What a weekend. It was rough but someone had to do it...
After a long show season this last few days were the final days for shows I did in the states. I was excited to start it off with the long sold out F3T coming through town on Thursday night. I got out of work, picked up my wife, and then headed down to the Gateway theater to hang out and watch some fish films.
It was highly anticipated in the Columbus fishing community and the crowd was impressive! The doors for the event opened at 6pm and the people made their way in to have a beverage and talk to a few vendors that were there with their goods. The films started an hour later with a bang and the highly anticipated 'Brothers Brown' film featuring Michigans own Grajewski brothers. After a few films Liz and I made our way out to the lobby and hung out with a few of the other guys and talked some fish. As the show ended we packed up all our gear to head home so I could turn right around and get everything packed for the Michigan Fly Fishing Clubs' Midwest Fly Fishing Expo in Warren Michigan. I was packed up about 2am...
After stopping in for some fantastic home-cooked stew with my mom I made my way over to the hotel and proceeded to have a few beverages with some buddies before hitting the sack. I knew morning would come fast...and it sure did!
As always it was a great show with super crowds on Saturday and solid traffic on Sunday. The headliners this year were AK Best, Ed Engle, Bob Clouser and my friend Jeff Currier. It was great to have those guys there and see the interest that they generated.
Gratuitous Clouser story... The first morning I strung up a rod I recently purchased to take over to the casting pond as the pond at this show is enormous. As I cast the rod and reached the far end I was very impressed with the rod and happy that I felt like I could still cast a bit. Over my shoulder I heard "He Mike...whatcha got there?". I turned to see Bob standing there so I told him it was the one piece Hardy Proaxis 8wt and held it out for him to try. At this point I had only stripped in a few feet of line so it was still out about 110'. After holding the rod for a second and giving it a glance, Bob proceeded to pick up and throw all of the 110' of line with a tight loop and shoot the rest out past the end of the pond...as easily as if it had half that distance. "That's pretty nice...throws a tight loop" was spoken as he handed it back and hustled off for his presentation. I stood there with my jaw briefly dropped and then just reeled it up and walked away. No way I was following that!
My youngest brother brought out his son Hunter on Sunday for a bit. The next generation of Schmidt fisherman could not get enough of the 'Fishies!' in the swim tank. I think the proverbial hook has been set.
On Sunday morning I decided that I was going to tie some fun stuff for myself and put some serious fluff to hook before it was all said and done. This particular fly was done in this color as well as olives. Here is a video of it going for a swim.
After the show Jeff Currier piled in to my car and we made a foggy drive north to Baldwin Michigan. After a few cocktails at Barskis we headed to the motel for a few hours of shut eye. The morning came fast and we headed over to the launch on the Pere Marquette to meet up with Mike Schultz, of Schultz Outfitters, and Tommy Lynch, the Fish Whisperer, for a fun day on the water.
We did a little swinging, a little streamer fishing, a little egging, a little beverage time, and a lot of laughing.
Rigging up there was plenty of ribbing and stories going on. We found the bite to be pretty tough but had fun un the cold rain all day.
Schultzy got the fish of the day and there were smiles all around. Once we got to the take out we got everything packed and went our separate ways. About eight hours later Jeff and I pulled in to my driveway.
Jeff came back to my place for two purposes...to fish in Ohio for a few hours, and to give a presentation to Central Ohio Fly Fishers this evening. As you can see from the picture we only will be able to accomplish one of those things today. I guess he will have to come back...
-mike schmidt
Mike, that is a mean looking streamer! Very nice!
ReplyDelete