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 John Anderson, sales manager at Admore Inc., a division of Ennis, and his son, Andrew, show off a mighty fine catch they made on the Pere Marquette River, a blue ribbon stream in Northern Michigan. Every year, Anderson shares his lake and river spoils with family, friends and business associates. |
The prefix of John Anderson’s email address says it all. “It’s flyface1,” Anderson says with a chuckle.
This is a man who really loves to fish.
While other print salesmen at trade shows spend their nights wining and dining, Anderson, a sales manager at Admore Inc., a division of Ennis, Macomb, Mich., is usually in his hotel room handcrafting fishing flies to sell to tackle shops back home. While other salesmen send chocolates to their favorite clients every Christmas, Anderson sends smoked salmon that he caught while fishing on one of the Great Lakes. He packages the fish with frozen water bottles and keeps them fresh in vacuum sealed packs.
“Something that personal goes a long way,” he says. “It’s not like buying a gift just anywhere. For the people I send these to, it’s more of a friendship than a business relationship.”
Though Anderson has sent salmon to friends and business associates for the past few years, he has enjoyed fishing a lot longer. “I’ve been fishing since I was 8 years old and I’m 45 years old now so that tells you how long I’ve been doing it,” he says.
Anderson keeps a cottage on Lake Huron, giving him easy access to the waterfront, and is a member of a fishing club. He makes most of his catches with his three sons: James, 18, Andrew, 12, and Steven, 10, who are his “fishing crew.” They catch mostly trout and salmon that are about 10 to 25 pounds each. “In one day in three hours, we caught about 13 fish, so it doesn’t take long to figure out that you have to give some of that away,” Anderson says. He and the boys usually take their catches back home. “We catch and clean it together,” he says. “I cook it. I live in an apartment building and it seems like I’ve grilled about 60 pounds of smoked fish on my patio but I’ve only had one bite.”
Anderson keeps a cooler at work after fishing trips so his coworkers can pick up the free fish. “It’s nice to spread the wealth a little,” he says. “This stuff is fresher than what you would get at any grocery store. Just imagine: fish caught on Sunday that’s smoked on a grill that Monday.”
In addition to “sharing the wealth” with his fellow workers at Admore, Anderson also gives a little present every year to all the board members of the Michigan Promotional Products Association. (Anderson is president of the association.) He always brings a package of smoked salmon to their annual Christmas meeting and “no one ever skips that one,” he says.
—LaShell Stratton