I'll be there. I think its a good show. Very specialized to striper fishing in the talks and I always have gotten good deals there. They don't give the stuff away but usually its the best prices you'll see all year. Is it worth the 50 minute ride from my house....definitely. Is it worth a 4 hour ride from NY....depends on what else you have to do.
Best part of the show is seeing everybody there.At least in the local area , just about all the serious striper fisherman go one day or the other or both.
I think the talks are pretty good too. Last year stetzko's talk was good and so was Bill and Jules.
There are sometimes booths with guys selling nothing , just showing a collection of plugs. One year a guy was demonstarting some flytying , one year not. One year a guy had add on and retrofits to Keep Alive live bait systems which was nice.
Big assortment of people and booths. Hatteras Jacks had all kinds of reels and stuff for tricking out reels like ceramic bearings. CMS always has good plug deals and reel deals. One year (long time ago) I bought about $250 woth of Gibbs plugs from CMS at about $7.50 each (don't expect that this year!
) They usually have a good assortment of Mombo Minnows at good prices too. one year I got nice tackle bags cheap and very inexpensive blanks from M+D's but he's not there this year. There are some regulars and some new tables every year.
Anyway , I like the show , much better than the Worcester show. As John said , no cell phone booths or big boat displays , just stuff for striper fisherman.