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Fishing Legends Looking Forward to Swapping Stories with Fans

March 25, 2009 - FREEPORT -- Most of the fishing legends who will be at L.L. Bean this weekend have been teaching fishing on television, at schools, in books and around the country for decades.

However, some of them say it's rare that they are able to mingle with fishing fans in such an informal way as they will at the L.L. Bean Spring Fishing Expo.

On Saturday, five fishing legends will gather all day to chat with the public in L.L. Bean's Hunting & Fishing Store on Route 1 in Freeport.

"I did (seminars) for 30 years. None like this. I think it's delightful. There is no program where you can just sit and talk to people," said fly-fishing instructor Joan Wulff, whose books and fly-fishing school in the New York Catskills have promoted the sport for three decades.

This style of fishing instruction has been offered at the annual spring fishing expo for several years, said Mac McKeever, L.L. Bean's senior public relations representative.

"What is most interesting is that people actually are able to have face-to-face time, and to swap fishing stories. It's great for young anglers. They come with hats or fly boxes to get signed," McKeever said.

He added that the expo – which continues on Sunday – offers expert instruction in many forms.

There are seminars, outdoor fly-casting clinics and demonstrations in addition to the gathering of angling legends.

Typically, there are lines of fishermen waiting to speak to the fishing celebrities, McKeever said. But the legends – who are also television personalities, authors and guides – stay all day, and often beyond, he said.

"Really, they value their fans. They really appreciate the people. They have an affinity for them," McKeever said.

Wulff opened her school in 1979 and wrote her first book on fly-fishing instruction in 1987. In 1996, she offered the first-ever fly-fishing school for instructors of the sport.

At 82, Wulff still fishes year-round, all around the country. She said she is still learning, too.

"I am always searching for better ways to explain things. Every time I teach, I learn something. I learn new ways to talk to people," Wulff said in a phone interview from Islamorada, Fla.

Writer, photographer and fishing show host Mark Sosin, a former featured guide on the Outdoor Channel, is as familiar with fishing in Maine as many of his fans in the state. But at L.L. Bean's expo, he mostly sits and listens to others, he said.

"What amazed me was how far some of them traveled," said Sosin, who will travel to the Spring Fishing Expo from Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

"They didn't just come from Portland. People drove two or three hours. I thought they wanted to know a technique. I've written a lot about knot tying, so I can demonstrate. But I love to listen to their stories," he said.

Flip Pallot, an author and television personality who has been featured on ESPN, TBS and VERSUS, said hanging out and hearing other people's stories is his forte.

Pallot said the folks he meets at shows constantly teach him about fishing – just like the rivers he's fished.

"My deal is book signings and hanging out. I find most people really want to talk about themselves. They want to tell you their story or tell you their fishing adventure," Pallot said.

"None of us know everything, and it's a wonderful learning process," he said.

Pallot cannot recall how many times he has appeared at L.L. Bean's Spring Fishing Expo, but there was one time he never forgot.

A group of fishermen was watching him tie some knots when a 13-year-old boy asked if he knew a particular knot.

"All of a sudden, the little kid interrupted and said, 'Listen. Do you know such and such a knot?' " said Pallot in a phone interview from Mims, Fla.

"I didn't. And it turns out, the knot really didn't exist anywhere but in the mind of this kid. He showed me the knot.

"And I use it still. I use it to tie my bite tippet to the fly."

DEIRDRE FLEMING, Portland Press Herald, March 19, 2009


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