There are two important shows going on this weekend and next:

• National Capital Angling Show
• Bass Pro Shops Spring Classic

Wow!  What a smorgasbord of fishing technology! 

National Capital Angling Show

This is sponsored by the National Capital Chapter of Trout Unlimited and will be held in the Bethesda Chevy Chase High School from 10 AM - 5:30 PM on Saturday, February 24.  It actually kicks off on Friday with casting clinics that repeat throughout the event.  The seminars look pretty good.  Lefty Kreh will be there as well as other notables from the world of fly fishing.  The key thing I am interested in is to look for some good used equipment and stock up on a basic supply of flies.  As a result of reading I have done, I want to try and become an expert nymph fisherman.  Knowing my skill and luck, I'm sure this will result in many, many lost nymphs snagged on the bottom of streams in the next several months - so - this is the chance to lay in a stockpile as well as get some advice on the proper technique to use from a variety of experts.

I'm going to go to the seminar on "Getting started" at 10:30 to do a sanity check on my preparations to enter the sport and obtain some focused equipment advice. Beyond the classes, both Dave Rothrock and Lefty Kreh will do casting demonstrations starting at 12:30 - another opportunity to pick up some pointers and refine technique.

For more info on this event, visit the web site.

Bass Pro Shops (Arundel Mills)

The Bass Pro Shops show in Arundel Mills spans the week.  It starts with the Fly Fishing weekend on Friday (Feb 23) and wraps up with the big bass event on March 3/4.  On my way back from a business trip this week, I stopped in to kill time waiting for the traffic to clear before fighting my way south of the beltway and chatted with the sales guy in the White River Fly Shop.  He was pretty pumped about the quantity of merchandise they would have on sale - and the sale items include the Orvis reels.  Now, I don't know much about reels to appreciate what makes such a simple piece of gear so complicated and expensive - maybe I'll find out at the seminar at the Angling Show I will attend this weekend - but he was excited about it. 

I looked around the store and they have plenty of gear in all price ranges.  Their store brand stuff was all very reasonable and was comparable to what I was paying for spinning gear.  For example, you can get a in house brand reel for 25 - 40 bucks that has an adjustable drag and a changeable spool.  Thier fly rods started at around 70 - 80 bucks and when I wiggled them did not seem that different from the versions that cost 100s of dollars.  Guess I'll find out the "why" of that at the seminar as well.  But, I'll bet the bottom line will be that if you get good with the equipment, you will overcome the fractional advantage the more expensive gear provides.

The Bass Pro web site claims that they have over 90 items on sale.  However, the more exciting aspect of this is the seminars and other events that stack on top of the sale.  The event web site has some pretty exciting promotions and the seminar schedule over the next two weekends is solid.  In fact, it looks like the Angling Show and Bass Pro probably colaborated in creating their schedules.  Bass Pro also offers the same type of seminars as the Show on the first weekend and then expands it for Bass on the second.

My call is that I'll go to both.  I'll hit the Angling Show to get my fill of Trout stuff this Saturday and then get a big dose of Bass next weekend.  By the time I am done with these two events, the weather had better be warm enough for me to get out or I will go nuts!