This past Saturday I took my 8 year old son to the
Rochester Sportsman's Show. It's good to get him away from the rest of the kids and have some alone time (shared with hundreds of strangers) together.
We were scheduled to tie at the
Seth Green Trout Unlimited booth from 9am until 1pm. We showed up and found the booth and began setting up the vises so we could get to tying, and hopefully draw people over to the table to learn about TU.
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| Seth...and yes he's named after the guy on the sign. |
Within about 20 minutes of setting up Seth asks me if he can sell his flies. I didn't want to step on any TU toes so I had him ask the TU president who was there. He was given permission to sell his flies and the door were open for business.
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| Matt...and yes he's named after someone! |
His first sale went to the
Fishingpoet and his sons. I think that made my son realize he was on to something.
In the four hours we were at the table (4 hours that just flew by), he sold out of the flies he had for sale (some his, some mine.) Just before they were sold out, the Rochester Bassmasters made a deal with him. They offered to buy the remaining 3 or 4 flies if he worked their booth and sold raffle tickets. The deal was made and his flies were SOLD OUT! He went to their booth and used his boyish charm to get people to buy tickets for the raffle. It was fun watching him try to sell, then take advise from the guys, and then improve on his technique. He did pretty well, and probably sold a dozen or more tickets in the 1/2 hour he worked.
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| Sorry guys, sold out of flies! |
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| Seth's first "reel" job! |
We had time to wander around and check out the rest of the show. This was the first one I had ever been to, and it seemed pretty well attended and had lots of vendors. What they didn't seem to have was much fishing stuff...of any variety. There was a kayak group, a fly guide, Casting for Recovery, TU, and a guy with a fly rod behind his antique display, but nothing much more than that.
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| A live frog harness. Heard about them for the first time on Moldy Chum last week. |
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| An old fly reel |
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| Some old fly reels |
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| Gotta test them out |
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| Some limestone sinkers. Gonna test them soon. |
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| The casting pool |
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| LOOK....A DEER! |
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| Seth knockin' 'em down |
At least twice before the day was over he was telling me how he wants to do this again next year. I think I'll try to get him more vise time before then so he can have more inventory!
7 comments:
Glad you are so close with your son! Wish I had the same influence!
GREAT to see father's doing anything with their kids, and even better to be introducing them to the outdoors. When the other kids see how much fun Seth and Dad are having, Mike is in for a busy time!
Lykos33 (Murray)
Hey Mike! That's super. A salute to you, for raising them right and exposing your son to outdoor world, and the value of hard work to make a few bucks. Smart purchase too... you can't go wrong with legos! By the way... don't think I didn't notice The FFUSA Mini-Fly Clip! Thank you sir! Very cool.
Thanks guys!
Lykos33....I've got 5 kids...I'm already busy!
Jeff - Yep, sporting the clip...but only had one tiny midge in it. I was going to put up a few flies from the vise, but Seth put them all out to sell. Haha!
AWESOME! you guys Rock! thanks Mike for joining TU on Saturday.
that's awesome...way to go Seth!!!
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