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Rocky Mountain Region’s Largest Outdoor Adventure Show
The 33rd Annual International Sportsmen’s Exposition Sets up Camp Jan. 7-10 at Colorado Convention Center in Downtown Denver.

International Sportsmen’s Exposition

DENVER, CO —-(AmmoLand.com)- A one-of-a-kind celebration of the great outdoors returns to Denver as the 33rd annual International Sportsmen’s Exposition (ISE)—the Rocky Mountain region’s largest outdoor adventure travel, fishing, hunting and camping show—sets up camp January 7-10 at the Colorado Convention Center, 700 14th Street, in downtown Denver (www.SportsExpos.com).

More than 30,000 outdoor sports enthusiasts are expected to “escape the blahs of winter for the ahs of the outdoors” during the four-day show where 500 different exhibiting companies will spotlight: travel destinations and experts; fishing tackle and gear; hunting products and gear; boats, kayaks and marine accessories; RVs and campers; apparel and optics; nature art; ATVs and motorcycles; lifestyle furnishings; trucks, trailers and aftermarket accessories; and outdoor clubs, groups and organizations.

The ISE is the region’s largest annual gathering of travel companies. Show visitors can meet with guides, outfitters, travel companies and lodge owners to plan fishing, hiking, hunting, boating, rafting, kayaking, offroading, horseback riding and many other outdoor getaways in Colorado, nearby states, as well as in Alaska, Canada, and Central and South America. More than 20 companies will spotlight photo and hunting safaris in South Africa.

New features this year include DockDogs water-jumping pool, a giant, computer-operated interactive archery range, expanded youth fair, and the Ultimate Rifle & Gear Raffle, presented by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (www.rmef.org). Nearly $5,000 in Browning, Remington and Winchester rifles, plus BowTech bow and Sitka apparel will be offered at the show, with all monies collected going to conservation efforts in Colorado.

In addition, the nearly 300,000-square-foot exhibit hall will present a half-dozen stages hosting more than 200 hands-on presentations and demonstrations by the outdoor industry’s top fishing, fly-fishing, hunting and dogtraining experts.

This year’s teaching pros from the world of hunting include:

• Corey Jacobsen, six-time world elk-calling champion
• Jeff Foiles, 18-time world, regional and state goose- and duck-calling champion
• Chad Schearer, world champion elk caller, and host of the award-winning “Shoot Straight” on The Sportsman Channel
• Geoff Nemnich, champion predator caller and founder of the Western Nebraska Coyote Classic
• Scott Linden, author, host of “Scott Linden Outdoors” radio show, and “Wingshooting USA” show on In Country TV and the Dish Network
• Cameron Hanes, bowhunter, 50-mile marathon runner, and host of Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation’s “Elk Chronicles” on the Outdoor Channel
• Guy Eastman, publisher, Eastmans’ Hunting Journal, co-founder of Eastmans’ Bowhunting Journal, and co-host of “Eastmans’ Hunting TV” on the Outdoor Channel
• Bob Hix, local seminar speaker and regional director for Pheasants Forever Hunting demonstrations and seminars cover the latest in gear, techniques and destinations for finding bulls, bucks, bears, coyote, upland birds and waterfowl. Fishing pros include:
• Mariko Izumi, host of World Fishing Network’s “Hookin’ Up.”
• Nicole Darland, co-host of “Fly Fisherman TV” on The Sportsman’s Channel
• Barry and Cathy Beck, the fly-fishing industry’s pre-eminent photographers
• Terry Wickstrom, living legend angler, author, and host of “Angling Adventures TV” and Denver-based “The Fan Outdoors” sports radio 950
• Landon Mayer, Colorado fishing guide and author of just-published “How to Catch the Biggest Trout of Your Life”
• Kelly Galloup, western legendary guide, author, and product designer
• Kirk Deeter, Colorado guide, frequent contributor to “Field & Stream” magazine, author, and co-host of “Fly Talk” blog
• Tom Bie, screenwriter, editor of The Drake Magazine
• Chad LaChance, local host of “Fishful Thinker TV” on Altitude Sports Channel
• Jack Dennis, legendary retailer, author, guide to celebrities, TV host
• Pat Dorsey, pre-eminent Colorado guide
• Tyler Befus, 12-year-old Coloradan, fly tier, author, lecturer
• Jarrett Edwards, Colorado native with state big-bass record, host of “Jarrett Edwards Outdoors” on the World Fishing Network

Visitors to the ISE can learn fishing strategies and techniques for mastering the streams, still and salty waters of Colorado, the West, Mexico, South America, Canada, Alaska and around the world.

