Sacramento Sport Show will run through Jan. 23

By Don Quilici

The annual International Sportsmen's Exposition (ISE) at Cal-Expo (1600 Exposition Blvd.) in Sacramento opens today at noon, and will run through Sunday afternoon at 5 p.m.

Show hours are:

Today and Friday: Noon until 8 p.m.

Saturday: 10 a.m. until 8 p.m.

Sunday 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.

This huge, four-day event offers retail displays of outdoor products, Northern California's largest display of new sportfishing boats, hundreds of lodges, resorts, guides and outfitters from Alaska, Canada, South Africa, and the western U.S., plus hands-on features and special events for the entire family including:

MISCELLANEOUS:

ISE's Splash Dog Contest, where pets of all sizes, shapes, colors and ability launch themselves through the air into a 50-foot-long, water-filled pool.

Giant 4x4 Rock-Crawler Demo Hill, where you can see slightly-modified to alien-looking off-road vehicles grind, climb and even roll.

The West's largest Youth Fair.

Project Childsafe, which offers free gunlocks and safety literature.

ATV Test Track, where you can try the newest, hottest models.

A rock-climbing wall for all ages and skill levels.

SPORTFISHING:

Presentations at the California Sportsmen Theater by Northern California's best guides, captains and authors, including Sep Hendrickson, Kevin Brock, Steve Carson, Angelo and Abe Cuanang, Rick Kennedy and Greg Squires.

Northern California's largest presentation and sale of bass and sportfishing boats

Bass pro Kent Brown at the giant aquarium demo tank, filled with live bass, and the site for hourly seminars by local experts.

Fly-Fishing Theater, with Jack Dennis, Cork Graham, Mike Lawson, and Kevin Peterson.

Fly-Casting pond, site for seminars, product try-outs and special Discover Fly Fishing program.

2005 Best-of-the-West distance-fly-casting qualifications.

HUNTING:

Daily seminars by worldwide hunting authority Jim Shockey.

in the lagoon, decoy-placement, duck-boat-use, and in-water retrieving seminars.

Eastmans' Hunting Journal all-new Record Deer Display.

ISE California Elk-Calling Contest, presented by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.

Hunting Theater, with seminars by local expert Bill Mays (duck), world champion caller Sean Mann (goose), world champion elk caller Chad Schearer, Cork Graham (wild boar), Jim Matthews (upland birds), and western hunt authority Mike Eastman, host of Eastmans' Hunting Journal TV.

Giant Sporting Dog Arena, with multi-breed demos by the best local trainers.

Seminar schedules, a map to reach the sport show and $1 discount coupons are available at website www.sportsexpos.com