What better way to get yourself primed for the summer recreation season ahead than the Big Sky Sports and Outdoor Show.
This weekend, the Adams Event Center in Missoula will be filled with exhibitors displaying the latest in outdoor products and offering tips on how to use them.
You might want to book a hunting or fishing trip to Canada, Alaska, or over to Fort Peck Reservoir in the summer ahead.
Or maybe you’re looking for a larger purchase – perhaps a boat or RV – to set yourself up for many summers of fun ahead.
For all those things, the Adams Event Center is where you will want to be.
The Big Sky Sports and Outdoor Show and it is put together by the Missoulian. For $5, you can spend all day learning about fishing, hunting and outdoor events, plus you might just pick up a bargain on a rod, reel, GPS unit, and even a guaranteed lure from me. That’s right, a lure that is guaranteed to catch fish.
You can bring the whole family to the show because kids under 12 years old get in free.
The outdoor show is more than just exhibitors. You can take in seminars and see displays as well.
Professional traiger Dan Marr will be offering dog training seminar. Last year, Marr played taught standing room only crowds when he talked about how to make your dog your best friend.
Big Game hunters can bring in their trophies to the Boone and Crocket booth to be measured and scored. Boone and Crockett will also display a life-sized mount of the world record bighorn sheep, killed in Alberta in 2000.
For kids, the Big Sky Bassers will be holding its CastingKids clinic and women can learn that fishing can be fun from one of Montana’s only women walleye fishing guides, Mary Beth Kibler from Sands Springs.
The Canoe Rack will offer seminars in the Grizzly Pool for canoeing and kayaking.
Erin Best, from the Missoulain, tells me that this year’s show is their best yet. It has a more diverse group of exhibitors and seminar topics than ever before.
Show hours are 4 to 9 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
I will be at the Montana Outdoor Radio Show booth giving out free Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks 2003 Big Game and Upland Bird scheduling cards. Wayne Knudson (Walleye Wayne) will join me along with other members of the statewide radio show. We will also broadcast our normal 2-hour Montana Outdoor Radio Show from 6 to 8 a.m. Saturday from the Event Center. Then you can listen to a Special Edition show from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. on KGVO 1290am in Missoula and KLYQ 1240am in Hamilton. On that show we will have an opportunity to talk to some of the exhibitors and people who are putting on the seminars. Be sure to stop by our exhibit booth and say hello.
FISHING — Fishing is hot on Flathead Lake, according to Dick Zimmer. On the south end, Rocky Point is the hottest sppt, especially during the early part of the day. The best fishing is deep at about 160-220 feet. Zimmer can fill you in on how to fish for the lake trout and what to use. Call him at 406-675-0068 or e-mail him for a complete report at macman@ronan.net.
I also received a note from Steve Stelling from Great Falls. Stelling says the boat ramps on Holter Lake are open at Gates of the Mountain and will probably be open at the BLM campground by this weekend. Last Saturday, Stelling reported he measured about 4 inches of ice on the BLM campground and he thinks with the nice weather the boat ramp should be ready to launch by Saturday.