Local company Freestone Aquatics, Inc. will provide live trout—some to 10 pounds, including Kamloops, Eagle Lake and Donaldson Rainbows, Brookies, and browns. To be planted in local waters after the show, the fish will be on display in the 30-foot-long, 5,000-gallon, glass-walled demonstration tank sponsored by the World Fishing Network (WFN) and FishExplorer.com. Also at the tank, visitors can meet and get an autographed photo of angling personality Mariko Izumi, host of WFN’s “Hookin’ Up.” WFN, which just opened a bureau in Denver, is the only 24/7 fishing channel (www.wfn.tv).

The Discover Fly Fishing Pavilion, sponsored by the American Fly Fishing Trade Association, is a 40,000-sq.-ft. show within the 300,000-sq.-ft expo. Focused on gear and teaching the sport, the pavilion spotlights nine fly-fishing retailers, virtually all major product manufacturers, Fly-Fishing Learning Center, Fly-Fishing Theater, two fly-casting lesson ponds, a Fly-Tying Video Theater, and author’s book-signing booth. Fishing enthusiasts will also want to see the Colorado premiere of “Rise”, a 70-minute film produced by Confluence Films. Shown on a huge screen in Upper Lobby D Saturday evening, the film will raise money for Colorado Trout Unlimited. “Rise” chronicles an action-packed fly-fishing journey shot in Los Roques, Venezuela; Idaho’s Henry’s Fork; the Florida Keys; Patagonia, Argentina; New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana; and the Katmai Region of Alaska.

Parents will want to take their kids to the 10,000-sq.-ft. “Youth Outdoor Sports Fair,” sponsored by the Colorado Division of Wildlife (www.wildlife.state.co.us). The Fair caters to youth and encourages them to learn more and to participate in outdoor activities. Children can learn to fish at the catch-and-release glass-walled tank stocked with Colorado trout (guides and gear provided free); practice archery under the guidance of the Colorado Bowhunters Association; and see live wild birds from the Raptor Education Foundation (www.usaref.org).

CDOW also is teaming nature with technology in a new program co-sponsored by the Raptor Education Foundation and Best Buy. The web-based education program encourages visitors to play the “Nature Hunt” game, which includes questions on hunting, fishing, conservation and natural history. Players can also enter to win laptop computers (one will be given away each day of the show). Best Buy will also present a Wii fishing game for visitors of all ages.

New to the expo this year, a 6,000-sq.-ft. archery range, controlled by computer and featuring three-dimensional, moving (pop-up) targets, will host a contest.

Also new is the Best-of-the-West DockDogs Contest. Dockdogs (www.dockdogs.com) is the world’s leading water-dog-jumping organization. In the competition, dogs will jump off dock into a water-filled pool and are judged for distance, height and endurance. Two winners from the ISE competition will be invited to DockDogs World Championships next July.

The Sporting-Dog Arena will feature snake-aversion training, the Larimer County Search and Rescue Team, Agility Dogs and, of course, professional trainers, including local champions Tom Herman and Grits.

Besides the archery and DockDogs events, the ISE will feature contests open to youth, adults, first-timers and experts, including:

• New “Best of the West” Accuracy Fly-Casting Tournament
• Fly-Skins Team Casting Challenge, featuring the world’s best casters
• “Best of the West” Elk-Calling Contest, sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation

Show hours are Thursday and Friday, 12 noon—9:00 p.m.; Saturday, 10:00 a.m.—8:00 p.m.; and Sunday 10:00 a.m.—5:00 p.m.

Tickets can be purchased online, or at the ticket booths in the Colorado Convention Center. Show admission is $15 for adults; kids 15 and under enter free of charge. Parking is available at Coors Field for $8/car and free shuttle service to and from the Convention Center. Parking is also available at the Denver Convention Center parking garage or people can take the RTD’s Light Rail to the Convention Center stop. For more information, visit www.SportsExpos.com

About International Sportsmen’s Exposition (ISE)
Headquartered in Vancouver, Washington, ISE is the world’s premier producer of hunting, fishing and outdoor sports shows. ISE events are held in Denver, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Mateo and Sacramento. ISE events annually attract more than 200,000 attendees interested in fishing, hunting, camping and adventure travel.

