Shop Day

Had a busy day in the shop today getting caught up with things and helping folks out. Must be the holiday weekend because were slammed just about all day long, which is a good thing. Always amazing to me how many people fish the Gallatin between 4-corners and Big Sky (I've probably fished it 8 times since 1997 and that was guiding in the last 10 years). The rest of the guys in the shop all fish it quite a bit and it sounds like it has been pretty solid this summer.

The Ennis Dam situation has supposedly improved a bit and the flows are back down to around 1500 cfs. The flushing of the past week should help improve the weed situation for the rest of the year and should not have been substantial enough to have any longterm harm to the fish population. Had a good talk with Mike Vaughn of Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks, our regional fish biologist, and he seems to have a good handle on the situation. In fact, he seemed to have a good idea about a lot of things concerning the Madison and Gallatin. Forgot to ask him about the fish poisoning up Cherry Creek though.

Spent the afternoon with the Orvis sales rep looking at stuff for 2011 and going over the spring preseason programs. They have 2 new line of rods coming out: one is a redesign of the Superfine series with updated graphite and unsanded blanks ($475) the other is replacing the TLS series and is a substantial upgrade in performance and aetshetics in the $350-$375 range. The other major thing is that they are changing the Battenkill Large Arbor and Mid Arbor, so the old ones are being discontinued. The new reels have improved drags, are lighter weight, and have more "fly-fishing" styled handles. Other than that, they have redesigned their entire line of "Safe Passage" packs and luggage which all looked pretty good and well thought out. All in all, in a crap economy, not a bad mix of new products and gear for 2010. The Access rod is pretty sweet for the money and that ain't no BS. It will be nice to get a 3 wt and an 8 wt, rods that I don't use very often, that rock but don't cost as much as my primary rods.

Other than all that, there is some other industry buzz around as two of the main reps in the region have decided to merge their businesses. The annual dealer show is in Denver next weekend. I guess Cloudveil is getting or has gotten out of the wading and fishing biz too. A whole lot of volatility for uncertain times across the industry. I have to admit that I'm glad to be doing business with Orvis and all the other mfr's I do business with. Sometimes some of the reps think they are a little more important than they really are...but so what...I guess we all think that about ourselves here and there.

Other big news this week is that my FF Football league had the draft, I picked up Chris Johnson with the first pick and then it goes down from there. Football season is the best season...next to hopper season.