Chad, You are from Oklahoma and you claim the mullet is an artifact? I would say that 20% of the population still rocks the mullet! It is a true classic, and with it's "business in the front, party in the back" attitude, it isn't going anywhere! No matter how bad you want it to!

Joe, great point about the small guys. One of the great things about the tackle shows was the chance to see all the mom-and-pop operations. I discovered a bunch of tackle that way i never would have been exposed to otherwise.

L3, you obviously live here...

SBW, where I grew up listening to gothy stuff was tolerable but if you tried dressing lke Robert Smith you'd be savagely beaten. Daily.
So you wore your acid-washed jean jacket, grew your mullet, chewed your Red Man, watched your professional wrestling and cried just a little on the inside every time you heard "Lullaby"...

Fella's my wife is in that business. She has worked for the same company over 11 years and had to take a 20% pay cut and one day per week furlough. People just don't have the money to spend...

Its a shame these shows are thinning out. When I was a kid my best report card of the year came just in time to solidify me a trip to the tackle show where previous allowance savings would be depleted in a matter of hours. Mostly spent on the 85 different flavors of wild game jerky and kettle corn.

Favorite childhood sports show memory: Man vs Bear wrestling! (yes, the bear wore muzzles)
Worst Childhood sport show memory: Snaggin a lady in the head at the "trout pound" trying mimic how I saw them casting on tv.

At this yrs Kansas City Outdoors Show I heard that there were more Shammy Salesman the outfitters there. Even the local outfitters didn't both to show.

I think we will begin to see the guides and tackle dealers co-op with boat and travel shows, or deer and turkey expos. Tackle alone is not enough to pay the bills.

Obviously the economic climate plays a huge role in this, but I think the internet is a factor as well. Way back when, as my 10 yr old likes to say, the shows are where we were introduced to the "new stuff". And we bought it, knowing full well we would slay our favorite fish with it. Now, as soon as something comes out, it is tested by 15 different outfitters, a slew of writers, and all the information is passed around on message boards and blogs. Then if we still want it, we just click over to (insert favorite store site here) and put it in our virtual shopping cart, give them our credit card (likely on file), and bammm, 3-5 days later there it is on the living room floor. The real issue is, as Joe stated, the little upstarts. I too have bought some great stuff from those folks that I would have otherwise never known about. Of course the real irony is that I am blathering on about this on a blog instead of down at some local diner chatting over coffee and a $3.99 breakfast special.

I'm with Wags on this one. I remember going to sporting shows when I was younger, and they were a wonderland of ground-breaking products I had never seen or heard of. The only reason to go now is to see a product in person that I have been reading about on this site for the last two months. (Or if my chamois-cloth or "waterless cookware" needs replacement...)

you mean BOAT/tackle shows.nothing but boats around here.