There’s been a lot of action since last weeks report. First and most important, Granny and I finally made it to The Pleasanton, CA Fly Fishing Show after the hectic drive. It’s always nice to be in California in February – a lot of that is because of the nice weather – but the wind, cold and rain we’ve been in all month continued right through Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the show. I have never seen such rain and cold in the Bay area. We even encountered a sandstorm on the CA desert!
The show was a good one. I’ve been doing shows in CA for 30 years now going way back to the famous San Mateo Sportsman’s show. And I’ve done most of The Fly Fishing Shows and every single once since 2010. These days the best part of the show is enjoying time with longtime friends both vendors and visitors. As usual I pushed my Sharpies on a variety of cool products.
After the show ended Sunday afternoon, Granny and I and many of the other show folks we’ve been working and traveling with since early January celebrated another great show season. We divulged on some amazing food and capped it off with a couple Sierra Nevada Pales and said our goodbyes.
We had a casual departure from Pleasanton on Monday morning followed by a three hour drive in a deluge of rain all the way to Fresno. I delivered a new presentation to the Fresno Fly Fishers, “25 Years and the Hunt for Gold” which is about how Team USA Fly Fishing worked our way up to winning the Gold Medals last year in Italy. The show went well and I’ll probably add it to my long list of programs soon.
Yesterday we left Fresno for Bakersfield and last night I spoke to the Kern River Flyfishers Club. I did my “Streamer Tricks for More and Larger Trout”. I’ve done this one a few times this winter already and it was well received as usual. Kern River is a lively club and my talk was followed by a lot of great questions and visits with the members.
Today is rest day. Since January 9th I’ve given 32 presentations. I have no idea what the count is on Sharpie art I’ve done on fly boxes and packs. It’s been a bunch. While very fun and rewarding, I am absolutely exhausted. The good news is that we have ten days till my next event which is at the Fin & Fire Fly Shop in Redmond, Oregon.
Last night and tonight Granny and I are staying with friends Brian and Theresa Adams in Bakersfield. We just finished an amazing home cooked breakfast and I decorated Brian’s Simms pack with a pike. Brian and Theresa had an amazing pike trip to Sweden last summer and this pack now offers a great memory.
The blog becomes fishy again the start of next week. We head for Oregon tomorrow and should arrive over the weekend. We’ll pull into the driveway of our good friends Sarah and Scott Robertson in Bend and our first fishing day will be on Lake Billy Chinook. Last year Scott and I had incredible fishing there and I can hardly wait. Stay tuned!
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