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Posts: 802
| So what did everyone think of the show and what did you buy? |
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Posts: 494
Location: midwest | It seemed like the number of people total for all 3 days were equal to a busy Saturday in years past. It also seemed like the people at the show were there to buy, with fewer lookers and tire kickers. Bought a couple baits from Thorne's buy one get one free wall along with a few Llungen tails. |
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Posts: 501
Location: S.Wisconsin | Not bad. Talked to some old friends. Got a scuba, some hardheads and a few esox assault in lines |
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Posts: 1220
| I wanted an autographed (to me personally) copy of Jim Saric's new book, which he was gracious to provide, and while I was at the Musky Hunter booth, I also got Steve Heiting to personalize his new DVD on bucktail presentations. Didn't read the book yet, but watched the bucktail video right away and it is great! |
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Posts: 3147
| Great time has usual
one of the most popular items was the easy off lowrance tools/cables just about everybody I know bought some.
Show hotel party WAS A BLAST,,,,I ordered a rum and coke and ended up with a ball game size cup filled to the top with rum and a can of coke to mix,,now thats a STIFF one. |
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Posts: 46
| I am a from Chicago and close by so attended all 3 days. The speakers were great like always (Saric/Bucher/Hulbert/Cain/Dadson) which is always my main reason for attending. I thought that the show had a little less "wow" than past shows. I also heard similar comments from others when leaving. I do now know if it was because some booth were not here (Rollie and Helens) or fewer new product releases (Tranx in 2012). I did buy several things at the Musky Hunter booth along with 2 Dadson bucktails. Overall experience maybe 7/10. |
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Posts: 238
| Lot less people than normal, lot less musky vendors also. was alot of booths empty or selling junk or doing raffles. That you never used to see there. lot of guys I know all saved their money for Milwaukee show.
I bought a custom bullhead dawg and double dawg, 2 custom cowgirls, a white XL squirko, custom thornes jake and some stealth leaders.
Had fun was nice it wasnt crowded saturday |
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Posts: 1316
Location: Lebanon,Mo | Went on Friday as usual,but ended up staying the night on Saturday,so went back Sunday morning to pick up a few more things.Crowd was down for sure,but still had a good time and talked to several people. Here is a small sample of what I picked up...Bucketheads are pictured with a Pounder and Magdawg.
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Posts: 78
| It's always fun talking and hanging out with all the guys. The numbers were down but still had fun! I was working the Esox Assualt booth and got the chance to talk to a lot of good people. All the vendors I spoke to were great guys too. I personally picked up some Custom X baits, SS Shads, Stealth leaders and snaps, Dadson bucktails, and one of the Lowrance plug removers! All in all it was fun! -Chris |
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| OldDays - 1/16/2013 8:50 AM
Show promoters continue to lose ground to Milwaukee show. Very little promotion and advertising. Unhappy vendors, empty aisles, and poor sales will lead to their demise. This is the world of social media, internet promotion, and adverting through the media. Living in the past reputation of what the show used to be and not moving forward will only lead to what has happened to this show the last few years. Very, very few Wisconsin attendees . The days where they used to attend both shows are over. They now choose to attend Milwaukee only.
Very true. But it was only 4-5 years ago that Milwaukee was trending downward and Chicago was trending up. The Milwaukee promoter decided to do something about it and we're seeing the results. He announced the 2013 show about a week after his 2012 show, and had the speaker line up ready about a month later. Will the Chicago promoters step up like Milwaukee's? Time will tell. |
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Posts: 1220
| I've noticed that there appears a multi-pronged effort to "talk down" the Chicago show while "talking up" the one in Milwaukee. Honestly, there is just no way that I am not going to both of them next year just like I have done for several years. They are both great shows, an absolute bargain for ten bucks and both filled with really high quality seminar speakers. It's also one of the few things I really look forward to this time of year. The biggest difference is that you have to pay to park in Milwaukee but you get to buy beer at the show. It's clear that some guys have a bee in their bonnets for some reason, but I just don't see it. Last, I don't know, and have never met either of the promoters. I just had a great time in Chicago and expect to have another great time in Milwaukee. Now, if you are going to talk about the NFL....well Chicago clearly has problems....but that's a talk for a different day. |
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Posts: 540
Location: Leech Lake, Walker MN | Yes the attendances was down a bit not weather related but for the lodge it was great did lots of talking about the lodge and even more about BIG Muskys and got some bookings new guests which is vital to the business.met many new friends,vendors and attendees so all in all from my perspective it was good.looking forward to the next great musky show Milwaukee.but before that I will be at the Rosemount show next Wednesday yup back down to the Windy City. Maybe see some of you there also.ALWAYS CALM WATERS TO YOU ALL. |
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| In my case, I have no bee in my bonnet for Chicago at all. I would love the show to be what it once was. I truly thought it used to be the top show in our industry. My point was that I do not think they are not advertising and promoting it correctly. Vendors spend a lot of money to attend the show. It is in everyone's best interest for it to succeed. |
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Posts: 161
Location: Chicago, IL | Anyone else win a 3-day trip to Vegas?... I got a voice mail last night but haven't connect live with the lady yet. |
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| Sorry, I meant to say, I am do not think they are promoting it or advertising it appropriately. |
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Posts: 734
Location: Watertown, MN | They hype of the lure have died, the gotta get the DDD, hellhound, the Weagle, I have not heard 1 person talk about anything new and innovative in a while, that was part of the hype of the show. Now more about networking, and dont need to drop $400 to due that. Custom colors now that is interesting, something that I cannot walk in and get at thorne brothers! my .02
Troy |
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Posts: 20211
Location: oswego, il | I was dissapointed in the show but as junkman says if you go and see a seminar(s) its a bargain.
