Troutrageous! Storms 2012 Outdoor Retailer Summer Market (Part 1)

This post is an example of how much power us blog-wielding characters have in the eyes of "The Industry."

Actually, I really don't have much power at all, but it's good to know I can use my URL to score a friend a "press pass" to a trade show so he doesn't have to pay top dollar for a credential.  With that...Troutrageous! sent Chase Hundley on assignment (you may know him as @thechundley on Twitter or from the blog Feather & Scale) to the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market Show in Salt Lake City, Utah...ironically the week after I left.

Chase's assignment - check out all the new outdoor stuff, especially anything fly fishing, and do whatever he could to further besmirch this blog's name.  Enjoy...

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Thanks to namedropping Troutrageous!, I (Feather & Scale) had the opportunity to attend the 2012 Outdoor Retailer Summer Market this past week.

The week started with an open-air demo day on Lake Jordanelle Reservoir, just outside of SLC. The open-air demo was basically a chance for brands to showcase their stuff in a more natural environment and allow people to test their products.

The demo was full of watercraft to test out, shoes to try and Redington even set up a casting competition. If you’ve ever wanted to be completely overwhelmed with Stand Up Paddleboards (SUP), this was the place to be. There was even a giant SUP.

Stand-up paddleboards were definitely the most heavily populated item at the show. There were also plenty of Yeti Cooler knock-offs, including one from Igloo. There were plenty of kayak companies, as well, with quite a few fishing kayaks.

My personal goal, in true Troutrageous! fashion, was to find Sasquatch at the show. I was successful in my Sasquatch hunt by complete accident and found him chilling by a car in the middle of the show (I guess being Sasquatch means you get to drive inside buildings).

I was honestly disappointed by the lack of fly rod companies at the show; I’m blaming it on IFTD being next week. There were quite a few brands that make fly fishing products, but there definitely could have been more. Packs seemed to be the common new product for the fly fishing brands.

Best Booth Swag

Montana Fly Company ended up winning the “best booth swag” award with a flask full of whiskey (decorated with a painting from Mike’s favorite fly fishing artist). They obviously knew how to win a fly fishing obsessed Arkansan’s heart.

Easiest booth to get a free beer without waiting in line for an hour

Free beer was pretty common once 4pm hit. You almost had to camp out if you wanted to get one very quickly. The “easiest booth to get a free beer without waiting in line for an hour” award was easily won by Redington. This was mostly due to the fly fishing brands being squeezed in the very back of the convention center, but turned out to be beneficial during happy hour.

Best free food

Keen did it real big at the show. Their indoor booth was huge and across the street from the show; they had a constant outdoor party (Keenfest) going with free food, shirts, live music and water misting from the corner of everything. They receive the “best free food” award for having a food truck with WHOLE FREAKING PIGS ROASTING one day being extremely generous with their portions.

Stay tuned for a breakdown of the best gear I encountered in Part 2.

Sighting - Outdoor Retailer Show

The Tenkara Sasquatch was recently sighted in Salt Lake City at the Outdoor Retailer show. Rumor was he was trying to hide in the Subaru booth, laying low before going over to check out the new tenkara rods, but his trademark oversized sunglasses may have given his presence away.

Sighting Courtesy:  Chase Hundley

Tenkara Summit 2012 - Day Two

Day Two of the Tenkara Summit was one of fishing!  Yes, after a day cooped up in a conference facility all day Saturday, Sunday was an opportunity to experience some clinics on the water and actually put all of your newfangled tenkara knowledge to use.

The site of day two activities was Mt. Timpanogos Park in Orem, Utah, a quick hour drive south from Salt Lake City.  The event was slated to start around 9:00 AM, but the early rise anglers began to file into the pavilion a bit earlier.  I arrived closer to 9:30, which still left plenty of time to mingle with the many folks that showed up for the event.  People tried out each other's rods, they traded flies...excuse me, kebari...and of course told fish tales, all true I'm sure.

