but was similar to the textured flat tinsel (can't remember the exact name of stuff off hand).
Onto the show. I was going to go, but had a mixture of things happen that made me unable to go. Wanted to hookup with a few guys from Canada I've been speaking to for years (and a couple from Europe), but was tied up sat/sun. Not by choice. :-( Sounds like it was best I didn't go. I'd been there more for deals then to find new products. But would've loved to see Harry or Hans tie, and to meet some of the guys I chat with online (Hans being one).
I felt the "Flyfishing the Cascades" should have been called "Flyfishing Central Oregon". I was expecting to learn about the Washington Cascades not that I don't love the Bend area but was under the impression I would learn about a new place closer to home. My wife did point out that We had talked to Marc at his fly tying station and found out that he lived in Scapoose prior to his lecture.
With all due respects, that is not true. The vendors at the Fly Fishing Show Co Shows are screened and many who apply for space are turned down. Barry and Chuck do a great job of getting the quality as high as possible.
Let's not forget that every corner of the American economy is in trouble right now, and I think many shows reflect the way that the fly fishing business has had to scale down or cut back to survive. Fly fishing is done with disposable income; after taxes and expenses and investments etc. There just isn't a lot of money laying around right now. When the economy rebounds, so will flyfishing.And the shows will reflect that too.
For the money, I think they run some of the best shows in the country. Last year they took a lot of advice from as many people who cared to give it as they could find. This year the Bellevue show also reflected that kind of care and commitment to quality presentation. I doubt it will ever be perfect, or please everyone, but Im glad they are doing it. I visited on sunday afternoon after getting back from work. I really liked it and was disappointed that I couldnt have been there for the weekend. I missed a lot of good stuff, and a few friends.
I actually found a lot of stuff to buy and a lot of stuff I wished I could buy, but I'm relatively new to fly tying so I haven't built up a collection that fills one room of my house yet. I was able to pick up Randall Kauffman's book on Tying nymphs. He was nice enough to sign it and we chatted for awhile about fishing high mountain lakes. I was also able to pick up one of the Kauffman grab bags for $10. It probably had about $60 worth of stuff in it, some I will probably never use, but I still got some great stuff out of it. I really enjoyed the classes by Philip Rowley and Rick Hafalee(?). I also was able to see Philip tie and that was very cool. Perhaps the highlight for me was showing one of my flies (I'm a novice tier) to one of fly tyers and having him trade me three of his for one of mine. That was a good feeling for sure.
I was there Saturday and Sunday. Mainly catching up with old friends from MT, and helping out one frined at his booth.
I met up with speycast down there, and he dragged along his poor, and very pregnant wife. What a good sport!!:thumb SC's days of fishing are about numbered, so it was good to hook up with him one last time before the shackles of being a daddy are placed around his ankle. :beer2
Unfortunately I did not run into anyone else at the show from the site, or others from the site saw me and made the best possible choice of avoiding me.
Was still fun, but really wish there was more room to cast around the pond. I did finally get to cast an elkhorn rod, and it seemed to cast just fine. Unfortunately couldn't really let it fly due to the short pond. Oh well. maybe next year
A friend and I took in the show Friday afternoon, hoping to beat the Saturday crowds.
Overall, we found the show to be much the same as last year's, except for the 50% increase in ticket price. The exhibitors were about the same as last year - about a third to a half being outfitters, guides or lodges. I didn't find much in the way of good deals on the few things on my shopping list. I fell for some new CDC dubbing from Rene Harrop and Trouthunter in their booth and an $8 small brass stacker from another.
We arrived a bit early for Phil Rowley's presentation on fishing stillwaters. Turned out to be one of the best overall seminars on lake fishing I've yet seen. It was also packed so I'm glad we got there early for seats.
Finally, Dutch flytyer Hans Weilenmann was there and kindly tied up one of his famous CDC & Elk patterns for me. I'm sorry I missed AK Best's demonstrations although I did meet him at Hans' area.
What were the highlights of your visit? How did it compare with last year's show?
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