Flyfish Fanatic

I decided to take a drive down the I5 From Vancouver, where I live and head down to the city of Bellevue Washington to go to the Fly Fishing Trade Show.

Bellevue is just east of the city of Seattle.

I was really looking forward to the show, there were many seminars, classes and many local fly tyers that were going to be there.

I arrived on the Friday night, and went straight to bed. I had a class first thing in the morning that I wanted to attend so I got up at 6am and headed over to the conference center.

The Class I attended was ” Flyfishing writing 101 with Dave Hughes”. I was really looking forward to this class, and I was not disappointed. There were other classes that I wanted to attend that were on at the same time, but to be able to take a class from someone as talented in writing as Dave is , the decision was simple.

I got Very lucky, there were only 2 people signed up for this class, Normally there are 20+. I got to spend the whole 2.5 hours with Dave and two other students. The information that I got from Dave was beyond great, and I thank him Very, Very much for sharing his years of knowledge with us. I now have a much better idea on how the magazine industry works, and LOVED this course.

Now for the trade show…………………………….

I was looking forward to the show, I ALWAYS look forward to the shows. I started by taking a quick run through the center and have a quick look at what ther was so that I knew where I wanted to spend my time.

I must say, I was VERY disappointed in this show. There were around 80-100 booths, and 60-70% of them were guiding companies and lodges. There were a few manufacturers reps and a couple of stores, but all in all it sucked. I was looking forward to spending a ton of $$ on new fly tying materials and had planned to buy a new rod and a new Sharks Skin line. I did find a few things, but when it came to buying ANY fly tying materials, I could not find any at all.

I f you are the kind of person that enjoys the walk through and seminars, and fly tyers then this show is for you, if you go to these shows for deals and new products, then you, like myself would be disappointed.

In my opinion I give the show a 4 out of 10 and the classes and seminars a 8.5 out of 10.

Tight lines and fun Times

Rick Passek

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