Sportsman’s shows a sign of the season

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Your driveway has vanished, leaving behind a semi-passable skidder path full of boot-sucking mud. You’ve dragged your ice shack off the local pond and stashed it behind the garage. You’re starting to think (again) about open-water fishing season.

All of that can mean only one thing: It’s time to head to the sportsman’s show.

Depending on where you live, that term means different things.

Up in Aroostook County, it may well mean driving to Presque Isle. In central Maine, you’re likely heading to Augusta. And around these parts, your traditional rite of spring will take place at the University of Maine in Orono.

Ahh … sportsmen’s shows. Where everyone’s welcome, every aisle holds plenty of intriguing displays, and plenty of vendors are on hand to entice you with tales of fabulous fishing in far-flung locales.

A glance at the calendar shows we’ve got several busy weeks ahead, and several sporting options are available. Here, then, are a few of your best bets.

. I’d be remiss if I didn’t begin with the 68th annual Eastern Maine Sportsman’s Show in Orono, which will take place Friday through Sunday at UMaine.

I’m partial to this show for two reasons: I grew up attending it … and I still spend a lot of hours at it each year.

As we’ve done for the past three years, the BDN will staff a booth at the show, and we’ll be on hand to chat about newspapers and the outdoors.

And as always, my friendly springer spaniel, Pudge, will be on hand to clean popcorn off the field house floor.

Dan Legere of the Maine Guide Fly Shop helps make our booth a popular one, as he donates a drift boat trip that we’ll give away after the show. This year’s drift down the East Outlet of the Kennebec will take place on Sunday, June 18, and Legere will teach our lucky winner (and me) plenty about his home river.

Also at this year’s booth, we’ll be running a DVD featuring some of the “Going Outdoors” segments we’ve put together with ABC-7 TV over the past two years.

The show’s hours: Friday from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m., Saturday from 9 a.m. until 8 p.m., and Sunday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.

See you there!

. If you’re heading to Orono for the show, you may as well make a day of it and head to Bangor for the popular Bangor Boating and Marine Exposition.

The show is being held at the Bangor Auditorium and Civic Center and the doors will be open from 2 to 8 p.m. Friday, from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. Saturday, and from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. Sunday.

. And if you’re still not satisfied with everything you’ve seen, you may want to drive down Interstate 95 to Freeport for another popular event: The L.L. Bean Spring Fishing Expo is also on tap this weekend.

The show runs from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and features plenty of speakers, demonstrations and hands-on activities. In addition, local author Kevin Tracewski will be on hand to sign his book, “A Fisherman’s Guide to Maine,” at the L.L. Bean Hunting and Fishing Store.

This show features some high-profile fishing experts, and a trip to Freeport likely will be worthwhile for anyone willing to take a bit of a drive.

. Whew! That gets us through this weekend. But we’re not through yet. We’re just getting started. From March 23 through the 26th, the Kittery Trading Post will hold its annual Fishingfest, which offers anglers the chance to hear presentations from some of the sport’s most knowledgeable anglers.

Jim Teeny, Billy Murray, Lou Tabory and Jeff Lopez are among those who’ll speak. And if you’re on the way to the NCAA hockey tournament (which, we ought to assume, will include the Black Bears), you may want to take a rest break in Kittery and check out Fishingfest.

. A year ago, organizers in Wilton put together a massive show at the 55,000-square-foot facility that used to house a Bass Shoe manufacturing plant. It was a huge success, and they’ll be back again this year for the Pine Tree State Sportsman and Gun Show.

The site is now called the Bob Nichols Expo Center, and the show will run March 24-26. The hours: March 24 from 1 to 7 p.m., March 25 from 9 a.m. until 7 p.m., and March 26 from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.

. A week later, the 26th annual State of Maine Sportsman’s Show will take over the Augusta Civic Center. The show will run from March 31 until April 2, and has plenty to offer any kind of outdoor enthusiast.

The show will run from 4 to 9 p.m. on March 31, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on April 1 and from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Sunday.

As always, a vast array of speakers and seminars are planned.

. Wrapping up the state’s slate of outdoor events in the coming weeks will be the Presque Isle Fish & Game Club Sportsman’s Show, which will be held April 8-9.

The highlight of this year’s show may not be an exhibitor or a seminar; it may well be the facility itself. This year the show moves into the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s brand new Gentile Building, and organizers were already looking forward to that eventuality when I headed to the County for last year’s show.

John Holyoke can be reached at jholyoke@bangordailynews.net or by calling 990-8214 or 1-800-310-8600.