The anticipation and guessing of not if it will happen but when it will happen.
Ice out this afternoon will rank as one of the earliest here in East Central Minnesota but also brings to mind that we are experiencing one of the worst droughts in some time as our lakes look depleted.
We made it though, coming off the second straight season of good ice.
And second season of good shows, despite the sagging economy.
Last weeks sport show, although people will argue attendance figures there is no mistaking that people came to the show to buy.Most of the vendors on the tackle side would agree that fishing related products sold.
We even heard rumors that a few boats were sold.
Resorts owners were quietly optimistic but coming off a third consecutive season where people dcided to stay closer to home there will undoubtably be more woes in the resort industry this year.
Fishing rods were the ticket all winter as well as reel purchases.
Combo packages ruled while rods in the 29-59 dollar range did well.
Rods in the 89-112 did good also,with higher end rods lagging but were the best value. If a person was looking to get a quality rod this was the year to do it. The show specials were good. The few domestic rod manufactures remaining responded with price minded domestically constructed rods. Lamiglas for instance introduced it's Excel Rod series, produced domestically with prices from 99-120 dollars. The company, employees and factory personnel all took a hit to get these rods to market.
Marine electronics sales were strong, and the value minded consumer took advantage of the many show deals and competitive nature of the dealers competing for business while dealers settled for razor thin margins and pushed volumne instead of margin.
Lures and Terminal Tackle sold well all season .
Consumers proved that price was not an issue when it comes to catching the big one.
5.00 lighted bobbers, 3.00 for a hook and 12-15 dollars crank baits.
Flurocarbon line continued to sell well in an ever growing category of manufactures.
StowMaster Nets was another surprise as before the seaon I personally thought we would see a drop in the high end landing net category 79-200 dollar nets.The consumer said otherwise as the need for quality and portability was confirmed and saw our numbers in line with last season.
What I have learned is that people will not give up activities in which they are passionate about but instead find a smarter way in which to participate in them.
It was also nice to see the likes of Gary Roach, Tony Roach, Ron Al Linder,Chris Gilaman, Tommy Skarlis, Mark Courts and many others out sharing their continued excitiement about our favorite past time besides swatting skeeters.
