The Fred Hall show is coming to Long Beach March 9-13, and next week’s issue of WON will be the biggest of the year, and will be chock full of great information and seminar schedule and features on the show. From the looks of it, the sheer diversity and fun that’s planned this will be the best show ever. Really.
After 27 years of creating the official show program for the Hall family, my prediction has to carry a little bit of weight, right? One thing is for sure, we need a great show and a great fishing season. From where I sit, and from what I hear from skippers looking at conditions, all signs point to a fantastic fishing year in 2011, starting with the Hall shows.
WON will be there with three booths and some great drawings for Reactor watches and Costa sunglasses, subscription deals with free gifts, Brandon’s new book, and a major tournament announcement. Shhh. I shouldn’t have said anything, okay?
One mainstay of the show season, among the hundreds of booths and activities for all ages at both of the Hall shows in Long Beach and then Del Mar’s run two weeks later is keeping kids fishing. Friends of Rollo will be collecting all the $10 tickets it can at the shows. Then in Del Mar, after the show ends, names are drawn in a live one-hour radio broadcast on Let’s Talk Hookup. I’ll be there, like every year, to interview the winner either in person or by cell phone. And I’ll hope to win, too.
A series of great tackle and travel prizes will be doled out to the drawing winners, but the grand prize is a choice. The winner of the lucky ticket will have to choose between a Davis Boat, $25,000 cash or a Ford Truck.
Take the boat! It’s worth over $100,000! If not, and we’ll keep this inside deal on the QT, but sell it to me for $35,000, which is more than you’ll get for the truck and ten grand more than your cash prize.
So go out and win the boat for me. I need a sleek 26-foot tuna killer. The raffle tickets are just $10 each. There’s a lot of winners in this, deal, especially the kids who benefit from all the free charters this and other fundraisers pay for each year.
In addition to the Davis Boat, Ford Truck and cash, you’ll also be eligible to win a $2,000 Fisherman’s Landing gift card, an Alaska Fishing Trip at Sure-Strike Lodge for two, a Rancho Leonero Resort vacation for two, $2,000 worth of custom jewelry by Jon Pettey Custom Goldsmith, an Hawaii vacation for two from Cass Tours, a $2,000 certificate for Dana Landing Market and Fuel Dock and a $2,000 gift certificate towards a Royal Polaris Fishing Trip.
See you all at the show in Long Beach and Del Mar, and be sure to get a copy of the official show program as you walk in, re-up your subscription to WON, and throw down some $10 tickets for the Friends of Rollo Youth Fishing and Marine Education program.
Winners need not be present and the raffle is open to all U.S. residents 18 years old and over. Visit the website at www.friendsofrollo.com for more information. Stay tuned. Next week’s issue isn’t a bathing suit annual like SI, but for fisherman it’ll have to do.
Other highlights?
Shimano will be having seminars in their newly expanded booth, the largest in show history. Berkley will have continuous seminars in their 10,000 square foot booth. Plano and Field Time Sports & Guns will be sponsoring the dedicated hunting seminar area at the show, located next to the new Turner’s Outdoorsman booth that will feature a large firearm section. (All the seminar details can be found at www.fredhall.com.)
The shooting sports have a bigger part in the 2011 Fred Hall Shows. Big 5 will provide two pellet and BB gun ranges and two soft air ranges. Big 5 will have all of the BB, pellet and soft air products for sale at their booth along with a full line of Savage and Mossberg rifles and shotguns. There is also a Laser Shot shooting range hosted by the California Outdoor Heritage Alliance (COHA), and Orange County Archery will again have their archery shooting range.
Dock Dogs, duck races, more boats than ever in an out of the water, the Avet casting Pond is back, the usual hundreds of tackle vendors, the Lowrance Learning Center, a new on-land wakeboard demo by the most famous riders in the world and there’s even a new Fred Hall Experience Dive Pavilion and dive pool. Oh yeah, there’s a series of knife-throwing shows…. and they looking for volunteers. Just kidding.
Pat McDonell is editor of Western Outdoor News.
PATRONS FILE past the Davis Boat at a previous Long Beach show. The boat and other prizes will be awarded at the last day of the Del Mar show. Tickets are $10 each.
