Duane Hicks
If tired feet are a sign of success, then a trip to Alabama last week by a trio of local delegates was a blockbuster.
Doug Cain and Jim Cumming of the Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship, along with local Chamber of Commerce manager Anthony Mason, who also is an FFCBC director, got back Monday from the 2010 Bassmaster Classic Outdoors Expo, which ran Friday through Sunday in Birmingham.
Similar to a trip taken to Shreveport, La. last year, they were there to promote Fort Frances and Rainy Lake as a place to fish and for those in the fishing industry to do business.
And while it will take time to see what might result from their efforts, the three did their best to talk to as many people as possible at the major fishing show.
“It went very well,” Cain said yesterday. “One thing that we found in Birmingham, versus Shreveport, is there were a lot of people who were familiar with our part of the country because they had moved from the upper [U.S.] Midwest to retire down there.
“They would say, ‘I used to live in Wisconsin,’ or ‘I grew up in Ohio, and we used to go wherever when I was a kid,’” he noted.
“It was kind of neat. There was that kind of connection we did not have when we were in Shreveport,” Cain added.
“We ran into far more people that were familiar with Fort Frances, Rainy Lake, Nestor Falls, and Rainy River District as places to vacation and fish, and that’s because an awful lot of people that attended the booth had lived in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri, and either through their jobs changing or retirement, they’d relocated to the southeastern United States,” echoed Cumming.
“Many of the people had fonds memories of their time spent fishing here, and spent time reminiscing,” he added.
“Oft times, they brought other family members who hadn’t been here and were really curious about Rainy Lake. . . .
“That was really encouraging to see they had a connection to this area, this community,” Cumming enthused.
Cain and Cumming went to Shreveport last year, but Mason was new to the Bassmaster Classic experience.
“I think it was a very successful event,” he remarked. “Mind you, it’s 1,300 miles away. How many people are we going to attract from down there? Who knows?
“But the thing is they now know where we are, the people that walked through,” Mason reasoned.
“It was a nice show. I met a lot of good people,” Mason added later. “One of the highlights was I met a guy [Kevin Ogle] who started up a paper [Coastal Angler] and talked to him for 20-30 minutes, and then he came up to us later and offered us a free quarter-page ad in his paper.
“I met another guy who was interested in coming up here and doing a sports show.
“But it’s all a time game,” Mason stressed. “You’ve got to wait and see what comes out of all of the businesses you talked to. . . .
“It’s a time game to see how many people we met will actually get back to us.”
That said, he reiterated “it never hurts.”
“You go down there and you talk with 2,000 people, and you’ve made contact with 2,000 people who didn’t know about Rainy Lake or Fort Frances, nothing bad will come out of this.
“It’s always a positive thing,” Mason noted.
Cumming said they made a serious effort to talk with manufacturers and distributors of fishing tackle and gear, and met as many as they could (100-150)—even doing so prior to the trade show opening each morning.
Many of them were smaller businesses that had an interest in expanding beyond their regional area, he added, noting Fort Frances is a ideal spot for them to expand to, with a central location and an easy access border—perhaps a good location where tackle comes in bulk, is packaged, and then shipped east or west.
The Rainy River Future Development Corp. will follow up on any leads in the next several months, noted Cumming.
The local trio also got media coverage while down there. Cumming was interviewed by CBC Radio’s Gord Ellis on Thursday afternoon and Lisa Laco on Friday morning, as well as by Darla Bardelli of popular U.S. radio program, “Outdoors In America.”
Cumming said they also tried to talk to as many outdoor writers, filmographers, and other members of the media they could catch up to, and when possible, had them fill out a survey.
They will be holding a draw for members of the media, the winner of which will win a trip to come here and do a story (similar draws will be held for survey participants from the public and fishing industry sectors, respectively).
All of these surveys will provide valuable data that could be used for future marketing purposes here.
Cumming said the show was laid out better than in Shreveport. And their booth not only was twice as big, but located near the entrance to the weigh-ins, which were held in the same building, bringing by extra traffic.
“I think the traffic was down a little bit from Shreveport, but we had far more people stop,” Cumming said. “Perhaps a good sign is we were out of literature Saturday afternoon, our main literature.
“So we had bass literature, and an ‘In-Fisherman’ article and a Rapala article to hand out all day Sunday,” he noted, adding the crowd attendance was highest that day.
The bigger booth also allotted them more room to talk to people.
Cumming also said they were grateful that FFCBC mainstay Phil Bangert, who has fished the Bassmaster Elite Series in the southern U.S., helped out at their booth.
“He was able to put a real credible face as to how good the fishing is on Rainy Lake, and talk about the multi-species fishing and what a fun place it is,” he noted.
Cumming added many people had a hard time fathoming how big Rainy Lake is. Lay Lake, where the Bassmaster Classic was held, is only 1/12 the size.
As for the bass tourney itself, Cain said they were very busy at their booth, but he was able to slip away and see the full weigh-in on Friday and the last half of the weigh-in on Saturday, though not the finals on Sunday.
He noted the weigh-ins at the 12,000-seat arena were quite a spectacle.
“They do it up right,” Cain said. “The lights are down, everything is hot lights, special effects, disco balls, rock ’n roll. They do a really good job.
“The set they have to build there is unbelievable,” he added. “The media centre was in the arena, so we were back and forth and you could see the set up taking shape.
“Our booth went up in the morning [Thursday], and in that same morning, the transformation that they made was unbelievable. They were hanging stuff from the ceilings.
“It’s a neat thing,” Cain enthused. “It gives us some ideas we might want to be able to do, just in terms of layout, when we go to the arena this year [for the FFCBC].”
The trip was a joint effort of the Rainy River Future Development Corp., Town of Fort Frances, FedNor, Fort Frances Chamber of Commerce, Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship, and the private sector.
Cumming stressed the importance of having those private-sector sponsors, who committed tens of thousands of dollars to their promotional efforts.
For example, area resorts such as Campfire Island, Camp Ontario, and Camp Narrows donated trips worth $3,900 apiece as draw prizes while La Place Rendez-Vous donated a two-night stay and meals as part of one of those prize packages.
Fin-tech Tackle, which transported their booth and materials from International Falls to Birmingham, probably saved them $1,000 in freight costs while other sponsors, like Northland Tackle and Lindner Media, donated thousands of dollars in lures and tackle, DVDs, and other items to give away.
“It’s a positive sign when you have Fin-tech Tackle, Faculty of Fishing, Northland Tackle, Bill Lewis Lures, Lindner Media, In-Fisherman Magazine, Rapala, who all use this area to test their products, shoot shows, all of that, and they see the value in promoting the Fort Frances area and Rainy Lake,” remarked Cumming.
“They see value in having their products associated with us,” he explained. “We might not perceive it ourselves, but these national corporations do.”
