Having a tackle show in your own home town is a very good thing, but for some reason for the past two years, whenever the Cincinnati Tackle Show was held, I was out of town. This past Friday, I put aside meetings and made a point of making the 20-mile drive out to King's Island to visit the show. I am very happy I did.
The Cincinnati show is one of the unique tackle meets in that it does not have a convention hall where sellers set up; instead, people open their rooms and there is a parking lot set up for people (like John Nunn) who have overflow tackle. Many people enjoy not having to haul their tackle to a distant convention room, and so there is always lots of neat stuff lying on and even under beds.
There were some neat displays; Mike Hines had a great case of contemporary lures and a nice Heddon case, while John Birchfield brought his black and white shore minnow collection and a nice case of Tulsa Tackle lures. Doug Carpenter brought a portion of his Kentucky and Ohio lure collection, and I had a great time conversing with Doug and John Caldwell about the rising interesting in made-in-Kentucky tackle. I also enjoyed listening to Mike Hines talk about one of his incredible recent field finds, part of which included a few Gulf Reel Co. reels new in shipping boxes--something I (and likely most everyone else) has never seen before.
As for myself, I ended up buying a few nice pieces for my collection. I got four nice books for my library, including a first edition of Harlan Major's Fishing Behind the Eight Ball which I had been looking for. I also ended up with a new Maine-made Rangeley spinner I didn't know existed, and a great Montague Pickering reel.
All in all, the Cincinnati show is the most laid back meet going, and if you want to go to a low-stress environment filled with tackle, this is a must on your calendar. It is held twice a year (Spring and Fall) and the show host is John Nunn, who took over for Mike Hines this year.
-- Dr. Todd
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