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New Year’s Resolutions For The Outdoor Enthusiast

Arizona Game and Fish Department

Arizona --(AmmoLand.com)-The following resolutions come from Rory Aikens, editor of the Arizona Game and Fish Department’s weekly Fishing Report, who describes himself as an unrepentant hunting and fishing addict.

Be it resolved that in the Year 2010, I will not:

• Pull a thrashing smallmouth bass out of the water and have my expensive new polarized sun glasses ungraciously fall to the bottom of the 150-foot-deep lake despite my cold crash dive to retrieve them while my wallet and cell phone still reside in my unprotected pockets.
• Forget to put the plug in the bass boat, especially when taking TV media out fishing;
• Take another cold swim because I decided to unhook the boat from the trailer’s hand winch to save time while launching the bass boat (makes for terrific viewer-laughing video though);
• Set the hook so hard that I flip backward over the bass seat and land on a big topwater lure with painfully sharp triple-treble hooks (the cameraman was too busy catching fish to catch the craziness on video);
• Fall asleep and melting the bottom of my expensive hunting boots while warming my icy, exhausted feet at the campfire on a cold snowy night after chasing elusive elk all day at 9,000-feet-plus elevation.
• On no account will I let another lunker bass impale my hand with a hook, especially when the other treble hook is stuck on the boat’s aging carpet while the big bass flops around while I hear the laughter float across the water from anglers in nearby bass boats (who had once been friends).
• Never again hike arduous miles to my favorite whitetail hunting spot way up the steep mountain and leave all my ammunition back in camp during the only day of the hunt when inattentive randy bucks are chasing does on the hillside during the rut.
• Take those once-in-a-lifetime wildlife photographs of an obstreperous mule deer buck facing down a bobcat with no memory card in my fancy digital camera;
• Fish with brittle older line and lose a trophy-sized bass – again.
• Never tell the public the exact spot where I found the fish biting before I at least offer to take my wife there first (sleeping on the bass boat isn’t as fun when it’s in the garage).
• Never, ever leave my best spotting scope on top of the Chiricahua Mountains and remember it after I tiredly pack my deer all the way back into camp as darkness falls on the last day of the hunt, which is also the last day of my vacation.
• Always remember to carry plenty of band-aids for cuts along with a pocket comb to remove sharp jumping cholla when tiredly hiking by flashlight at night up and down a rugged, unforgiving mountainside to recover my forgotten optics.
• Don’t eat a cheese sandwich while fishing during a dark confusing night using cheese-bait for catfish;
• Plan an out-of-town fishing trip with the buddies on my forgotten wedding anniversary day;
• Painfully bang my shin on the protruding trailer hitch – twice in the same camping trip.
• Forget to stow away the stink bait and night crawlers while camping in skunk country.
• Forget to bring matches to start a campfire on a cold night camping;
• Leave the sleeping bags at home when going camping and having no matches to start the fire or even a coffee pot for the morning (or not have ear plugs for enduring my wife’s description of my mental capacities while she goes through caffeine withdrawal);
• Hand my wife a donut after helping my little boy put a juicy night crawler on the hook (especially when my child told her after the digestion was already underway).
• Neglect to immediately buy a spare tire for the camp trailer after one tire shreds itself during a long vacation trip in a remote mountainous area.
• Pronounce the prime topwater season as being over and then have an angler hit a topwater bonanza, including a new state record striper.
• Forget to sign my name to our four-person elk permit application and getting us all rejected.
• Sit lazily reading my favorite Louis L’Amour Western by the campfire with my camera locked away in the truck while a bachelor band of trophy-sized elk wanders through camp and a 360-plus bull uses my tree-bound hammock as a velvet rub.
• Foolishly attempt to carry my favorite two-piece ultra-light fishing rod strapped to my mountain bike while negotiating a steep winding brush-lined trail to fish the Upper Verde
• River and ending up with a four-piece rod and broken wheel spokes.
• Try to photograph a running antelope from the moving truck on a bumpy two-track with my wife holding the steering wheel so I can work the camera as a swirling dust plume clouds the expensive telephoto lens.
• Never forget the extra gas can when running the bass boat at high speed the 70-plus miles to fish the San Juan Arm of Lake Powell.
• Take a much-needed bath in a stream at sunset while backpacking a wilderness area just to discover a group of giggling campers on a nearby overlook.
• Never let my wife read my annual New Years Resolutions when I am within ear shot (or pistol shot for that matter).
• Rory notes that although he can’t claim all of these as being his, he confesses to ownership of way too many of them

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