WNY Sport & Travel Expo Recap

[Scott McKee]

Hi Team,

I'm just unpacking our gear from the WNY Sport & Travel Expo and I needed a break, so here's a quick update from our booth at the Hamburg Show.  Thanks to our Event Coordinator, Carrie Keane, our booth once again looked great this year.  We were located pretty much in the center of the main building.  I'm not sure if that helped or hurt traffic, but despite numbers of attendees down, we still managed to gain two new members.

Moeen Abu-Sitta stopped by and told John Jarosz and I he has been trying for the past three years to catch a musky in the upper and still hasn't connected.  After we talked to Moeen for a few minutes, he joined.   I've never seen a new members fork over $20 so fast!  Moeen is a really nice guy and I'm sure we'll help equip and prepare him for his first musky catch this year.  Moeen, thanks again for joining the NMA and never hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.  I am really looking forward to fishing with you this year.  Make sure the batteries in your camera are charged.  You will catch your first musky this season.

Most of you know Mike Fortunate, our lovable little teddy musky.  Did you know he has a twin brother?  (Remind me to send a sympathy card from the club to their mother!)  Mike's brother, Matt, joined and I couldn't be any happier.  If he's anything like Mike, we have gained a great new member.  We should consider ourselves, "fortunate" to have them both.  (Sorry about the awful pun.)

Paul Powell, Joe Zolnowski, Russell Zimmer, Andy Wypior, Andy Hector, Jim Spadafora, Dayton Kane, Scott and Cory Krawczyk all re-upped their memberships, which is of course great news.  Have you renewed your membership yet?

Many thanks to everyone who volunteered their time at our booth: John Jarosz, Mark Wozniak, Mike Fortunate, Adam Kazmark, Joe Wilczewski, Carrie Keane, Tom Page, Andrew Buxton, and Ray Mahtook!  John and Mark, thanks for helping take down our booth.

Our booth looked great.  We signed up two new members.  We had nine members renew their memberships.  We sold a few banquet tickets.  We passed out a bunch of steel leaders to interested show goers and kids, and even though the number of people attending the show was way down, I think we instructed a few would-be musky anglers how to release our favorite fish properly.  Not too bad of a weekend.

Scott

[John Jarosz]

yeah, gang....it was a busy show yesterday.  Quite a bit of traffic.  We were right in the middle of the outfitters, which seemed out-of-place for what the club does, but a crowd still managed to stop by & chat.  I was surprised at the number of fly fishermen who stopped to talk, most of them steelheaders, but they did take our brochures while we explained the meetings, guest speakers, beavers project & the benefits of being in the club.  Who knows, we might get a few fly fishers.  They were all invited to attend.

John Pensyl's mom stopped by to point out her son's pic.  Now, that was one proud mom of John's catch.  She had a little trouble seeing it from a distance, so hopefully John can get a bigger fish this year to help her out.

Tom Page & his grandson (Drew) also stopped by. I might have created a monster but there's a future for that kid in fly tying.  Ive never seen an eight (?) year old pick it up like he did.

All-in-all, a great looking booth, good company, good visitors, a good time.  And Mark W's "coffin" for the muskie mount is an engineering marvel.  NASA should use his design for their next spacecraft.

A special thanks to the two Southtowns Walleye guys  who came with a wheeled wagon & hauled practically the whole booth outside to the truck.  It saved the three of us a lot of work. 

[Capt. Larry D. Jones]

Sounds like the NMA Booth was another great success this year again! Chris, Hope, Gary & I will see everyone at the April NMA Meeting. If you do not have a speaker for the April Meeting we would be happy to show Guyana Fishing pictures and video of Arapiama(South American Muskies) Catch & Release!