Grand Rapids Ultimate Sport Show Recap
Another year and another Grand Rapids show is in the books. We saw all the weather with this one. 70’s and sunshine, all the way to snow on Sunday. You just never know what will happen during March in Michigan. The good news is that the ice was really just coming off so we didn’t have to hear a bunch of stories about guys already fishing. It is selfish but I always root for weather that isn’t conducive to going fishing when I work a show. A lot of times it helps attendance and I always say that if I’m not fishing then no one should be fishing.
This show was going to be my first look at the new Humminbird Xplore units. When we had some downtime, I did quite a bit of button pushing and exploring some of the new features they have. I think everyone who messed around with the units was impressed with the speed of them. The speed at which fishfinders switch menus and zoom in/out has always been something that we’ve wanted more of. Humminbird has a quad core processor in these units and it is incredible how fast it is. You can pinch to zoom like you would on a cellphone and zoom in/out without ever removing your fingers from the screen. There’s no doing that on the Solix units I have. The other big thing I noticed was that I could use the touchscreen to change any settings on a particular screen without the need to go into another menu. Improving efficiency is always welcome. Waypoint management has been a weak point with some of our previous units and that has been addressed. The capabilities of the Xplore units and the One Boat Network app are going to make things much better. What I’m getting at is that I was very impressed with the units and I think anyone upgrading at the moment is foolish to not look into the Xplore units/MEGA Live 2. If you have any questions please reach out.
That was my biggest takeaway from the show. I never even made it to the whole show but I really wasn’t looking for anything specific either. It is always a good time hanging out with our Johnson Outdoors crew and all the other friends I look forward to seeing at the show. I think it might have been the first time that I made it out of there without buying anything. I’d have been inclined to buy some trolling tackle but with it being so late in the year already. I’m just not sure if there are many if any trout trips coming up. I’ve got some major trailer issues to deal with. As much as it sees salt, the frame is just rusting through. I always knew that trailer was destined for the scrap yard at some point but I thought I had a few more years. I’m looking for a galvanized trailer that fits a 16 foot boat if anyone has a used one laying around?
As far as fishing gear, I’m mostly focused on accumulating some saltwater gear for spring break (if you have any saltwater/surf fishing tips, send them my way). I don’t have any of that and that is where my mind and wallet are with fishing right now. I’ve also got a little pier fishing on my mind. I can already see getting a little overwhelmed trying to catch all the things this spring and do some turkey hunting. But I know one thing, we’ll figure it out and have some fun doing it.