Shoulda gone to Altoona

Made a special 6 hour round trip to the Cities to a "new" fly shop (for me) for rod building supplies that couldn't be mailed(?). Fellow discounted my choice of line weight (7 wt.), figured I wasn't catching bass of any size, and pretty much suggested I didn't know what I was doing. Hmmmm. I average about a dozen 5 lb. bass a year, do quite well overall for the other species I fish for. I could have and should have headed south past Cabalas and gone on to Altoona for the Iowa Show. I've visited a lot of "local" fly shops from Boston to the Keys, from Portland, OR to the Twin Cities. I guess I've found one that fits the description many of you have written about, but never experienced myself. Still spent about 70 bucks in the place. Call it karma. Call it the last time. JGW

[This message has been edited by white43 (edited 20 February 2005).]

These are the shops which close up and disappear. Wonder why? I heard recently that about 20% of 'local' fly shops will close this year. It's not always the big box store that cause it.

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LadyFisher, Publisher of
FAOL

You should have come down. Several vendors there, including Conranch Hackle.

Got to meet several folks from the FAOL board. I tied some flies Saturday and spent some money on things that I "REALLY" needed.

Rick

Rick, I thought long and hard on coming down. It was just too far for a day. Been 12 hours in a car, not six. If Tom Hegleson hadn't started his Great Waters Expo up here, then coming down might have taken on more importance. Anglerdave shot me up an itenery of the meeting which made the decision even harder. I'd have loved hearing Jack Gartside's presentation on warmwater, and your's, of course. Finally got my Tom Nixon flies tied for the swap and the middle section of my new 5 wt. ("How can you fish for bass with less than at 10 wt.?" was the question at the fly shop.) through the turner, so my day wasn't completely wasted. JGW

[This message has been edited by white43 (edited 20 February 2005).]

[This message has been edited by white43 (edited 20 February 2005).]

I thought Jacks presentations were old and tired. He seemed to be just going through the motions, stating the obvious. Not to ruffle any feathers, but I wasn't very impressed. Kelly's presentation on big trout streamers on the other hand really got one thinking

JGW

It was a good show in deed. I didn't spend a time other than admission. I'm still trying to figure that one out. Anyway got to talk to Kelly Gallup about fishing streamers. He put on a good talk and I think I can incorporate some of his techniques that he uses for large trout in the warm water world. I think I'll head up to Bloomington for the Expo as well.

Wonder if Tom H. would be kind enough to set up a place for us FAOL'ers coming to his show. I know Wrangler and I are planning on coming in for it, and I'm sure the other TC'ers will be there. Be great putting faces to the names. JGW

If I can remember and that is a big if, I'll try and wear that FAOL name tag that LF posted here a while back. I think I downloaded and saved it on my computer. But an FAOL rendezvous area would be great.

I know that our local group (The Flychuckers) are going to have several spots available to us to tie at Great Waters. If there are any empty spots available I'm sure that we could make room for some on-line friends.

Contact me off board with any questions.

By the way I'm looking forward to seeing some of you there.

Kevin