The annual Spring Fishing Expo at L.L. Bean was, in a word, disappointing. Much of what was on offer was the same sort of stuff you'd find on any given weekend at the new Hunting & Fishing store -- fly-tying demonstrations, book signings, instructional clinics. To be sure, a handful of big-name anglers including Dave and Emily Whitlock were on hand to tie flies, sign books and engage in a question-and-answer session. (Missing was the entertaining Lefty Kreh, who apparently had recently injured a leg when he missed a step when dismounting from a stage after a presentation.) A few exhibitors lined the passageway connecting the H&F store to the main store. But only two presentations were on the program, one on bass fishing by perennial presenter Harry Vanderweide, and the other on taking your kids fishing, by Emily Jones of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Both of these were made amid the clutter of the H&F store. The impression one got after climbing the stairs to the fishing department was that it was business as usual. Maybe the hunting department on the first floor should have offered a clinic on "Tracking the Elusive Spring Fishing Expo" to anyone heading upstairs. What's more, the big Q&A session with the stars -- a sort of "Inside the Actors' Studio" without James Lipton -- was held in the Casco Conference Center nearly a mile away, rather than in the big white tent which had been erected in years past just outside the store but which was conspicuous by its absence this year.

In past expos the most popular events were the presentations, with video and/or slides or PowerPoint, by good anglers who had been to interesting places and could maybe tell us one new thing that would make the upcoming season more interesting and productive. Those sessions in the big white tent were always packed to the gills, and Bean's could have filled the tent over and over if they had signed up more such speakers. Personally, I enjoy stopping and chatting with lodge operators (I think there were but two), gadget makers (I saw only one, the HMH boys from Brunswick who make tying vises), wardens and guides; the selection seemed slim this year.

What's more, no free box of flies as in years past. This year we had to buy $25 worth of fishing stuff to get the flies -- this after Bean's management reported a year of healthy profits.

The most interesting exhibitor, to my mind, was a tall, attractive young woman named Ellen McCaleb, who is a fish carver in the way that, say, Carrie Stevens was a fly-tyer. If you're a catch-and-release angler, and you catch a trophy fish, you can send Ellen pictures, measurements, and eloquent rhapsodies on the beauty of the beast, and Ellen will carve and paint a lifesize basswood replica of your prize. The finished product will -- and I hope I'm not getting too technical here -- knock your socks off. In fact Ellen told us of one chap who called her, sobbing "Thank you, thank you!" when he unwrapped his trophy brook trout, such a thing of beauty it was.

Ellen left a life in stocks and bonds to carve fish. Don't we all wish for such a career transit? She studied the work of the great British masters of the genre, whose works now fetch six-figure sums at auctions, but she is almost entirely self-taught. She taught herself well. Check out her work at FishCarvings.com.