I am upset over the free raffle vendors. Ice cream vendor, home run. I signed up to "help the kids" at the financial booth only to get a call on monday insisting I meet tuesday, not even given the opportunity if I desired to meet to pick a time convenient for me. He wasn't taking no for an answer. Guess I helped the "kids" I knew better with the boat raffle by a vacation company. I have won those fee trips, not a mispell, before. Been harrased bad by them and have had them call back immediately after hanging up on them. I gave bogus info just to appease her becuase I was not interested in the fee trip.
Very dissapointed to see these types of vendors when I am sure there are those IN the industry who would like a booth.
Edited by ToddM 1/16/2013 4:24 PM
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Posts: 456
Location: Kansas City BBQ Capitol of the world | Not being able to attend the show I have to tip my hat for the cooperation that was done within the Muskie community. Rollie and Helen, along with the vendors on the virtual floor did a great job providing us non-attendees the opportunity to buy some nice custom baits. Muskie Tackle Online also provided free shipping during the Chicago event.
I just want to say thank you for putting this together and to those who participated.
With that being said there were a few vendors that I wanted to buy from that were not on the virtual floor. I ended up calling The Muskie Shop to get my Mag Nut Buster but the Muskie Shop did not sell Hairy tackle so I passed on them. I know this is just a start, and a great start but I would like to see more vendors participate next year.
Lastly, after it was all said and done I had heard that Thorne Bros. had a buy 1 get 1 free deal going on. That would have been nice to know about and if that was available to virtual shoppers.
For not being able to attend, the virtual displays and seminars made me feel, in a small way I was a part of what going on.
Thanks again, and lets do it again.
Ron |
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Posts: 180
Location: Elgin, IL | Can say that I don't disagree with the number of attendees. But parking lot would be plenty full from the start. I primarily
focused on attending the seminars. Was also spending time talking plenty with some show personnel such as Saric, Heiting, and my friend Spence.
Thanks go to
Frank of Franks Custom Rods, who will be working on a new rod for me. Can't wait
Spanky Baits Guys
Chuck and Dan - Custom X
Ben Modica - Musky Fix, awesome looking lures and a promise to use the lures this year  .
And John M. and Frank Hyla of Time on the Water.
It was also good to see Dave of Dave's Bait and Tackle. Maybe the other local dealers got a good feed as to what is out there and what people were interested in. In order to work on some items that are not so easy to get. |
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Posts: 512
Location: Appleton | I will continue to go to Chicago because it's the first show of the year. I though attendance was down this year which is bad for vendors. I'd like to see the show do well but vendors need to make money or they don't find it worth it to continue. As I've said before if the Milwaukee show was first I'd never go back to Chicago mainly because for me it's a 3.5 hr drive and everything I see in Chicago will be in Milwaukee plus some. Just my opinion. |
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Posts: 1916
Location: Greenfield, WI | This show has alot of tradition behind it. However there isn't enough tradition to carry itself into the future.
From an exhibitors perspective, an improvement for everyone would be to try to create a crescendo of speakers with the bigger names at the end of the day.
This would help build the attendance through each day.
