I made it to my first Fly Fishing Film Tour tonight. I even brought the wife, who “liked it.”
One of the highlights was Hit’em Again Doc. Honestly, it is a fantastic story and guide Pete Wood gets my vote for guide of the century. Touching.
It was fun. As I looked around at all the fishy people I thought “these are my people.” Older people, as it turns out. A glance around the room and it is easy to see the challenge facing the industry. A lot of older guys and a few younger ones, but the math doesn’t look good. I guess we just have to bank, for the meantime, on fly fishing being something so many seem to discover or turn to post-retirement (or at least later in their angling lives).
The films were good. Short, sweet and kind of awesome. I had expected to see Enough is Enough, a film about the McCloud, one of my home waters, but there was a glitch that kept that movie from being shown. A link to the movie will be sent to those at the show so they can see that movie, particularly relevant for this audience. I hope folks watch it.
I had a great time.
Check out the schedule and go!
The show
The bar, always a busy place.
- If you liked the story above, check out these stories below
- I'm kind of a big deal (1.000)
Tags: F3T
I have been to 4 F3T’s. Three in Florida (where I live) and one in Montana. From these experiences I can tell you that where there is salt there is a much higher percentage of young people (18-30). I would probably guess that in a room of 200 we outnumbered the “veterans” 65-35%. The show I went to in Montana was the exact opposite.
This is to say that I have no fear of Florida fly fishing being a dying sport and it is probably an indication as to why most companies appear to be salt crazy these days. It is where the next young market is.
My wife and I attended the F3T here in Boise a couple of weeks ago. It was awesome as usual. It was sold out and there were lots of younger guys here. In fact there were people of all ages and a lot of women and children anglers. I’d say it was only about 20% of the people older than 50 crowd (like myself). Also Pete Wood and “the Doc” were here and the Doc said a few words up on the stage. We also had Hank Patterson here to introduce himself and give his ultimate wisdom on fly fishing and guiding.
That’s some good news. It is a weird thing out here in the Bay Area. I had once heard that SF was home to the highest number of fly anglers per capita of anywhere in the US, but the fly fishing show this year was smaller than last year and there isn’t even a shop in SF anymore. I have a feeling that SF has lost that claim to fame.
[…] Sounds like Bjorn found the SF F3T crowd to be more mature and male than he might have expected; it was decidedly so in Gig. […]
Like it Bjorn. Full house here in Great Falls. All ages. The young folk walked around and talked. The older set sat in the auditorium quietly.