Spent a very enjoyable weekend at the game fair, plenty of interest from the public in the work of the three guys fly tying, lots of questions many of which were answerable.
Didn't get much of a chance to explore the fair but the demo ring and food stalls were much as usual with a couple of new additions (duck wraps & potato swirls) the country clothing, hawks, shooting stalls , craft fair, fleecing stalls (aka nick Knack & tat) food & drink galore, etc.
Fishing control ran the casting comps as well as the flytying tent and the GAIA casting instruction.
And then there was fisherman's row........ or fisherman's corner as it may now be called. I've been at the game fair since it started and there has been a steady decline in the number of fishing stands in the row. There is a new guy who's organising the fishing control as of 2017 but he's got a serious uphill struggle to attract fishermen since it looks as though there could be another 2 or 3 of the 5 , yes five, fishing stalls missing next year. It is really sad that the decline has gone this far, I'll continue to attend as long as I am asked, but the cost for the public and traders is reaching a tipping point, summarised by a comment from Neil Anderson in Forfar when asked why he hadn't come down 'too expensive' a comment supported by several others. Personally I feel they should reclassify it as a country fair as there's not much 'game' involved as far as fishing goes.
However salvation could be at hand. If you want your fishing fix there is the upcoming Fly Fest in Penrith on October 1st & 2nd, the BFFI in stafford or even closer to us if a little longer to wait Fly Fest Scotland next February which should have plenty of fishing/fly tying trade stands as well as international and home grown tyers, a must for anglers throughout scotland.
