tradeshow

The International Fly Tackle Dealer show is the largest event of its kind; it is a gathering of manufacturers, retailers, reps, and fly fishing media members alike. Once a year, dealers and manufacturers use this venue as an opportunity to showcase new products for the next year. As the festivities at IFTD come to a close for yet another year in Orlando I found this to be the perfect time to talk about a few of the products to look out for in 2017. There are a couple products that really caught my eye coming out of the show this year. I am not going to take this time to talk about products like the Sage X because we all knew that this was coming for some time. Instead, I wanted to take this time to talk about a couple of new things that might be overlooked. First up is the Hatchback Wading Boot from Korkers. A rear entry design with a BOA lacing system gives the angler a buttery smooth experience in terms of entry and exit for ease of use. Couple this with Korkers standby technologies like the Internal Drainage System and Omitrax interchangeable soles and you have a wading boot that has left me highly intrigued. The Hatchback will retail at $239.99 for Felt + Kling on Rubber or $259.99 for the Kling On & Studded Kling combo. These will be available starting in March of 2017. I don’t have the opportunity to travel very often but when I do I like to utilize a carry it all style travel bag. For the last few years I have used another carry it all bag and it has served me quite well. However, last year on my way back from Andros my flight was late getting into the Detroit airport and I only had 15 minutes to make my connection. It just so happens that my connection back to Salt Lake was on the other side of the terminal. Long story short is I felt pretty awkward running through the airport with a large briefcase. In that moment, I was praying for backpack straps on that bag. It would have made things so much easier. Simms Fishing Products answered my prayers with their introduction of the Bounty Hunter Vault. This rod carrier will allow anglers to carry up to 8, 4 piece, rods up to 10ft in length. This travel case also has the room for a bunch of reels or other gear. The main feature that sets this bag apart for me is the detachable backpack straps. This will make running through the airport much easier if I have to do it in the future. The Simms Bounty Hunter will retail $199.95 & will be available early 2017. As for rods you might not have heard of, I am looking forward to Bad Ass Glass, from the folks over at Echo. I have only seen a little bit of info about this rod lineup but I find the premise of larger size glass rods to be really intriguing. Chasing carp on a fiberglass fly rod sounds like a lot of fun. Lastly, anyone who knows me knows that I spend a lot of time in Chaco’s. For me it was really cool to see that Fishpond is doing a collab with Chaco for a fish print of their Z2 sandals. I feel like that is definitely worth an honorable mention. There you have it, 2017 is going to be an exciting year for the fly fishing world. As a whole, rods continue to get much faster actions and reels are trending to be on the lighter more futuristic side. All I know is that manufacturers continue to push the envelope in terms of design and function. What they will come up with next is anyone’s guess. Note: This post was originally published in July 2016 and may be out of date.