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| Oh Asheville, you so crazay! |
This is edition of Traveling Angler Tuesdays will be short. This Traveling Angler is on vacation.
My lovely girlfriend and I departed Fredericton last Tuesday afternoon, embarking on an epic road trip. We swung through southern Ontario to hit the Toronto Zoo and Marineland in Niagara Falls, then pointed south to the Carolinas.
What's the draw of the Carolina's, you might ask?
For one, redfish. Of course.
But secondly, there's a cluster of cool dudes living down here that I wanted to meet and (hopefully) fish with. Guys like David from Southern Culture on the Fly and Cameron of The Fiberglass Manifesto.
Herein lies the Traveling Angler Tip of the week: learn how to make friends. In the professional world, this is called networking.
I briefly wrote about this in the Traveling Angler Tuesday post about research:
Hitting up Twitter, Facebook and Google+ and asking the right people if they or anyone they know have information might give you some leads as well. New to the social media thing? Sign up for Twitter and follow me. Then follow the fishing people I follow and politely ask us some questions. Twitter folks have all the answers.The guys I've met or will meet I have spoken to before, either on Twitter or Facebook or Instagram or SCOF's web forum. To finally meet with them in real life after "knowing" them for months, if not years is pretty amazing.
And that is why networking in the fly fishing world is awesome.
Pro tip: Don't network in the douchey professional sense. The anglers on twitter & who write don't really like it. Don't be greasy or selfish. Follow some people on social media, read their stuff, make informative comments when necessary, share their links to their online content. Be friendly. Most people in the fly fishing online realm are extremely friendly & willing to share information, but be helpful to them in some way as well. Putting SCOF & TFM stickers on the new fairing of a roof rack is a start :)
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I'm under the gun to get out of the hostel room & get to a beach, so that's it for this week's Traveling Angler Tuesdays (I didn't proofread this as much as usually do, so please excuse any typos).
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| The new Chupacabra |
- Thomas at Diablo Paddlesports, for helping with lots of questions & calling the dealer ahead of time for me.
- Luthi's Fly Fishing in Greenville, for setting aside my new Chupacabra kayak and helping me instal my roof rack for it in the parking lot!
- Cameron of The Fiberglass Manifesto, for Chupacabra info, restaurant & sightseeing ideas in Asheville and Charleston, and helping pick out a PFD for me in Columbia.
- Dave of Southern Culture on the Fly, for the campsite referral and taking us out fishing on Lake James, where I knocked off a bream for my Species Journal!
We're off to see the fellas at Lowcountry Fly Shop this morning on our way to the beach.
I'm goin' redfishin' this week. I hope y'all wish me luck.
3 comments:
I would love to meet Cameron on his home waters and I have a good friend in Ashville. It's on my wish list to get to the "dirty South" some day.
Hope we can hook up as your travels take you through New England. We are finally getting some rain today which is needed by the Southern New England rivers.
I hope to meet up with some from the fly fishing (with or without kayaks) soon. I met the guys at Yakangler.com through their website and we get together and fish regularly, but it would be awesome to fish with some of the bloggers I read. (Yes Howard, you're on that list. As is Emily, Rebecca, Joe, Mike, Steve, Ivan, Brandon, Ethan, Kent, Louis, Kirk, Cameron,...ok I'm stopping this could go on forever). Great blog Matt. I love the tips for getting more travel for your buck! Just got back from a week camping/fishing in MT and can't wait for the next adventure so keep those ideas coming! Have a great vacation too!
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