The Portland Sportsman’s Show was amazing. I highly recommend checking this show out at least once. A few people said that this show is the largest Sportsman’s show in the Pacific Northwest. We drove down and picked up some great products and met some great people. One day was not enough to comfortably walk thru this show. Two days would have been better.
Thankfully, we arrived in time to attend the show on Friday. The show on Friday did not look as busy as it was Saturday morning when we left Portland.
I was impressed with the layout of the show. We checked out the fishing section first. We met some great people at SuperFly Flies. Sarah bought a couple of tube flies to try this year. Later in the day, I circled back to pick up 2 sizes of action discs that they were selling. Next, we met with Frank Bellinger of Frank’s Fly Box. Frank was fun to talk to and an inspiration. He is one of the many people “living the dream” while also working full time. We picked up 2 of his lures and are excited to try them.
We then spent some time talking with the Scotty team next door. Scotty puts on a great display of their products at every show they attend. We compared a few rod holders that we are eyeing up to try next. At this time, it’s a tie between the power lock and striker rod holders. They both look great and will comfortably hold any rod size we throw at them.
We spent some more time at the Kokanee Kid Fishing booth. It was difficult to choose one lure only, but I managed to choose one. My ability to hold back on my spending set a steady pace for the rest of the day. This allowed me to buy a sampling of a few different items that are hard to find (or you can not find) here in Canada.
Next, we met with some great people at the Mack’s Lure booth. I missed meeting one of the members that was at the show. Maybe next time. We checked out their new products for the upcoming year and might pick some up later in the season (their products are more readily available here in Canada).
After the Mack’s booth, we came to a product produced by some of the most approachable people we met at the show. Enter Fillet Away Fish Mats. We have seen these Mats on social media and have been interested in them from day one. Like most things we usually buy, we enjoy having them in our hand before buying them. The mat felt like a great quality and we opted to walk away and continue “shopping” in case something else was at the show that we “had to have.” Later in the show, we circled back to purchase one of these mats. We are now the proud owners of a great product that has a promising future filleting kokanee for our smoker. On a side note, these mats are not available in Canada. The great people at Fillet Away Fish Mats are working hard at getting their product to our shelves in the near future.
Our next stop of interest brought us to the Addicted Fishing booth. It was great to chat with some of the guys including Cameron Black who makes some great kokanee YouTube videos.
The next stop brought us to Brad’s Killer Fishing Gear. We checked out some new KCPs and was able to talk to Brad himself. We ended up buying another, “new to us” Brad’s extreme dodger across the “street” at Bob’s.
Then, the “booth” I was most excited about was Bob’s Sporting Goods “store.” I’ve been wanting to get my hands on some more Rocky Mountain Tackle and Bob’s had lots of it. It was great to have the opportunity to talk with Jared Johnson and Sam Baird. Social media has definitely allowed the sport of fishing to blossom over the years and has helped people reach places we could not reach before (without the expense of a heavily financed marketing plan). We enjoyed talking with Jared and Sam. Their love of fishing and stories are what fishing is all about. I also picked up some of Sam’s kokanee scents. The ice can’t melt quick enough now.
The Anglers West booth looked great and I missed talking with Justin Wolff. There simply was not enough time for everything. I enjoy watching his YouTube channel and look forward to the next episode.
After the fishing section, we sat thru a walleye seminar presented by Austin Moser. I really wanted to attend a kokanee seminar earlier in the day presented by Marc, but we were so busy trying to see every booth that we lost track of time. We then took a quick look at a few fishing boats that I can not afford at this time. I really like the guide style boats with a larger tiller motor and kicker motor at the back. These boats look like fishing machines with comfortable seats for everyone on the boat. My only question to those who own one is: can these be fitted with a bimini top for rainy weather?
The last section we explored was the hunting and guiding section. There were great taxidermy exhibits and many great guiding outfitters from across the continent. We met some great people from 108 mile and another great guide from Ft St James. We also found some interesting binocular harnesses that had multiple ways to carry your binos. They also had accessories you could clip to the harness for carrying other items on your harness. We enjoyed meeting Richy who makes some great kokanee videos and travels often to fish the Cariboo. His YouTube videos of kokanee fishing in the Cariboo can be found at Harrod Outdoors.
We also found some cool products that we will be keeping in mind for next time. Sarah “needs” a new pair of waders for the boat and salmon fishing. There was a great pair of waders for sale made by a friendly company that was very excited about their product. We also saw some nice waterproof bags that would be great on the boat and the accessories could transition the bags into hunting and backpacking machines. We were also able to have a one on one instructional demonstration on how a Chamberlain Release works.
Before we left on Saturday, I was also able to meet up with Luke and talk fishing for a bit as well. To finish our trip to Portland, I decided to also search the area for the infamous “white shoepeg corn.” We went to 3 stores in search of this prized commodity. We found corn at 2 of the 3 stores. I cleared the shelf at the first store and left one “slightly” dented can on the shelf in case there was another angler in need.
We will be back to this show for sure. Next time, I will be scheduling 2 days which should allow us more time to see everything at a slower pace.