Fly Fishing Retailer: The Underground’s First Look at Fly Fishing’s Industry Show

Wall Street’s investment banks are tumbling like so many obese dominos, Hurricane Ike’s treating the Texas coast like Singer Ike treated Tina, and we’re in the midst of an election where the only challenging media coverage has come via a handful of female talk show hosts.

Ladies and gentlemen, I’m officially declaring an Underground Emergency.

Am I the only one who thinks “Working” Media is like “Jumbo” Shrimp?

Sadly, I’m camped in a Denver hotel room instead of wading the Upper Sacramento, so I can’t do what an Underground Emergency requires: immediately take up station near my home water (fly rod in hand), and await further instructions.

Life, it seems, is often dark.

Of course, it’s even darker when you’re running on 1.5 hours of sleep and voluntarily subjected yourself to airline travel, so I didn’t exactly arrive at Denver’s Convention Center all bright-eyed and bushy tailed. More like gummy and cranky.

Whaaa, morning already?

Still, as the poets remind us, every long journey begins with a single beer step, so after I quickly skimmed the show and spoke to the handful of folks from the prior year who hadn’t blotted me from their memories (or their show calendars), everything quickly became clear:

I was in trouble.

I was having difficulty understanding even simple, declarative sentences. And my normally razor-sharp journalist’s mind – ever alert for spin and manipulation – found itself kittenishly amused by brightly colored objects and tinselly things (much like the Washington Press Corp).

I thought the “EggiJuaneKenobi” was cute (it’s a sign of the Apocalypse)

Still, I did pick up a few gossipy tidbits circulating around the show, and given the obvious attraction for gossip among the general populace, I’m beginning today’s report with a juicy tidbit:

A highly placed source at Orvis confided they sold 3.5x as many Helios rods as expected (true), and that they were changing the name of the company from “Orvis” to “Helios” (false).

That’s me, collecting Orvis gossip.

Rest assured I’ll keep my ears peeled for more because gossip sells.

The Show Stuff

In a nutshell, here’s my first impressions of the show.

• There are fewer people circulating than last year, though the booth count doesn’t look too bad
• There are more fly reels available than at any time before in the history of mankind
• Everyone’s scrambling to be “green.” Some really are, some really aren’t.
• Adventure fly fishing video is taking off; everyone has one, including the companies using them to promote their business
• FFR is less elaborate than last year (which doesn’t bother me much at all)

Time to Smash & Grab

I’ve got to run back to the show for an early meeting, so the specific product stuff will have to wait. Still, I have time to hand out yesterday’s Underground “Smash & Grab” award – an honor inflicted upon the product I’d most want to stuff in my pants and sneak out of the hall.

Planning my escape exit strategy for today’s Smash & Grab

Normally it’s gear, but I haven’t scouted the gear too closely yet, so I’m awarding it instead to the latest issue of Fly Rod & Reel magazine, which ran:

• Another great Ted Williams essay where he scopes out the Davis Lake project and drops the hammer on “environmentalists” who get in the way of repairing the environment
• Its Robert Traver writing contest award winners
• A Gierach piece on BWOs – a subject I thought he’d done to death, but managed to do well yet again
• A short, smart piece on the Teton Dam project Buster regular by Bruce Smithhammer
• Lots more stuff like the above

Today’s the Big Show Day. You gearhounds can expect to see more of what you love.

See you at the show, Tom Chandler.

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