Welcome to the Show!

Astounding, truly astounding.  What a tremendous show.   I have indeed spent the entire day at the 2011 Midwest Fly Fishing Expo.  What a zoo.  There's waaaay too much to relate; long story short is that my T-shirts didn't come in and I totally gave up on any notion of live blogging.  I talked to people from the moment I walked in when it got started, and didn't stop until I walked out at the end of the day.  I'm just going to share some pics to give you an idea of what the what was and I'll clean up the mess later.

Derek DeYoung doing his thing

and how can you not include a DeYoung piece?

Matt Zudweg and his wares

The legendary Brian O'keefe of Catch Magazine

Becca Schlaff and her art

Brad Petzke put on an excellent presentation on UP fishing

Mike Davis has me thinking about Chile...

And Mike Schmidt is working on the flies to take.

Al Ritt of Peak Fishing on my fav vise

Chris Soule sells me on MFC- time to get the catalog

TFM was well represented

Kyle Hartman working the booth for BBT

Tommy Lynch with Hawkins Outfitting

Had a nice conversation with Scott Raymond Smith

Patrick Ertel with Huron Pines explains how rivers work

Highlights?  Star power (for me) had to go to Derek DeYoung or Brian O'keefe- I'm a huge Catch Mag fan.  Becca Schlaffs art is beautiful and definitely deserves another look.  Truly great to meet legendary tyer Mike Schmidt- it was really hard not to grab one of his streamer boxes and run for the exit.  It was great to hear Brad Petzke and Bear Andrews talk about their respective pieces of the fishing universe.  What I really enjoyed, and I have left most of you unpictured and unnamed, are all of the fine people who really love this sport, and care about our rivers and fish who have agreed to collaborate on projects to promote and protect our precious resources- the reason for this show.  I really look forward to talking to you all more in the future and wish you success.