Day 2 - got there a little late, had a great time, met some of the people whose stories and lives I have come to admire. I ran into some members from this site, got a chance to connect the names with the faces.
Ran into a few guys from another site, some who I have never met, but enjoyed their stories, others who I haven't seen since last year. Met LeoDA, the guy should be a writer for all the cool stories he puts out.
Also some interesting conversations with some old school guys, they been fishin the salt 40+ years. The Greek, and some others, had some great stories about how things were before, during, and after the moratorium. More on that in another thread. Was cool meeting ya all.
Good time had by all, well put together show by Montauk Surfcasters Assoc.
Most of the pics looked terrible after I resized them, really sucks. No way do they capture the size and excitement of the halls and the day. Sorry people. I did this in a hurry and will have to do better next time.
Originals are much clear, bigger, and don't have anyone's head cut off! Anyone who wants copies of the originals, e-mail me with the title of the one you want and I'll send one out to ya. Most originals are around 1.7MB.
Some pics:
Zeno giving his lecture. He talked about fishin inlets, the back sides, bigger bass eating big meals, and how to strategize all this for a good game plan. Room was packed, pic taken fromoutside.
Zeno was nice enough to let me take a pic of him outside, but the resizing chopped off part of his head, sorry, dude.
KFA - these guys are doin a great job on the Brookhaven access fight, passing around petitions and keeping it in the front of the press. I passed some of the petitions on to Joe to post. The KFA booth is in the back corner to the left. Stop by their booth or MSA's booth across the aisle to sign those petitions if you go there tofday, guys. They need more signatures!
MSA member pics - these guys did a great job puting that show together. Someone said Willy Young and Montauk Pete were the guys in charge, but you could tell it took a great team effort on the part of all of them. The worked hard to see it all went down smoothly.
Only glitch was where they put the plugbuilders, but they got different ideas for that next year. This was the first year bringin the plugbuilders in, hopefully the kinks get ironed out.
One of my fishing and fishing politics idols- Willy Young Didn't get the name of the friend he was with. Willy keeps going strong, and always has a funny story to tell. I hope I have half his energy if I make it to his age.
There was a whole bunch of other tables, gear, demonstrations from VS, charter captains, too much to list. Ill try to post more pics when I get the time. Lotta good people in LI.
Here's the deal. MSA did a great job, but I gotta be honest with my comments. I went to that show and hoped to see the plugbuilders, but it was tough to find them.
There were in a hall, down a hallway, all the way in the back. I only managed to find them because I was looking for them, and even then it was like driving to Alaska.
They had some posters up, and today there will be more support. They had a megaphone to walk around the main hall and let guys know where they were. Still, I felt bad. I think if more guys knew where they were, they would have sold more plugs.
Also, it's a cost issue, tables in the main hall cost more, and the builders paid less. It's tough runnin a small business, if the builders had to pay full price, maybe only one would have made $$, the rest would have barely broke even.
So next year things should be different. The first year trying something out, there will always be snags, thats expected. In all, it was good to se those guys there, and I saw some amazing plugs, they're a great bunch of guys.
Anyone going to the show today, they're all the way in the back, then you go down a hall, the builders room is on the left (unless they moved them).
Peek in the room and take a walk around, ask the guys questions about their work. They're proud of what they do, and want to see people catch fish with their plugs, fish em hard! Stop by and say Hi!
Al Gags is an old salt among plug builders. I forgot to ask him how many years, but he's been doin it forever. I hope he has a lot of good years left. He also knows Tony Spina well, had nothing but good things to say about Tony.
I got a chance to talk to him a bit, the man knows his stuff, he had me hangin on his words.
And he knows his fish. Some guy bought a plug from him, came back and said: "Hey Al this plug is bad, it can't catch any fish!" Al asked him where he was fishin, and how he was fishin the plug. He told the guy exactly why he wasn't catching fish. The next day the guy came to Al, raving how he slayed em in the same spot wher he couldn't catch them. That knowledge you can't learn on the internet. Comes from years of experience, trial and error, and learning from your mistakes.
Ask Al, he knows!
It was a pleasure to meet ya, Al.
Here's Al with Mrs (or Ms) Al. Al landed a young wife, nice!
Don Guimelli is a helluva guy. I first met him last year. I remembereed a story he told me about supporting the little guy and tackle shops. I asked him to re-tell it yesterday.
Seems there was a bass pro shop coming to his area. They knew Don and his long standing reputation of making good plugs. They wanted him to sell to them to bring the local fishermen in their bigbox store. He told them to go eff themselves, he wasn't interested.
We also talked about all the small Mom and Pop shops that have gond out of business once walmart, sports authority, basspro, and cabelas come into an area. He's a very vocal opponent to this, having had a close friend who was pushed out of business by one of these stores.
Fishermen demand low prices, and we all like to get a deal on something. Sometimes we don't realize that saving that $5 or $10 could be the straw that pushed that small shop out of business, taken cumulatively.
Here's to Don for standing up for what he believes in, even though he would make more $$ by accepting their business. I'm glad I ran into him again. great guy.
I forgot how long Jim has been doing this, but he's good people. He's really into his plugs and making sure that people catch fish on them and are happy.
Little history about Jim and how he came to build plugs: He used to be a commercial clammer, clamming Raritan Bay. Don't need to tell ya how hard that is, long hours for low money, ya can't get rich bein a clammer, and its physically demanding work everyy day. You don't work, ya don't bring any money in.
So he decided to build a new life and began building plugs, among other things. Nice guy, knows a lot about fishin, especially the Cape. Stop by and pick his brain sometime.
Last but not least, one of the best quality plug makers out there. He uses a special finish for his plugs, hardened epoxy makes them almost bullet proof.
The owner, Phil, is a great guy, I've met him a few times. He loves to talk about his factory and the process they have perfected over the years. They are well-known in Europe and Canada for trophy musky and pike fishing.
One reservation some guys have about buying them is they're not through wired. However, muskie fishermen swear by them and their toughness. Their plugs and the special finish will stand up to those toothy critters, so why not trophy bass and bluefish?
Phil couldn't make it this year, MRBigfish is running the booth for him. MBF is a behind the scenes fisherman, doesn't like to brag, but this kid knows fish, and muskies. Ask him how these plugs hold up, and you won't need further convincing.
I managed to avoid spending $$, because I don't have too much right now. My budget was $20, I got one thing at the RBAC show, and a pink spook here to replace one I lost to a big bass on the rocks.
Crazy Alberto is a good customer of his too, and cleaned Phil out of certain plugs at a show last year. I will personally attest that the Ace baits spook is my goto plug. I have caught more fish on that thing in warmer water. I almost wish I was rich enough to buy them all from Phil so no one else could, I love those spooks.
1/31/09 LI Recreational fishing expo Farmingdale
No way do they capture the size and excitement of the halls and the day. Sorry people. I did this in a hurry and will have to do better next time.
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