Our goal in 2008 is to welcome you to an interactive and uniquely exciting Expo that emphasizes education, adventure and conservation. We’ll feature both regional and national fly anglers and tiers and help you learn skills that will take your fly fishing to a new level. Whether you visit us in Chicago or Minneapolis you’ll experience the best of fly fishing in one of the world’s truly remarkable and most diverse fly fishing regions.

WHAT TO EXPECT

For two and a half days, GREAT WATERS FLY FISHING EXPO guests will choose from a variety of non-stop educational programming in three basic areas:

1. Fly fishing techniques and tactics: entomology, how to “read” water and recognize where fish live, emphasis on strategies and flies that take smallmouth bass, trout, muskies, pike, steelhead, salmon, largemouth bass, carp, panfish, saltwater species;

2. Fly fishing travel and adventure: meet outfitters and lodge owners and explore the Great Waters of the Midwest and fly fishing destinations around the world, including Alaska, the West, Canada and the tropics;

3. Environmental education. Threats to our Midwest fly fishing waters and grass-roots efforts to combat them. Conservation issues and visions, presentations by cutting-edge advocacy organizations, local fly fishing clubs and department of natural resource professionals.

STEWARDSHIP AND CONSERVATION: The Great Waters Expos are the first major fly fishing shows anywhere to emphasize the vital connection between the sport of fly fishing and environmental stewardship and conservation. Simply, we believe that it is no longer enough simply to be an angler, one must adopt an active conservation ethic to preserve and protect our fly fishing waters. We’ll have programs on the Great Lakes, updates on TU’s Driftless Area stream restoration (TUDARE) and an evaluation of smallmouth bass opportunities and habitat in our home waters.

FLY CASTING:  This year’s fly casting “theater of operations” will be enlarged at both Expos. Free one-on-one fly casting instruction will again be conducted by expert casters and teachers from the Federation of Fly Fishers. These lessons will be offered from the start to the end of the Expo. Male or female, young or old, these lessons will help you improve your skills and you’ll appreciate the patient instruction you receive. In the main casting areas at both Expos there will be fly casting demonstrations throughout the weekend that focus on presentation techniques.

LEARNING STATIONS:  For the first time ever, the Great Waters Expo exhibit halls in both Chicago and Minneapolis will be surrounded with learning stations where guests can experience more in depth the various aspects of the fly fishing experience. There will be, for instance, stations where you can brush up on your knot tying, learn how to select rods, reels and lines for your fishing, identify the various species of game fish we catch on a fly in the Midwest, ask questions about waders, vests and layering. More details in our eNewsletters — you can subscribe on our homepage.

FLY TYING:  Learn from many of the best fly tiers in the Midwest.  In addition to hanging out at our always-popular “Fly Tiers Row”, Expo guests will be invited to learn this wonderful craft at interactive “Starter Vises” from experienced fly tying instructors.

LIVING RIVER BUG EXHIBIT. Entomologist and award-winning photographer Dean Hansen will be featured with an expanded setting. His live bug show and living stream exhibit is flat-out remarkable.

BEGINNERS. The Great Waters Expo will feature two Fly Fishing Classes for Beginners. Newcomers to fly fishing can learn fly fishing basics from veteran anglers. All Expo programming will be beginner-friendly and free. No pre-registration.

WOMEN IN FLY FISHING

The 2008 Great Waters Expos will continue our commitment to introducing women to the sport of fly fishing and to recognizing the contributions of the many accomplished female anglers in our sport. Hayward, Wis., guide Wendy Williamson and other local female anglers will lead our women’s programming.

WRITERS WORKSHOP. An opportunity to pick the writing brains of several practicing outdoor novelists, magazine writers and poets.  Organized by Maine writer Kathy Scott.

OUR EXHIBITORS

You will have an opportunity to inspect the latest fly fishing rods, reels, fly lines, flies, outdoor wear and watercraft at vendor booths staffed by knowledgeable and helpful industry professionals. Fly fishing lodges from the Midwest, the West, Alaska and Canada will be present. You also will have opportunity to view wildlife and sporting art and shop for a wide assortment of fly tying materials. In addition, spokespersons for local, national and international conservation and fly fishing clubs — Trout Unlimited, the Smallmouth Alliance and the Federation of Fly Fishers among them — will be on hand.

For information on the Great Waters Fly Fishing Expo, call (952) 920-9028 or e-mail to mwfly@mwfly.com. Call Lew Beccone at (612) 922-4969 for matters relating to the travel industry – lodges, outfitters, guides, sports travel, tourism groups, etc. Also, visit www.greatwatersflyfishingexpo.com.

Enjoy this website and come back often for updates. Take time to subscribe to Midwest Fly Fishing magazine on your way through. I’ll see you at the Great Waters Expo — in Chicago and in Minneapolis.

Tom Helgeson

Editor/Publisher Midwest Fly Fishing magazine
Owner, Great Waters Fly Fishing Expo