Monday Morning Coffee- March 12, 2012

Awwwwgggghhhhh wow.  Yawn stretch scratch- what happened?  What a weekend.  Why am I covered in glitter?  Oh yeah, the glitterati.  Shane Gray, Cameron Mortenson, April Vokey, Brad Petzke, Tommy Lynch, Becca Schlaff, Kathy Scott, Mike Schmidt, Wayne Snyder, Lou Burhart, Mike Schultz, Eric Stroup and the list goes on and on, my apologies to those I've failed to mention.  I got to talk to them all, meet more people than I can remember, cast a ton of rods, conduct interviews, and buy schwag, and I did it all for you my friends, all for you.  I cast a ten foot two-handed glass rod by Shane Gray, a ten minute interview with April turned into a three hour heart to heart, I got invited by several people to fish some really cool waters, got invited to join an expedition or two, cast more rods, attended seminars galore and generally had a great time.

Tom Hazelton of Scientific Anglers casting a Gray Wolf

So let's have some coffee.  The big news was the show, but there will be plenty of time for that later on.  I did get out and fish Wednesday night, despite the need to prepare for the show.  After the big storm last weekend and then heavy rains early in the week the rivers were high and dirty, but conditions were perfect and I hooked up on two fish that took me to the cleaners.  The first was a yard long, chrome bright and unstoppable.  Cool stuff.  The weather took a turn for the nasty by Friday, and I had to leave for the Expo in a ground blizzard.  It didn't take too long to drive out of it, but for awhile it was scary.

this is how I started my trip

Did I mention I was published in Blood Knot?  check it....http://bloodknot.net/

yours truly and Mr Freshwater

I got to meet Jeff Ryan of The Freshwater Fly.  He is an OBN member, a great fisherman and fellow kayaker, and lives right here in Michigan- he's a great guy and was a lot of fun to talk to.  We're going to fish together this year, I'm certain.  Jeff is the man behind that hilarious wiener dog fishing video that made the rounds awhile back.  I'm going to share it here again even though most of you have probably already seen it so that I won't have to search for it anymore.

Extra Extra!! Interviews, and Giveaways.....


Starting this week I'll have a series of interviews and several giveaways stemming from this show.  I want to thank Lou Burhart, Cameron Mortenson, Mike Schmidt, Eric Stroup, April Vokey, Shane Gray, Joe Sprys, and Kelly Neuman for allowing me to intrude on their show time and for sharing something of themselves.  Several interviewees have donated swag, books, flies, and a half-dozen streamers and a fly box to give away in conjunction with their interviews.  These are fantastic interviews of good people.  Two are rod builders, several are authors, several are fly tyers, and several are professional guides (there's some overlap in skill sets).

let's see you try to get April to hold still for the camera

My April Vokey interview will probably have to be broken up  into two or more posts, as it went on for more than 3 hours.  Before you cry foul, "equal time for your interviews",  I only asked for 10-15 minutes from ALL of my interviewees, but for whatever reason April chose to spend the extra time.  Half of the material will never see the light of day, but April has enough that is relevant to say in the other half that I think it should be shared, seeing how she took the time.  I have a feeling that what little I don't know about her now I don't want to.  Things got a little hazy toward the end- I know she made me play two hands of poker, and I think we may be blood brothers now, but I'm not sure.  Look for my first interview to post Wednesday- It will be of Cameron Mortenson of The Fiberglass Manifesto, and he's put up some T.F.M. swag to kick this off right.  I had a great time with Cameron and can't thank him enough for his encouragement and shenanigans to make sure I attended.

To whom it may concern, I will post links with all the interviews I share, but this post was too target rich to do that.  My apologies to the offended.

Well, I really screwed up this morning- Daylight Savings Time kicked in this weekend, but because I was gone, I forgot to reset my clocks at home and got up a glorious hour late- good for the body, bad for the career.  I had more to say, but this will have to do.  I'll be posting a children's book review this evening, so parents- look for that, then look for my interview with Cameron by Wednesday.  I've got lots of cool stuff coming up.  If you were at the show, I'm going to put together a "photo album" to share tomorrow or Thursday.

Okay- I absolutely have to run out the door this second, so stay tuned, have a great week, and spend some time on the water if you can.

Let's get after it.....