I'm at the Fly Fishing Retailers' Show.

[Coolhand]

http://www.flyfishingretailer.com

... basically it's an excuse to get a bunch of fly shop owners, guides, and sales reps out of their shops and off the river to tear up downtown Denver, drink a lot of microbrews and scotch, and along the way do a little business for next year.

I meant to bring my camera to take some photos, and damned if I didn't forget. I will grab some pics of the newest and greatest in fly fishing for those that are interested. -- it'll be from my iPhone, but it takes surprisingly good shots.

By the way, for you scotchophiles, I cannot recommend Stranahan's Colorado Whisky enough. They were savvy enough to target the FFR show ... talk about knowing your audience. Hell they even put a metal cap reminscent of a flask cap on the damn bottle. Wondrous stuff.

 

[ksflyfisher]

Any thing, other than the scotch, that has grabbed your attention.

By the way, if you see anyone with a Yager's Flyshirt if everyone is still there tell them Jamie said hi. That's my local shop and their good guys.

Jamie

 

[Coolhand]

Jamie - saw a few things of interest. The show was actually significantly smaller than last year's.

The new Simms and Cloudveil fishing shirts are beautiful. The Simms' "No Fly Zone" shirts - there's two models, a flats-shirt and more of a Rocky Mountain shirt - are $90 ... expensive, but 50+UPF and permanent bug-blocking ... we'll sell a pile. The Vibram boots came out last year, but they've really got them dialed in; Simms has a new stud system that will greatly improve the traction, and Korkers changed the rubber composition on their boots. Simms has a new pant wader that's awesome, but $380 ... not a huge market there.

New Ross Reels Evolution LT is a better reel than the old Evolution, imo - and it's cheaper. Great new deep green color from Ross.

The new Sage Xi3 rod is the nicest saltwater fly rod I've ever thrown; I've already ordered two for myself. Their new Vantage series of rods is an awesome <$250 rod.

Didn't care for the new stuff from Scott; Winston rolled out no new rods - sign of the times I guess.

Only new fly tying material of note, really, is the Bob Popovics "Tuffleye" stuff, which is really only cool if you're tying saltwater patterns or big streamers. Makes making heads on flies really easy.

Great new patterns from Umpqua - new trout crack that anglers will have to have.

I took some pics on my iPhone; will have to post a few of the interesting ones.