St. Paul Ice Show

[Iambjm]

Went to the ice show on Friday with a couple of friends, I was a little bit disappointed by some of the changes, but all in all it was a good experience. My friend Char entered the Fillet Queen contest that was for women only. I was surprised that there weren't more entrants (nine for the 4pm contest). They had to fillet 2 perch boneless and skinless, the judge weighed the fish before and then the fillets after to see who actually ended up with the most meat on their fillet. It eas very interesting to see all the different ways they filleted their fish. It would have been a much better event if the fish hadn't been frozen and then thawed and were really slimy, the fillet knives weren't too sharp either.

Right across from their booth was the HSO booth and I met a lot of the guys from the forum. Also picked up a few freebies and got my membership to the Ice Team. I actually didn't spend too much this year, although I saw a lot of things I would have liked to add to my arsenal. This trip has really got me worked up for ice fishing and I hope to be able to post a lot of reports here this winter.

[bobbymalone]

I went this year after taking a year or two off. I never go expecting to score some sort of deal... at least not one that will offset parking and tickets for my wife and I. But it's fun to check out stuff i can't afford and I usually do buy a couple things i came there needing and few more I didn't I know I needed until I saw it there.

I mostly came to get my hands on some stuff like these inline reels that are all the rage and impossible to find.

One thing I noticed is Strikemaster seemed to have curbed their operation there a bit since the Rapala merger thing. I didn't even see a t shirt and I'm due for a new one. Oh well. And they didn't have my auger blades either. I picked them up at MG.

Never did see the HSO booth. I looked around upstairs, but must have missed it.