Sportsmen's Hunting And Fishing Expo Opens In Sacramento

This weekend, Cal Expo is full of boats, funny hats, and guided hunting and fishing tours for the 30th annual Sportsmen's Expo. 

The event brings Keith and Ken Brownlee from different parts of California to Sacramento every year to see friends and look at fishing boats.

"Ken already bought [a boat,]" said Keith. "He just wanted to show me what his looked like" says Keith.

Ken is asked if he'd let Keith use the boat.

"Hell no," he replies.

Both men laugh together as you might expect from two men who have known each other their entire lives. And they have. They're twins.

Nearby, TC Campbell looks at fishing gear, while wearing a hat with the head of a fish coming out the front and a tail going out the back.

He got the hat"From a good friend of mine who said, 'Would you like a hat that has a fish coming out of it? And I says, 'Well let me look at it.' And he goes, 'Oh yeah, I'll never wear it,' he said and I said, I'll wear it to the show every year.' And I have for, can't remember how many years it's been now."

Mike Chaussee sells guided fishing trips in Bristol Bay, Alaska. He says, even if he sells nothing, being at the show is worth the cost of the $1500 booth.

"Most of the value of shows besides that is just getting out and talking to the people direct as opposed to a website," says Chaussee.

He says he typically makes between $7,000 and $30,000 in one weekend.

And there are trips to hunting resorts in Namibia and South Africa. Harold Daniels says the resorts employ people and serve as a deterrent to poachers. If a hunt is successful, he says the people who live there benefit.

"They know that with us hunting on their land, they're gonna get money for the land, they're gonna get money for the animal, they're gonna get the meat," says Daniels.

Hunters pay between $40,000 and $60,000 per trip.

More than 600 exhibitors are taking part in this year's show.