Outdoor enthusiasts unite

Published 9:00 pm Saturday, February 17, 2007

As this “Winter from Hell” slinks slowly and miserably toward the sunset, it’s nice to have someone remind us that good stuff is just around the corner. Sunny skies, flat water, nesting geese, trout rising, salmon cruising, sturgeon snuffling, morels popping, and all the rest. That, basically, is what winter’s circuit of outdoor shows is all about, and nobody puts out a product quite as dependable, reliable, well-broken-in and comfy as the O’Loughlin family, with their upcoming Evergreen Sportsmen’s Show.

All the old favorites will be there, at the Monroe Fairgrounds: the kids’ trout pond; the popular Head and Horns competition; sporting dogs tricks and training; fly tying and casting; camp cookery, with samples for all; a repeat of last year’s star attraction, Brutus the grizzly, even more impressive since he tacked on an additional 200 pounds over the holidays; a huge slate of outdoor seminars, and lots more.

After our struggles with record floods, record rainfall, a half-dozen huge windstorms and power outages, it will be nice to stand in front of, say, the G. Loomis booth, with one of their fresh, new graphite sticks in your hand, dreaming of finally hooking that fish of a lifetime. Comfy. Sort of like eating meatloaf in your stocking feet.

Here’s a quick rundown:

Fishing boats: The O’Loughlins have upped their emphasis on fishing craft this year, with more than a dozen area marine dealers on tap to show off their new 2007 models. New aluminum boats at the show will include Habercraft, North River, Tracker, Starcraft, Weldcraft, Lund, Smokercraft, and Alumaweld.

“Starcraft’s Superfisherman series feature higher sides, new interiors, a foot-wider floor and a better ride,” said Scott Weedman, owner of Three Rivers Marina in Woodinville. “We plan to target bass, walleye, Eastern Washington, Lake Washington and Puget Sound fishermen.”

Doug Spady, owner of Doug’s Marine, plans to promote Custom Weld’s 22-foot Coastal White Water.

“This boat is designed for the Pacific Northwest, with higher sides, a deeper V and stick steering,” Spady said. “We can custom tweak this model into a Hummer; it’s a four-wheel drive boat for all seasons.”

New glass boats at the show will include C-Dory, Boston Whaler, Glacier Bay Cats, Seaswirl, Clackacraft River Boats, Double Eagle, Walker Bay, Crestliner, and more.

Inflatable fans will want to check out Emotion Kayak’s “Angler,” a 14-footer designed as a sit-on-top fishing kayak , wider than most and equipped with built-in rod and fish box holders, and a tackle box. Another popular inflatable should be Tracker’s new 32 Party Cruiser, a trailerable, 36 x 12-foot vessel with enclosed head which should sell well to devotees of cruising inland waterways such as Lake Roosevelt.

Big griz: Crowd pleaser Brutus, the four-year-old grizzly, is back, closing in on 1,000 pounds and presented by The Montana Grizzly Encounter to raise awareness about bears and provide an educational experience for the whole family. The four-legged film and television star can be persuaded to give you a photo op, for a small donation to the group’s bear recovery efforts. Proceeds go to MGE’s spacious bear haven in Bozeman, Montana, housing animals born in captivity and rescued from small, cramped cages.

Just for youngsters: The Kids Free Trout Pond, for children 12 and under, will again be stocked with thousands of fat rainbow trout which youngsters may catch-and-keep, or release. In the popular duck decoy painting area, young people can paint their own decoys and take them home. All materials for both features, including rods, bait, decoys and painting supplies, are provided at no charge.

Camp cooking: The savory venue will again smoke and bubble with delightful tastes and aromas, as Hobart Manns of Portland, Ore., Herb Good of Hood River, Ore., and C.W. Welch of Mountain Home, Texas, display their favorite, easy-to-prepare, down home recipes. Some of the tasty treats will include steak on a rake and kabobs on a pitchfork, flavored pancakes using melted ice cream, seafood and game bird mango salsa stir fry, and outback stew and garlic gourmet salmon.

Head and horns: The big rack competition, which drew hundreds of hunters last year, features prizes from Arctic Cat, Les Schwab, Gerber Knives, Bushnell optics, and others, for hunters bringing their head and horns or sheds to the show for Boone and Crockett or Pope and Young scoring. Prizes are awarded to the top ten “best of show” entries, and to the top three in each of the big game species by method of harvest: rifle, archery, and black powder. Registration is free for the competition, which closes at 6 p.m. on Saturday.

Adjacent to the head and horns exhibit will be an all-new big game display The Northwest Tour of Big Game Animals featuring many of the largest trophies ever taken in the Northwest, as well as some new and interesting heads.

Seminars: The O’Loughlins have scheduled nearly 150 hours of seminar presentations this time around. A sampling of fishing-oriented subjects would include trophy triploid rainbow on Rufus Woods Reservoir, and deepwater trolling for Lake Chelan Mackinaw by Anton Jones; walleye tricks and tactics with Columbia River guide Ed Iman; and coho on the Snohomish with Jim Stahl.

For the hunter there’s sneak boats for waterfowl, with M.D. Johnson; and trophy blacktail tactics, with Ed Shelby, among a lot of others. Big fly tying/casting names at the show will include Chuck Stranahan, Arnie Gidlow, Skip Morris, Mike Lawson, Denny Richards, and Kelly Laatsch.