Bonefish on the Brain Bonefish and all that relates (maybe a bit about tarpon too).

Had a good time at the Fly Fishing Show yesterday. The attendance was a bit lighter than in years past, but there were still some good things to see.

One of the highlights was running into Prescott Smith from Stafford Creek Lodge. I managed to sit down with him and get an interview (which will take me a couple weeks to actually transcribe).I also met one of the owners of Swains Cay Lodge from the Middle Bight of Andros.

I also got to meet George Revel and Burk White from Leland Fly Fishing. Turns out George used to come to the Shasta Fly Casters (a fly fishing Club) when I was on the board of that fine institution… except he was something like 12 at the time and was entering and winning casting competitions, as I recall it. Burk has a couple girls he takes out to catch bat rays and leopard sharks in the North Bay, which sounds very familiar and very awesome.

I got to see John from Yellow Dog Fly Fishing Adventures. John was in Cuba with me, so it was good to see him again and hear what he’s been up to.

I got to meet Dylan Rose, who I just did an interview with. I got to meet Capt. Martin Carranza from Nervous Waters, who happens to be a subscriber to BOTB. I got to talk to the Galvan folks, the Rio folks, the Beulah folks and Abel. I got to cast a TFO BVK, a Diesel from Leland (a mid-price point rod) and a Sage One in a 10 weight, as well as a couple rods from Beulah (which are at a real value price point coming in at about $295, I was impressed with these rods for the price).

I got to shoot the breeze with Loren Elliot, another very young guy who has an over-sized imprint on the industry and a guy who we will likely hear more about in the years to come.

I stopped by Abel to check out their beautiful reels. I love the art. They are beautiful. At $900 I will never own one, even if I have the funds available to do so. I’m just not a guy who buys $900 reels. They do make beautiful pieces of machinery and I do value that they make them here in the States (and in California no less).

I continue to be impressed with the Galvan folks for the quality of their reels and the price point they bring to the table. The T-8 comes in at $400 and the Rush-8 (same drag, just a little heavier) is only $320.

I also got to talk to Mikey Wier, who is now fighting the good fight with Cal Trout. He was just down in SoCal filming some spawning steelhead, CA’s most threatened fish.

I ran into Bill Klyn who you might have seen on Buccaneers and Bones. He works for Patagonia, but he also is on the board of the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust (I just renewed my membership, FYI).

It was a good time. Best of all… a little something I got from the Bahamas booth…

 

 

Tags: Fly Fishing Show

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 24th, 2013 at 9:02 am and is filed under All the other stuff, Gear. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.