East TN Fishing Show 2011

We had been planning on going to the East TN Fishing show for the past few weeks. Matthew was so excited to be going and he talked about it almost 24/7. We invited my bro-in-law, Wayne, to go with us. We arrived about 9:50 and stood in a very long line of camoflauged and UT decked out fishing fans. I was really a little surprised at how many people were attending. I've been to things like this in the past where the crowd was very small, but there were several hundred people present in the first hour of opening.

We walked around and looked at all of the different fishing booths. Lots of tackle, rods, reels, and boats were on hand. The prices varied from ridiculously high to very reasonable. I wasn't really looking to buy anything, I was more or less just there for Matthew. I love to fish but Matthew is a fishing nut! He was like a kid in a candy store as he walked up and down each isle looking at all of the colorful lures. I enjoyed looking at the boats on display. I own a Jon boat that is so small that I'm scared to take it out much. It tips over real easily. I saw some very nice Alumacraft Jon boats there that had my mouth watering. Of course they had a pretty hefty price tag on them so I was only looking.

We came across one booth that was selling plugs 3 for $8.00. What a bargain! We bought 3 nice ones and I can't wait to use them. We then made our way upstairs and as soon as we rounded the corner a man was standing behind the Crockett Creek Jerky booth giving out free samples beef jerky. Well, I've never been one to turn down beef jerky so I sampled several bites. It was pretty good. I bought 2 bags which were marked 2 for $10.00, not a bad price for jerky. Like I said, it was pretty good but not near as good as the jerky that my Uncle Ronnie makes. He makes homemade deer jerky and it's the best you've ever eaten. If you ever get a sample of his you will compare everything from there on out with it.

As we were upstairs we looked down to the ground level and spotted the Tennessee fishing legend, Bill Dance, sitting at a table signing autographs! Matthew really wanted to meet Bill so we made our way downstairs and stood in the long line for nearly 50 minutes to wait our turn. As we approached Bill he smiled really big and asked my son what his name was. "Matthew," he replied. "Do they call you Matt or Matthew," Bill asked? "Matthew," my son said. "Matthew, that sounds dignified," Bill retorted. They made some more small talk as Bill signed a 5x7 picture of himself. He then invited him to sit beside him and have his picture made. I thought it turned out pretty good for a Blackberry picture. Matthew sure is proud of it.

It was a great day and worth the very low admission price of $5.00. You can't find values like that in many places these days. We will definitely go back again next year when they have it. Maybe we will save up a little cash between now and then so we can do more than just window shop!