Calgary Show

News from the Western Canadian Fly Fishing Exposition in Calgary
22-24 January 2010

 

Well it was pretty cold in Calgary, during the Western Canadian Fly Fishing Exposition that took place at Spruce Meadows, but not nearly as cold as last year….

 

Once again, the Bird Marketing Group did an excellent job of preparing and delivering a superb fly-fishing event. There were more than 3,500 anglers in attendance, many of whom were regulars, and from the looks of things they were not disappointed.

 

Prude's Fly Fishing Adventures teamed up with Savas and Nick, from Trout Waters Fly & Tackle in Kelowna. Our booth offered a unique Stillwater flavour to an otherwise somewhat river-focused event.

 

 

A number of fly-fishing celebrities were in attendance, with Jim McLennan, Brian Chan and Phil Rowley being the most notable.We were pleased to see the return of some excellent fly tiers and some new ones, including Pudge Kleinkauf from Alaska, who incidentally also gave some superb casting instruction to those ladies that were smart enough to sign up for a lesson. There are never enough fly tiers at these shows, and I was happy to see that Jacques Heroux, a well known tier and angler from New Brunswick, was here to demonstrate his many skills.

 

The casting pond saw a lot of excellent instruction from such notables as Peter Morrison, Brian Niska, Courtney Olgilvie, Chris Seipio, Francois Blanchet and others. The Kids' area was busy as usual with lots of fun, educational activities being conducted, under the watchful eye of Dave Geisler and Deb Kohut.

 

The ladies from Casting for Life were on hand again to promote their breast cancer recovery program. This year they are planning a three day fly fishing retreat at the Centre for Learning on the Ghost River north of Cochrane, Alberta. (For more info, visit www.castingforlife.com.

 

 

Also a new face in the crowd --- Project Healing Waters, Fly Fishing Canada, was attending the show to raise awareness of its program. The program is "dedicated to the physical and emotional rehabilitation of injured Canadians, disabled military personnel and veterans through fly fishing and fly tying education and outings." We think this is a great initiative and we personally plan to get involved with it. For more info, visit www.projecthealingwaters.ca.

 

And last but not least, there was a great turn-out by the equipment manufacturers many of whom are regular exhibitors at this show, with a few new and notable appearances from Loop and others.

 

At Prude's Fly Fishing Adventures, we were promoting for a number of select lodges/resorts that offer some really unique fly fishing experiences in British Columbia and elsewhere.