At around 10:30, Dr. Ishigaki put on a short lawn casting demonstration, showing all what he felt was "good" technique - from arm motion to various casting stances.

From there we were split into two groups for some on-stream demonstrations.

After the on-stream demos, there was a bag lunch served.  Sandwiches, chips, apples, & a cookie hit the spot.  I'm always up for food.

The rest of the afternoon meant fishing!  We were split into 6 or 7 groups each with a randomly selected guide.  As luck would have it, I was in Dr. Ishigaki's group, which ended up to be a really cool experience.

The convoy rolls out

Walking up to the section of the Provo we were going to fish, the water was a bit high and fast, so the wading was a bit difficult.  We spread out on the stream and each gave it a go.  I thought I was going to fall over quite a few times (note to self, bring wading staff next time) but was able to sturdy myself enough to do some fishing.

After about 10 or 15 minutes I looked up and noticed that everyone in our group had kind of went off on their own.  It was just Dr. Ishigaki & I on the stream, fishing about 10 feet apart from each other.  Resuming fishing, I hear "FEESH" and swing my body around to see the Dr. with a fish on.   With the fast current, I don't think he wanted to chase the fish downstream toward me so he said "NET" and I netted his fish for him, a very solid brown trout.

Recognize that net?

Following the release, he spent a little bit of time with me, showing me how he fished the fly, what section he was targeting, and why.  Yes, there was a language barrier, but it was very kind of him to spend that time with me.  From there, I popped out of the run we were standing in, he said "BYE NET MAN," and I went my own way.

Eventually, a few hundred yards upstream, I got into my own fish...about a 12" brown on a green and gold kebari I swapped with someone earlier in the summit.  Did I get a picture of the fish?  HELL NO...I practically fell over trying to retrieve it from the current.  The fact that I didn't go completely over was a win in my book, so I'm okay with no fishy photo memento from the trip.

4:00 PM came and it was time to end the day's festivities.  All of the anglers made their way back to the pavilion to raid the leftover bag lunches while chatting about their day on the water.  Most anglers seemed to either get skunked or land one fish...so I didn't feel bad about my lone catch.

Pictures were taken, goodbyes were exchanged, and a very enjoyable 2012 Tenkara Summit came to an end.

Photo Credit:  LearnTenkara.com

To close, I just wanted to thank the folks at Tenkara Guides & Tenkara USA for putting on such a great event.  Everything (from the outside seemed to) run extremely smoothly and I feel like I not only learned quite a bit about tenkara techniques & methods, but probably more importantly solidified friendships that will long outlast that last weekend of July.  Here's one angler looking forward to 2013.

Tenkara Summit 2012 - Day One

With a Friday Wyoming adventure in the rear view, Saturday brought the reason why I was out in Utah, to attend the 2012 Tenkara Summit.

The Summit was held at the University Guest House, a hotel/conference facility on the campus of the University of Utah.  I also happened to be staying at the Guest House, so I got to sleep in nice and late and was able to essentially roll out of bed and to the event.

This year's summit was being co-hosted by Tenkara USA & the Tenkara Guides.  Let me get the pleasantries out of the way up front...both did a great job as co-hosts.  The event was very well organized and everyone was extremely accommodating and helpful.  I honestly don't think they could have done a better job making us tenkara enthusiasts feel any more welcome.

On to the event itself.  The day was more or less split up into two sessions with a lunch break in-between.  

The morning session presented a little bit of free time to walk around and meet & greet many of the folks that I've befriended online over the past few years, but hadn't yet met face-to-face.  A few names you might be familiar from their blogs are Karel from Tenkara on the Fly, Anthony from CastingAround, Jason from Tenkara Talk, Brian the "Holga Master," Chris the TenkaraBum, and BC from Tenkara Elevated.