They should also keep the seminars in the main field house with the exhibitors. Joe Bucher's talk was in the afternoon on Saturday. His program sucked the attendance out of the room into the pool on the other side of major exits. After his show was over most seminar attendees just left.
The cost involved for exhibitors aren't refunded when the aisles are empty. The exhibitor's fees pay for the show even more than the customers who should be walking the aisles.
This show is still a business proposition. The exhibitors enjoy their time with attendees and other exhibitors, but you can't spend three to four days of travel, booth space rental, lodging, food, etc. and even though for most, if not all, of this is a labor of love, you can't keep coming back only to end up loosing money.
Good attendance at any event is not by accident.
This show may not be on life support, but it definitely needs to see the doctor! |
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| I did and, like you, I wasn't able to connect with the individual. Hopefully it's legit. Did you connect with them yet? Didn't realize a Vegas trip was involved. Just had my eye on the boat. |
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Posts: 574
Location: Elk Grove Village, IL & Phillips, WI | Everyone wins the Vegas trip!! I don't even bother with those free raffles at sport shows, they are all scams!!
Edited by KenK 1/17/2013 12:52 PM
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Posts: 180
Location: Elgin, IL | Someone standing by me had brought it up to the lady at the table. She denied that that there would some marketing calls involved. I myself have not received any such call. Boat would be enough. |
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Posts: 8775
| I walked by the booth, and the lady tried to strong arm us into signing up. I even looked at Samantha and said "Honey, they're giving away a boat!" Cooler heads prevailed when she said "uh huh. And how would we put gas in it? WHere wold we STORE it, and for how much? And what would we do when something breaks and we need to fix it?!"
Yeah, good point.
Now that I know it's like all the other "free" vacations I've won over the years, I'm glad I didn't stop.
I get pretty tired of the calls that start out "congratulations!!!!!!!!!! You've won an all expenses paid trip to..."
Why do they always hang up when I say "great! Well, you have my address and my phone number already. We want to go the last week of February. Send the airline tickets and hotel confirmation and we'll talk." ?
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| I would like to know who won the boat or the 25,000 cash. Now I have one trip to vegas along with 6 other friends who were the top 10 winners. That kind of crap shouldnt be at a fishing show oh yea and the non stop phone calls from ING if your going to rent space to crap like that then look at what you are doing to drive people away. You ask for the new big thing well it was at the show this year. I am sure that the guy selling home made ice cream had better profits than most dealers. When you have things like that at a show for every ice cream that was sold took 5.00 that would have maybe have been spent on a lure. Just my 2cents worth. |
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Posts: 791
Location: North Central IL USA | esoxaddict - 1/17/2013 9:36 PM
"Honey, they're giving away a boat!" Cooler heads prevailed when she said "uh huh. And how would we put gas in it? WHere wold we STORE it, and for how much? And what would we do when something breaks and we need to fix it?!"
All problems I wouldn't mind having if I won that boat! |
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| Regarding the boat give-away or whatever that was at the Chicago show, if you see guys at the Milwaukee show trying to sell tickets to a Ranger, it is TOTALLY LEGITIMATE. Those gentlemen are from the Wisconsin muskie clubs alliance and actually will give away two boats at their tournament in August in Eagle River. Please don't confuse an actual fundraiser for a good cause (muskie fishing in Wisconsin) vs. the scam or whatever we saw in Chicago! |
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Posts: 941
Location: Freedom, WI | Troyz - There actually was a bunch of new lures there, there just was not a lot of hype. Hype is marketing and marketing is time and money, times are tight and my thoughts are most with new product stuck the money into getting the product out correctly (I feel people are wanting as much bang for buck as they can get these days). |
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Posts: 202
Location: Angola, IN | I had a blast at the Chicago Show. I saw a lot of people I haven't seen in awhile, laughed a lot, and talked to a few guys about fishing.
Who cares about the sea cow who was selling those boat tickets.....what is there to complain about? The show put her in there because she wrote a check to rent some floor space. Money talks. What's amazing.....is that people really think they are gonna win a boat!!! As long as people can come on MF and are surprised and upset that the boat raffle was a scam.....she obviously needs to be there to educate some people who obviously don't get around much.....before someone rips you off for real.
One disappointment though, was not seeing Joe Peterson or Duff at the show. I usually go straight to their booth and blow my money. Instead, I spent it with Johnny Dadson, Spanky, and Mortis. All quality guys who make top-notch stuff.
And of course, burning a few Newports with Tony Grant is always a bonus no matter what is going on. |
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