Well, another Somerset show is in the books, and we had the full T&T squad in attendance: Founder and rod design/build guru, Tom Dorsey; owner, Mark Richens; head of sales and graphite expert, Trevor Bross; and bamboo master-craftsman, Troy Jacques. We had a few other “Friends of T&T” helping us in the booth as well: guide Dan Pangaldi from Cattaraugus Creek Outfitters, Jerry Jahn and Fred Krowchenko from Spey Casting Northeast, and John Carpenter.
As we always hope, our three days in the booth turned out to be time very well-spent. We enjoyed the opportunity to visit with some long-time T&T faithful, introduce ourselves to some new customers and catch up with some other manufacturers, Pro Staff, fly shops, fly tiers and outfitters that are old friends.
We were pleasantly surprised (as were many exhibitors we spoke with) that attendees were more engaged than in recent years. They were asking very good questions and taking the time to stop and put their hands on the product, instead of just grabbing a catalog and decal with a head-nod and moving on. This is always a good thing for us. We love talking with customers about fly rods and where they’ve been fishing lately, especially when they’re fishing T&T’s – and when we have new products to offer!
Speaking of new products, our display was chock-full of new rods just launched for 2013 – from our small stream ESP series, to the new 4-piece LPSII range, to our two-handed DNA, DNA XF and DNA XD line-up. While we didn’t have our Heirloom glass rods (watch for new T&T glass news, by the way), we did have a selection of bamboo for people to put their hands on as well.
For those who did stop by the booth, thank you for visiting. If you have pics from the show, please share them with us on our Facebook page. Hopefully we’re able to make it to another show or two this year and catch up with more of you.