Fellow Flyfishermen,

With the International Fly Tackle Dealer Show (IFTD), now only three months away (September 9-11), I thought I would take a moment to encourage all of you to attend. Why? Because attending will help you, it will help your business, and it will help the flyfishing industry as a whole. While not perfect, the IFTD is still the best option out there by far.

The American Fly Fishing Trade Association has taken a lot of criticism in recent years—some of it deserved, some not. I have taken a few shots myself, in The Drake and elsewhere (mock story about the show being held in Rock Springs, etc.), because, at times, our trade organization was just begging to be made fun of.

Nevertheless, every industry needs a trade group, and AFFTA took the necessary steps last fall and winter to put together a show that WE in the flyfishing industry actually own. And if you make the effort to go this September, you will see that this is NOT the same show that has taken place in the past.

Let me share just two examples. While the date (September) and location (Denver) are sometimes listed as reasons for not attending, cost is often the biggest deterrent.

With the announcement this week by the American Fly Fishing Trade Association (AFFTA) that it would “sponsor and/or endorse and/or ignore and/or relocate an Independent Fly Fishing show in 2010,” it came as welcome news to the industry this morning that the trade group has settled on the lobby of the Rock Springs, Wyoming, EconoLodge as the location.

DALLAS—September 23, 2009. In some surprising post-tradeshow industry news, Temple Fork Outfitters president Rick Pope announced today that novelist Ernest Hemingway recently rose from the dead and asked to join the advisory staff of Temple Fork Outfitters.

Flip Pallot —he of Walker Cay Chronicles fame—along with IGFA Hall of Famer Stu Apte, will be featured on the ESPN Outdoors Saltwater Series this Sunday Sunday, May 3, at 8:30 a.m. (Eastern) on ESPN2.