My friend Marc Oakes and I took off to Mason Mi. (near Lansing) this past friday for the fly tying expo on Dec 1st Saturday. We took with us a projector and a couple of computers to promote our guide services and lodging. We also carried some tungsten beads and tying tools as well. We did meet some super folks while we were up there and it never fails to amaze me just how many people don’t know there are trout in arkansas. A few did know that the world record brown trout came from arkansas but little else. We hope we did a good job educating some people. Many clubs from the council area were there. We met a number of club presidents, officers and members as well as some of the other vendors and tyers. The GLC did a good job of hosting this event and did so in a well heated large building that was comfortable and had plenty of space. (wish we had such a building in the Mt. Home area).
The feel of the show was casual and laid back with very friendly folks. I think we had come the furthest of any of the attendees. The striking difference between this show and our sow bug here in Mt. Home was the use of digital cameras and TV screens that the tyers had set up so that more folks could see the action. In fact the featured tyers even had microphones with more than one TV set up and a 20 or so chairs set up in front of the table. This did draw quite the crowd around these tyers. The set ups a couple of these folks had was quite impressive but then thats what a big building affords is plenty of space. The tyers had lots of space to work with and room to display some merchandise that they were selling as well.
The cost of the tables for vendors was a bit steep for a one day show. At $100.00 for the first table and $75 for the second table a vendor had to sell a lot of product at a good margin to cover the tabel cost as well as expenses. All in all it was worth the trip and we’ll probably go up again. We did learn a lot and gained some valuable experience from the event but of course the best part is meeting some new and fine fellow flyfishers and being able to talk up the fishing in Arkansas. We are blessed with some of the finest trout fishing in the country.