We'll have to see what locations work best for the most Virginians. The Potomac is a great option but if we get guys from SWVA, or Central VA they may want to try somewhere else. I'll start a thread in a few months to get an idea about participants and locations.

i say briery or sandy river its right in the middle ;D ;D

Bah I cant go Friday Thai you wana go Saturday?

_Steve_ "wow no sale on lucky craft stuff"

20% off All Lucky Craft Lures at Green Top. 

Briery and sandy although great fisheries, for the time we are shooting for it will be crowded and there is a hp restriction....puttering around with just an electric is not fun for those who don't have a small kicker outboard.

David I won't be able to fish til sat anyways and I have plans already....but I'll let you know what's up and if we fish a spot that's got enough room for anfew people. Sunday I promised I would spend time with the girly.....

Sounds good - keep me in the loop!

I was at the Expo today setting up a booth. The vendor participation is less than last year. Only two buildings are being used and they are not full.

The Hawg Trough is in the first building, that should give you a hint.

Wayne, the show is all we have so we have to enjoy it.

With the new management and the economy picking up maybe we will have more vendors in the future.

We are very fortunate to have Green Top, Gander Mountain, Castaways, Dance's, Fishing Pro Tech, Hookers and Bass Pro Shop in our area to visit for tackle.

There is another expo in Timonium, Maryland this weekend but it is too far to travel to attend.

Green Top is having their big sale this weekend so everyone can visit that store on Route 1 just north of I-295.

Did we ever set up a time, day and place to meet this year? If so, can you give it to me?

Thanks   

im headed down there in a few minutes. I'll be wearing an orange north face jacket and a mets hat.

I went by Green Top also. Green Top has a booth at the Expo too, it's been a few years since that have done that.

Don't forget to stop by the SHAM-WOW booth, LOL

There are a few other flea market booths too.

Who's going tomorrow and when/where will you be?

I will be making my way down there around 1 or so.  who else going to be at the expo tomorrow?

i will be there tomorrow with my twin and dad but i could seperate from them and meet up at whatever time everyone else is meeting up.

Just got back. Went to Green Top (twice), the Expo, Gander Mtn, and BPS. What a day.

Check out Gander Mtn. They had Daiwa Zillions for $100 off retail plus some other reels that were steeply discounted.

Green Top was cool. They always have stuff that I haven't seen anywhere else.

The Expo was definitely smaller than the past couple years but there was still some cool stuff. Dave's Tournament tackle is a must. They will build spinnerbaits,jigs, and buzzbaits to order right there in front of you. There is also a booth next to it that was selling Culprit stuff for $1.50/a bag and Xcalibur stuff for $5/lure. Very good prices.

I also saw some cool rods around. JB Customs, Kipper sticks, Powells, Damiki, Shimanos, Daiwas, etc... I saw Cumaras for $160. My buddy bought a beat up (but mechanically good) TD-X for $25 from fishing Pro Tech. I also saw some rare japanese type stuff, 3:16 frogs that were HUGE, some cool swimbaits that are hard to find, sweet soft plastics, and some custom jigs/spinnerbaits.

We saw Gerald Swindle's seminar at the bass tank. It was more stand-up comedy than fishing instruction but he told a pretty funny story about "pooping his britches" in front of a female BASS marshal on the last day of a tournament. It was HILARIOUS.

Topped the day off with some Phat Boyz BBQ.

I'll be there tomorrow.   I'll be wearing blue jeans and a green, denim Carhartt hooded jacket.   I live in Newport News so I won't be there too early.  How's 11:00 AM sound? 

Sam, are you working a booth there?

I was at the show again today to talk to the Longwood University fishing team. I talked to the Daiwa rep. in the Green Top booth about the Samurai superline. He said the store had what I wanted.

I went by there on the way home and all they had of what I wanted was in a 1500 yard spool. I didn't want to take out a loan to buy it, so I told them I would just order a filler spool. I won't be going back until Sunday afternoon for the vendor evacuation.

The show wasnt huge but there was some cool stuff there. I spent a lil coin at the daves tourney tackle display. I was very tempted to buy a damiki rod. I also went by green top and got a bunch of deep diving pointers, some dtt jigs in pbj and a few other lil things. Good way to spend a day indeed. Swindle was cool but all he really talked bout was crankbaits at least the 15 minutes that I watched. Funny guy tho. Crews was a cool guy, spoke to him for maybe 2 or 3 minutes. As far as deals, there was someone there selling pointers for 12 bux and I got some nice jigs for a buck. I didnt however see the $160 cumaras, wish I had tho. Lots of nice custom rods there too. Very tempting .

