The 2022 Fish Wrap calendar is ready to go and full of options to keep you busy for a few months.
Firstly, Trees For Trout happens this weekend so please, before you toss your Christmas tree over a fence or into some crushing garbage truck abyss, truck it on over to Arcadia and donate it to your Rhode Island Trout Unlimited and RIDEM. If you are in the South County area, there’s a good chance I will drive over and haul it away to support the cause. Trees will be collected by TU volunteers and RIDEM staff then stored for a few months. Once Spring freshets have eased, Biologist Corey Pelletier will secure them in several rivers to slow erosion, create habitat and protect certain flow speeds in areas where clean, smooth gravel can be gently finned into shallow redds.

You can drop off trees at Exeter’s Arcadia Check Station on Route 165 at the Wood River on January 8 from 9am to 2 pm. We do ask that you remove any tinsel, which is nothing we want floating down a pretty stream, and that trees not be sprayed with fire-retardant chemicals.

The 2022 Fish Wrap Calendar is Busy and Getting Busier

It’s time to clean out your tackle for Surf Day

When you’ve swept up the tinsel and wrapped up so many fragile ornaments, Saturday, January 15 is the Narragansett Surfcasters Surf Day Used and New Fishing Gear Sale at the Narragansett Community Center in Narragansett, RI. They are offering two floors of tables this year so you can expect even more piles of treasures, like rods, reels, books and lures from local creators and musty tackle boxes. We’ve written about this day heavily over the past few weeks because it really is a winter highlight for shopping, perusing and chatting. Doors open at 9am, then the cleanup begins at 1pm when everyone heads home with bags and armloads of new and used fishing gear.

Shufflinbg Surf Day Crowds

Bob Buscher peddle his wares at Surf Day

a wide angle view of Surf Day

A few weeks later, Dan Kenney brings his New England Fishing Expo to the Boxboro Regency Hotel & Convention Center, 242 Adams Place in Boxborough, Ma. on January 28-30. Dan Kenney productions are historically solid affairs with a wide range of speakers and vendors. Big Game charter team Peter and Brian Bacon will speak about targeting pelagics like tuna, marlin, Mahi and wahoo south of Rhode Island, before Captain Brian Coombs helps you with Light Tackle Fishing for Striped BASS.

Later in the day, guide Travis Manson will talk smallies with his Smallmouth Crush Tournament Preparation, Organize and Have A System. On the 29, Captain Coombs returns to talk about Jig and Pop Fishing, new Gear and New Techniques. Dave Pickering hosts at 5pm to share his tips for a multi-species approach to catching stripers, bluefish and false albacore.

Go See East Coast Eddie Dougherty Anywhere He Speaks

No 2022 Fish Wrap Calendar would be complete without my good friend East End Eddie of Cape Cod Canal fame, At 6pm, the Expo’s Keynote Speaker, East End Eddie Doherty will be presenting a fishing seminar, with a fancy PowerPoint demonstration, featuring stunning color photography by world renowned professional photographer and legendary surfcaster John Doble. Eddie Doherty was the featured speaker at the last event and feels honored to return. His seminar, Surfcasting the Cape Cod Canal for Striped Bass, should not be missed. For those of you keeping score at home, Eddie Doherty is the author of Seven Miles After Sundown, which was Amazon’s 2019’s #1 New Release in Fishing and selected as an Award Winning Finalist for American Bookfest in the Sports Category at the 2019 International Book Awards. Click here to get your copy before the show.

East End Eddie!

Dan Kenney has hosted several great shows and is staying loose on the mask deal for admission so stay tuned, so much of our lives seems to be in flux these days. You will learn more about the weekend at www.nefishingexpo.com.

Just a few weeks later, the much anticipated New England Saltwater Fishing Show returns after a two year pause. This is the big dance for sure, with 100,000 square feet of pretty much anything and everything you need or want for a new year of getting outdoors, in a boat, on a beach or just somewhere where no one is talking about a virus. The show runs March 11-13 and we’ll have far more coverage in a few weeks. Key pieces to remember are Sunday is family day so all women are admitted for free, you might win a charter fishing trip with Captain BJ Silvia, Captain Mike Roy of Reel Cast Charters will speak about light tackle striped bass fishing, Patrick Sebile, who holds 34 IGFA World Records and 300 other recognized records, will teach you about Targeting Stripers with Soft Plastics and Bucktails.

Me, Captain Sprengel and a pretty bass

Captain Jack Sprengel of East Coast Charters, who we met last summer fishing those amazing Shimano Splash Walk surface lures, will speak about Targeting Striped Bass: Backwater versus Big Water. Sprengel is a two time RI Saltwater Anglers Association Angler of the Year and has five RISAA Hall Of Fame catches. Those names right there are worth the price of admission. Learn more about the Splash Walk here.
That’s a very full winter calendar and we hope to add more in the weeks ahead.