Annual Outdoorsman Show doubles in size

WASILLA — The 2016 edition of the Mat-Su Outdoorsman Show is shaping up to be one for the books.

Considered by many Valley residents as a rite of spring, this year’s show is twice as large as least year and will feature new vendors, new seminars and for the first time will host a gun show at the March 18-20 event.

“We probably have 25 new vendors every year,” said Tony Russ, who runs the show through his business, Chinook Shows LLC. “We have taken up both the ice side and the turf side of the Menard,” Russ said, which will allow some of the vendors with larger displays — think ATVs and boats — that traditionally set up outside to bring their wares into the building.

The show, which is in its 11th year, kicks off at noon Friday and runs until 7 p.m. at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center in Wasilla. Saturday hours are from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m., while the Sunday schedule runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $5, with free admission for kids under 12 and military members (with a military ID).

New this year will be a Friends of the National Rifle Association gun show, which will be set up in the bleachers above the Menard Center floor.

“They are probably going to have around 40 tables,” Russ said Tuesday. “I think we will get some people that would not normally come that will to see the gun show. Their (vendor) list keeps growing.”

Russ said when people enter the center, they will be given a raffle ticket that must be taken to the gun show display.

The booth list for 2016 tops 175 entries, and Russ said new vendors include Geodesic domes, AK Container Cabins, a mobile shrink-wrap service, Ready and Armed personal defense products and Ghost Town Leather.

Also new this year is a youth archery range.

“It will be mostly for kids — they’ll use 25-pound (draw weight) bows,” Russ said.

Returning this year is the popular Alaska Department of Fish and Game laser shooting range for all ages.

“I have never gotten to shoot at that booth and it’s my show,” Russ joked. “People enjoy it.”

Friday seminars will include a discussion of center pin angling for salmon, trout and steelhead; presenting bait under bobbers for silver and king salmon; and tips and techniques for fly-fishing with spey and switch rods. Saturday sessions will feature tips for bear baiting stations, hunting electronics, a fly-casting clinic and getting the most out of a Global Positioning System. Gear repair and casting spinners for salmon are among the Sunday clinics.

Annual attendance averages more than 6,000 people, Russ said, adding that the show’s positioning as the first of the spring has its advantages.

“People want to get out — they’re ready for spring,” he said. “They might or might not buy that $50,000 motorhome on the spot at the show, but they’ll probably buy a fishing rod.”

Contact reporter Steven Merritt at 352-2269 or steven.merritt@frontiersman.com