Well my friend Neal & I gave up a beautiful day of fishing to go wander around the Florida Sportsman magazine fishing show. While we didn't get around to actually fishing that day we did learn quite a bit and had more than one opportunity to spend some money (which neither of us has!).
Overall, a fantastic event. Way too much to do in one day, let alone two. From an educational standpoint there were four main sections: an inshore stage, an offshore stage, an inshore "rigging it right" academy, and an offshore "r-i-r" academy. Each of these sections had different sessions that changed every hour, there were no repeats. Literally no way to hit all of it even if you went both days. All sessions were well attended, at the end of the day (yes Neal & I were the 3rd and 4th people in the door in the morning and among the last to leave in the evening) I heard the offshore guy tell his buddy that they went through 157 ballyhoo! Yes, they provided real baits for the rigging academys! We didn't have time to hit the rigging sessions, they were mainly spin & plug tackle. We attended the inshore sessions. The inshore sessions ran all day. The stage was a 10,000 gallon pond with a flats boat in it. Pretty cool. The sessions were: wadefishing the flats - mark nichols, doa lures seatrout - mark hakakula, flats candy lures redfish - the guy who won a big tournament indian river lagoon - don't remember lake worth lagoon - capt. barry hobe sound - dr. ray We hit the wadefishing, half of the seatrout, lake worth and hobe sound presentations. All were excellent. Being sponsored by ranger boats, the focus was mainly on places to hit by boat. Most of the presentations were on spin/plug tackle but flies were addressed. Despite all that we managed to learn some good information. Retrieves were discussed frequently and I think they apply whether you're casting a plastic shrimp or a fur/feather shrimp. Also we learned of some good places to try wading and kayaking. Very informative and interesting. So when we weren't in sessions we were in the other main attraction: the exhibit booths! There were vendors like shimano & doa lures; tackle sales; places to visit; and non-profit groups like Florida state parks and the Florida Fish & Wildlife comission. Lots of good info, freebies and discounts to be had. Here's some of the things I took advantage of: TALS - a very cool tackle system for flies & artificials. They're round tubes which rotate open & closed. The fly tubes have moveable silicon pads to hook your flies into. They'll handle everything from small dries to big streamers. The tubes have integrated velcro and they attach to a pretty cool chest pack. I bought the pack with 6 tubes for $30. Neal got a tube. Shimano spinning rod/combo - gasp! yes, i bought a new spinning rod. Since we're coming into the windy season (heck, it's always windy down here) I wanted a backup to my fly rod. Please don't kick me out of the group! ;-> A t-shirt, a visor, and some beef jerky. A cool rod holder for wading and one for my kayak. Here's a list of things I was interested in but didn't get to for various reasons (time, money). A redbone fly rod w/hard case for $90. If it had been a 4 piece I would have been all over it but I couldn't justify another 2 pc. With my wife not working I had to conserve somewhere! Fishbites - some scientists came up with a way to artificially create the smell of shrimp into this rubber foam material. Thought it might be interesting in a fly... Cajun thunder - a big, ugly, noisy bobber-type contraption for spin rods which is supposed to be a fish magnet. I've noticed all of the tackle vendors seem to have one this year. More t-shirts. A shimano spin reel for $29 (couldn't remember what my old spinning rod was rated for). A sage discovery fly reel & line for $30. A leatherman wave for $50. Atomic tape, cool sticky rubber tape with no adhesive. And tons of other stuff. So, we had a great time, learned a lot, and left wanting more! No fishing but hopefully we learned some stuff which will help. I recommend these shows highly. They run throughout the state and throughout the year. I'm assuming the seminars all pertain to local topics so you can follow them around just like the Grateful Dead (still miss you Jerry)! Maybe I should whip up some tie-dyes now... Ken � �
