The Truman Lake Fishing Expo kicks off fishing fever on February 10th and 11th. It’s to be held at Clinton’s Benson Convention Center on Sedalia Avenue.
Last year’s inaugural event brought in 1500 people from five different states, said Clay Radford, of Radford Media Group, the event organizer. He added that he wants the expo to be a common spring destination in the future.
The Expo will be a mix of fishing seminars and exhibits, boats and kayaks and tackle. There will be guides and services. Overall, 27 exhibitors will be in place. “There are another six exhibitors who are interested but have not yet committed,” says Radford, speaking in mid-January.
Seminars include Barry Morrow and Chad Maupin, professional crappie fishermen, talking about how to land bigger fish and Chris Brooke of the Missouri Department of Conservation discussing the different kinds of fish in Truman Lake and the habitats in which they may be found. Also speaking will be Bob May of Bob’s No Wake Zone radio show. His presentation will cover boating safety.
Angler’s Port Marine will bring fishing boats. Everharts will have kayaks; Truman Lake Marine will have “four or five’’ fishing pontoons. Benton County Tourism will be there as well to greet visitors as they come in the door.
For those coming from out of the area, Angler’s Port Marine will be hosting a Garmin electronics seminar in their Warsaw store starting at 10 on the 11th; lunch is included.
There also will be the opportunity to not only view the latest in fishing gear but also the option to buy some of it.
“We are going to have 25 or 30 feet of retail this year,” says Jared Fofnow of Everharts. “Our customers wanted us to have some retail. Last year we only had kayaks, so this year we’ve added canoes-- and crappie and bass lures and rods and several crappie combos. We’ll even bring a snagging combo.” Fofnow said that last year, Everharts sold “8 or 10” kayaks at the show. “But we had to run customers back to the store where we had more in stock.”
Alex Palmer of Palmer’s Custom Baits will be there and have stock on hand to sell as well. “We have three basic styles of soft plastic baits intended for crappie fishing,” Palmer said. “We have a large variety of colors and can make custom colors to order.” He said that his lures are “tougher” than the ordinary run of soft-plastic crappie lures.
Truman Lake Marine’s Dustin Burroughs says this is the first year that the company will be an exhibitor. “We were there last year to see how the show was doing, and it was a good show. That’s why we’re back this year as an exhibitor.”
Nee Nee’s Italian Steakhouse will be selling food: seafood gumbo, lasagna, carnitas, burgers, hot dogs, chili dogs, chili, chips, drinks and some snacks.
The admission fee is $5, and with the ticket price comes a chance to win the raffle. Last year, the winning ticket won a kayak, but this year’s prize has yet to be decided. Additional raffle tickets are $5 each.
The Expo will be open Friday at 10am and run until 7pm. Saturday’s hours are 8am to 5pm.
For more information, go to: www.trumanlakefishingexpo.godaddysites.com.
