ISE Show

For those of you not familiar with ISE, it's the International Sportsman Exposition at Cal Expo in Sacramento.

Lots of hunting and fishing stuff.

Since I don't hunt, I bypassed that area and focused on the fishing area. This year they had one area dedicated solely to fly fishing. As soon as I walked through the door I ran into Gary from American Fly Fishing Company. We chatted and joked while he was setting up his booth and then I moved on.

Most of the vendors were the "Come fish my resort" types in California and Alaska with a some vendors thrown in like the usual jerky seller, and the cooking spice guys.   

After two rows  and I can pass by those guys in a heartbeat, I came across this guy.

Yours truly and Daniel Galhardo from Tenkara USA

OK, I know the picture was from last year, but Daniel was with a future Tenkara fisherman and all I got to do was say hi, but I did spend a good amount of time chatting with TJ whom you all know if you've touched on the Tenkara USA forum. If you haven't, jump out there and have a look.

http://www.tenkarausa.com/forum/

After the fly fishing area I cruised by the Hobie Kayak area and drooled my way to the other fishing area. Man, some of those kayaks are really cool, but big bucks. The fishing area was same old, same old, but I was on a mission and had two things in mind that I wanted to get. First I needed a new spool of 2# Fluorocarbon for my little Okuma (they were there too). I figured Fisherman's Warehouse would have it, but there was so much stuff I was overwhelmed and decided I'd get it later. The other place was Pro-Cure (they had a booth and a gazillion bottles of bait scents) where I picked up another squeezer of garlic scent. OK, they probably have some scientific name for the bottle, but you know what I'm talking about.

After walking by booth after booth with corn dogs, BBQ, burgers, and kettle corn, and with my stomach growling I wrapped it up and headed for Carl Jr's for a Big Carl Combo and the drive home.

All they way up the hill, all I could see was dark clouds. Did I mention that it snowed last night? No, well it also started snowing just as I drove into our driveway and it snowed hard. I also have to mention that it only snowed on our property, not Bob's or Roy's, or anybody else's, just ours. I detect some discrimination here. 

OK, that's it for today. Next week, maybe the American River for chrome if the crowds have abated. If not, maybe New Melones with my fly rod and a Thin Mint. Well see.

Mark