I was there around 12pm and caught the show...i agree it was more of a comedy show then anything else i was kinda disapointed. He maybe talked 10-15min of actual fishing / tips.

Anyways i also thought the expo was small but did have a few good stands! I loaded up at the discount stand across from Daves Tournament Tackle. They had zoom,culprit and few other good brands marked way down! $1.50-$1.75 per pack!!  I also had Dave make me up 3 spinner baits, and i made 5 of my own jigs they had every color skirt and jig head you could imagine and prices were not too bad. The spinnerbaits / jigs are top quality. While i was there a guy put a order in of over 100 swim jigs all sexy shad color . Def worth stopping by!

I went to greentop bf the show and got some sebile magic swimmer hard & soft. I also got a couple of crankbaits, jigs, and trailers. Oh yea also got a Jackall Giron blue gill swimbait, it caught my eye and i had to have it! Its not as BIG as some of the other bluegill swim baits on the market its more like a baby bluegill at 4'' and looks so real.

as wayne said dont forgot the shamwow booth! ;D

As far as seminars i would attend another guys seminar if your wanting to learn something, Swindle was a funny guy and nice just didnt talk enough fishin knowin everyone there had cabin fever!!

i cant wait to see all the seminars at the expo, i think ima go see 4 of them tommarow lol

I was there today from 11:00AM to about 12:30PM, at which time I headed to Green Top.

I'm sorry to say that I was rather disappointed. No Daiwa booth this year that I saw. I found no deals anywhere, except the free samples of the Jacks Links beef jerky. The trout pond for kids was kinda cool. But the crassness of some of the vendors was unbearable. I saw one guy looking at some custom rods - nice, but nothing to write home about. The guy looked at one and put it back and wandered off. The guys at the booth bad mouthed him out loud and said something to the effect that they can't help it if he doesn't catch fish if he's not fishing with one of their rods. : Too many people asking for donations.

And the worse part, I didn't see Sam or Dan anywhere. 

Micro, which rod vendor made that comment?

I sent you a PM.

I was there today from 11:00AM to about 12:30PM, at which time I headed to Green Top.

I'm sorry to say that I was rather disappointed. No Daiwa booth this year that I saw. I found no deals anywhere, except the free samples of the Jacks Links beef jerky. The trout pond for kids was kinda cool. But the crassness of some of the vendors was unbearable. I saw one guy looking at some custom rods - nice, but nothing to write home about. The guy looked at one and put it back and wandered off. The guys at the booth bad mouthed him out loud and said something to the effect that they can't help it if he doesn't catch fish if he's not fishing with one of their rods. : Too many people asking for donations.

And the worse part, I didn't see Sam or Dan anywhere.

I was going to warn you last night that there was no Daiwa booth but I forgot about it. Did you stop by the Dave's Tournament Tackle booth? They had some cool stuff. Average prices but stuff that I don't see very often like ima, deps, etc..

Was it just me or did Pro Tech's booth seem a little light this year?

I'll bet that was the JB Rods booth, wasn't it? Those guys are always very ballsy. They will NOT STOP TALKING TO YOU if you stop in their booth. I agree with you about the rods too. They were ok. Nothing awesome and most of the rods had crappy guides. They sure do like to use that dollar bill demo trick, but I"m pretty sure you can feel a dollar bill across the tip guide of just about any graphite rod...

I wish we could have had a meet up but I just couldn't manage a second trip down there. Besides, I managed to catch my first 2 bass of the year while fishing today instead. ;D

The Pro Tech booth was less stocked than last year. I bought a pack of plastic worms there to demo the weedless wacky rig for some that asked about it.

I was going to warn you last night that there was no Daiwa booth but I forgot about it. Did you stop by the Dave's Tournament Tackle booth? They had some cool stuff. Average prices but stuff that I don't see very often like ima, deps, etc..

I did.  But I didn't buy anything.  I didn't see much in the way of jigs that Green Top doesn't already carry.  They did have some Dave's plastics I hadn't seen before.   

Was it just me or did Pro Tech's booth seem a little light this year?

Were they there?  I didn't even see them.

I'll bet that was the JB Rods booth, wasn't it? Those guys are always very ballsy.

As a matter of fact, I think that was JB's booth.  They even knocked my equipment.  They asked me what I fished with and then told me to sell my rods for wahtever I could get for them and buy a few of theirs.  (Yes, it was JBs.  I just looked them up and they sell the rods with the epoxy ball handles.)

Besides, I managed to catch my first 2 bass of the year while fishing today instead. ;D

That's worth missing it for!