Outdoors gear, vehicles, gourmet treats, animals and more were on display over the weekend at the Spring Sportsman’s Show, hosted by the Aroostook Sportsman Association and Presque Isle Fish & Game Club.
The Forum hosted the event, which is northern Maine’s top outdoors expo.
The show is the nonprofit association’s largest fundraiser and helps maintain the fish and game clubhouse and shooting ranges. But proceeds will also advance the club’s community outreach mission to teach local youth to appreciate the outdoors by sending them to Maine summer conservation camps.
“Some funds help us reinvest back into community-based programs to promote outdoor education,” said Candace Madill, Aroostook Sportsman Association board member and show co-director. “This event also helps strengthen community partnerships and ensure programs remain accessible to future generations.”
Visitors on Saturday afternoon browsed booths displaying ATVs, hunting and fishing gear and artisan products, from jerky and baked goods to arrow tips and fur pelts.
Attendance was brisk, according to Mark Allen II, vice president of the Presque Isle Fish & Game Club and the Aroostook Sportsman Association, the club’s nonprofit fundraising arm. Allen manned a simulated bow-and-arrow range, which was one of several hunting-themed games at the show.
“This is an inflatable bow range that uses foam-tipped arrows,” he said. “We’ve had a great turnout so far, a lot of young ones coming out to give it a shot.”
Participants shoot at colorful targets floating in front of a screen. Both seasoned and new archers enjoy the station, Allen said. He instructs the inexperienced step by step, from holding the bow to notching the arrow correctly.
The club featured other youth-oriented games, including laser shooting, pellet gun target practice and, new this year, a simulated skeet and trap station.
The perpetual favorite is the pond where young anglers can catch fish.
“Kids come through the door, and the first place they want to go is the fish pond,” said Fish & Game Club member Curt Lewin, who oversaw the pond. “We’ve got some big ones in there.”
Crews assembled the pond Thursday and the Presque Isle Fire Department filled it with water Friday.
Mi’kmaq Farms of Caribou provided more than 150 trout, some weighing up to 1 1/2 pounds and measuring 15 inches long, from their hatchery for the pond, Lewin said.
After the show, the fish will be donated to a private pond that allows kids and veterans to fish there.
The Dionne family from Grand Isle tested out the pond. Angele Dionne took pictures as her husband Dan helped their sons, Remi and Theo, cast their lines. Dan likes to fish, she said. An occasional flash of fin near the water’s surface drew squeals from the boys.
Maine Ducks Unlimited Chairman Jake Chouinard of Fort Kent manned the wetland preservation group’s station. Proceeds from featured gun raffles will go toward preserving waterfowl habitat and SkillsUSA, a program for career and technical education students, he said.
Chouinard teaches the electrical program at Northern Maine Community College. With him was student Robbie Poiesz of Madawaska. Poiesz recently placed first at the SkillsUSA Maine state conference in Bangor, and some funds raised will help him attend the national competition in Atlanta.
Terry Oliver of Katahdin Cockers in Ripley answered questions as he and one of his dogs demonstrated retrieving skills. Four calm, friendly brown spaniels captivated the audience.
Fly tiers, crafters and taxidermists displayed their wares. Other vendors included the Maine Forest Service, Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, Maine Trappers Association, Atlantic Salmon for Northern Maine, Allagash Tails with Maine author Tim Caverly, the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, Shriners, various sporting camps, Ride for a Cure and United Bikers of Maine.
Proceeds from the show send kids to summer camp each year, according to Todd Weeks, president of the Presque Isle Fish & Game Club and Aroostook Sportsman Association.
The club focuses on kids that normally couldn’t afford to go to camp, he said.
Participants attend summer camps at Lugdon Lodge in Eagle Lake and the University of Maine 4-H camps and learning centers at Bryant Pond and Greenland Point in Princeton.
The club also hosts hunter safety classes and participates in a youth fishing derby. Members strive to teach kids to preserve the environment, spend more time outdoors and participate in activities safely, Madill said.
“The biggest thing is to do these things safely and not ruin our outdoors,” she said. “We have to save it for future generations.”