Brian Schiele, "Holga Master" meeting (& shooting) Dr. Ishigaki, "Tenkara Master"

There were quite a few vendors with booths set up displaying (& selling) their wares.  Tenkara USA, ZimmerBuilt, Learn Tenkara, Dr. Kevin Kelleher co-author of Tenkara, Radically Simple Ultralight Fly Fishing, the Tenkara Guides, and I'm probably forgetting one or two more.  All were very friendly, and it was nice to spend some time and chat with each.  (As a bag junkie, one of my regrets is not buying one of the ZimmerBuilt slings).

Once the schedule of speakers was about to start, we were moved into a large room with chairs set out in an auditorium style setting.  Some gremilins must have came over from Japan with the guest speakers, as there were some early AV issues, but once those were fixed it was a quite informative program.

Daniel Galhardo from Tenkara USA started with a brief welcome and was followed immediately by keynote speaker Dr. Hisao Ishigaki.  Dr. Ishigaki gave a general overview of tenkara to everyone, and spoke about the history as well as his efforts to spread the word of this niche form of fishing.

Opening remarks from Dr. Ishigaki

Once Dr. Ishigaki finished, Mr. Kiyoshi Ishihara followed with a presentation on Yamamoto Soseki, the author/angler who is generally credited with shaping and popularizing modern tenkara, as well as the No-tarin club, a fishing club that was started by Soseki and still exists today.  Without getting into too much detail, Soseki was evidently quite the character in his time, which made Mr. Ishihara's presentation quite entertaining.  In my opinion, this was the highlight of the morning session. 

Soseki Yamamoto presentation

Morning presentations over, there were several breakouts that included fly tying...

...silent auctions...

...line making...

...lunch....

(who has time to take pictures when there's food on your plate?)

...and lawn casting.

The knothead trout game was pretty fun and gave me an opportunity to cast rods with pre-rigged level lines (I typically fish furled tenkara lines on my rods).  Lots of prizes were won by "catching" the fish...heck, even a terrible caster like me figured out how to cheat win something.

Daniel Galhardo, the Knothead Trout, & yours truly
Photo Credit: Tenkara USA

After the break, the afternoon program started and a few more speakers took the stage.  Brian Flemming (and his hilariously dry sense of humor) treated us to a preview of both the new Tying Tenkara Flies DVD as well as an update on the Tenkara documentary he's been filming for the last two years.

Tim Hawkes from Trout Unlimited gave a spirited speech on the actions the organization is taking in Utah to restore and conserve watersheds and native species.  Not being a resident of Utah, it was a pretty interesting to learn the initiatives and issues currently on the table in the state.

Finally, Erik Ostrander from Tenkara Guides gave an overview of tenkara in Utah, a background on the Tenkara Guides, their TROutreach program, and a preview of what we'd be expecting on Sunday, Day Two of the Summit out on the Provo River.

Erik addressing the crowd
Photo Credit: Tenkara USA

Before you knew it, it was close to 4PM and day one of the Summit had come to a close.  Auctions closed (without me winning anything, damn you Jason Klass for outbidding me on everything), some more flies were tied, and booths were packed up.

It was crazy how quickly the day went...but I guess that's always the case when you're enjoying yourself...or at least that's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

To read about Day Two's fun, click HERE

Gettin' In A Quickie

Just thought I'd throw up a quick post to show you I still care.  Been very busy...a bit too busy to actually sit down and blog.

As you may (or may not know), I'm currently out in Utah attending the 2012 Tenkara Summit.  I've already met a ton of great people - it was an awesome time on the first day...and there's still another day on Sunday (today)!

Add to that a guided tour of Wyoming out of The River Damsel last Friday...and what I'm calling "no plans" Monday...which means you probably won't get a typical post out of me for a few more days.

That said, in the meantime, check out the Facebook page, I've been posting pictures and commenting via smartphone there.

Wyoming Album
Tenkara Summit Album
City Creek Album

Or just go read Moldy Chum.