Bob Dobart has been around. Former Baltimore County policeman. Former B.A.S.S. touring pro. Top regional and local bass fisherman. Entrepreneur behind the popular Bass Expo that has been held each winter at the State Fairgrounds in Timonium for more than a decade.
This year, Dobart has expanded his horizons with the Bass Expo, Saltwater Fishing and Fly Fishing Show, which runs from Thursday to next Sunday at the fairgrounds.
"After 12 years, I just felt the show was getting a little stale," said Dobart, 49. "It was just time for a change, and of course you are always looking to make things different and better.
"With the rockfish moratorium off and the revival of interest in rockfish and the explosion of fly fishing, this expansion seemed like the natural thing to do."
The show will open at noon Thursday and Friday and at 9 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are $7 for adults, $3 for those 10 to 14.
The expo still will be heavily devoted to bass fishing, with the best and latest in rods, reels, lures, motors and boats on display and for sale at good prices. It again will have a series of top pros -- Larry Nixon, Gary Klein, Jay Yelas, Woo Daves and Pete Gluszek -- and regional experts teaching seminars.
But there also will be an emphasis on conventional saltwater angling and fly fishing, including casting demonstrations by Lefty Kreh, an acknowledged master.
If your dreams run toward fly fishing in south Florida, television show host and top-notch angler Flip Pallot will be on hand to explain how easily dreams can become reality.
"Lefty is certainly world-known, and it would be hard to get a better guy on fly fishing," Dobart said. "And Flip Pallot is an awfully good fisherman himself. I think it is quite a combination."
Closer to home, top area saltwater fly fishermen Joe Bruce, Norm Bartlett, King Montgomery and Sarah Gardner will give slide shows on using flies for bass, false albacore, rockfish, blues, speckled trout and other Chesapeake species.
The show also will include seminars on conventional saltwater fishing, with former rockfish state record holder and author Keith Walters, Gary Diamond and Keith Kaufman teaching about rockfish, blues, cobia, flounder, sea trout, croaker, sea bass and tautog.
Dobart said the show has expanded to 160,000 square feet, including displays of more than 180 retailers of fishing gear, supplies, services and 45 to 50 manufacturers' representatives.
Two dozen boat dealers will be at the show, too, displaying and selling 200 bass boats and 150 other types of craft.
Canada geese hunt
The experimental hunting season for resident Canada geese opens Wednesday in Allegany, Carroll, Frederick, Garrett and western Montgomery counties. The season closes Feb. 15.
In Montgomery, the area open is west of I-270 and I-495 from the Virginia line to I-270.
In the western portion of the state, wildlife biologists say, there is virtually no chance of migratory Canada geese (for which there is a hunting moratorium) mixing with residents at this time of year.
The daily limit on the resident Canada geese is three.
Pub Date: 1/12/97
