Just as there is no such thing as a bad fly rod, there is no such thing as a bad fly show. In this case, I mean that, along with Castwell, I agree that the current crop of shows are not overpriced. They deliver value provided that the customer is willing to do a little work for it. Just keep in mind that a $10-14 show is not the same as a similarly priced movie. You have to be more active at a fly fishing show than at a movie show. Castwell's article spells that out nicely.

J. C. sounds one dark note , however. "I will say this though and hope it doesn't ruffle any feathers. I saw too many old gray haired gents and not enough of the younger guys and especially kids and teenagers. Maybe they thought it cost too much or maybe they were out fishing. I don't know."

I don't know either, but I can speculate about the demographic. Perhaps, as Castwell says, the $14 is a little more than the young guys want to spend. Perhaps, in deed, it takes a certain amount of gray hairs to appreciate fly fishing. Perhaps we should not worry about the next crop of fly fishers; they just need time to come along. These are decent excuses, I suppose, and reason for optimism. The sun will come out tomorrow.

But what if it does not come out. I remember a some time back when the local hardware store sold flies, leader, and other fly gear. But, a while ago, fly fishing moved away from the common man. Now, if you want to take up fly fishing, it is not a simple matter of grabbing a combo off the rack and heading for the pond as it is with other forms of fishing. Why does fly fishing require so much soul searching and so much money to get started? Has fly fishing become a very elitist hobby? So, if the grey hairs predominate, is it because only they can afford it? Or because only they can remember that it is about fishing and that all the jabber about modulus, weight, speed, furled, taper, and so on, and so on, is so much smoke? Well, there is that possibility that the sport vanishes in a cloud of money priced out of existence.