It’s show time!

Get ready to love some information overload

If you’re reading this, you’ve made it to the end of 2015 and should be thinking about your fishing, hunting and other outdoor exploits for the coming year. Most of us would like to do things a little better, a little easier, and be a little more productive. That’s a good thought and there are things we can do during the winter that are helpful and fun.

Boat shows, fishing shows, hunting shows and other shows that I call EOE’s — exceptional opportunities for education — are all over the calendar for the next few months, and they are prime opportunities not only to buy tackle, lures, boats, guns and camo, but they’re big learning opportunities.

Two of the largest boat shows in North Carolina are the Mid-Atlantic Boat Show in Charlotte on Feb. 11-14 (www.ncboatshows.com) and the Raleigh Convention Center Boat Show in Raleigh on Feb. 5-7 (www.raleighconvention.com/boatshow). A third, up-and-coming show is the Eastern NC Boat Show (www.facebook.com/easterncarolinaboatsale/?fref=ts), which is scheduled for Greenville on Feb. 26-28.

Fishing shows will also feature boats for sale, along with freshwater and saltwater tackle and lures. Most fishing shoes will have seminars given by professional fishermen and guides who will share tactics and knowledge. Two of the biggest are the Bass and Saltwater Expo at the N.C. State Fairgrounds in Raleigh Jan. 8-10 (www.ncboatshows.com) and the Central Carolina Boat and Fishing Expo at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro on Feb. 26-28  (www.ncboatshows.com).

The Flyfishing Show (www.flyfishingshow.com), scheduled for Feb. 5-6 at the Benton Convention Center in Winston-Salem, doesn’t draw as many folks as the larger shows but the topic is just as important to fly-fishers. There is a little fly-fishing activity at the larger shows, but the Flyfishing Show is specifically for fly-fishing and covers the sport from micro trout in the mountain streams to tarpon and billfish in the oceans.

The International Custom Rod Building Exposition (www.icrbe.com) is a fishing show unique to North Carolina, featuring booths of parts, accessories and rods for sale, plus sessions on rod building and anything and everything to do with custom fishing rods. The show is scheduled for Feb. 20-21 at the Benton Convention Center in Winston-Salem.

Most hunting shows feature a wide variety of specialty equipment and accessories, plus have representatives from hunting lodges across the state and region. The larger hunting shows usually have a few outfitters from across the country and occasionally outfitters who operate internationally. Most hunting shows offer seminars presented by guides, biologists and others with extensive knowledge of game. The Dixie Deer Classic (www.dixiedeerclassic.org) is the largest hunting show in North Carolina; it’s scheduled for March 4-6 at the N.C. State Fairgrounds in Raleigh.

Outdoor shows cover a broader, mixed spectrum of boats, fishing, hunting and other outdoor endeavors. One such show is the Cape Fear Wildlife Expo, scheduled for March 18-20 in Wilmington (www.capefearwildlifeexpo.com).

EOE is my acronym for Exceptional Opportunities for Education and there are a lot of these during the winter.

The Oak Island Parks and Recreation Department (http://oakisland.recdesk.com) has become a leader in offering fishing and kayak fishing programs, holding three fishing schools each winter and spring. The largest is the Oak Island Saltwater Fishing School, set for Jan. 30. The Women Anglers in Training (WAIT) weekend is a ladies-only event that features a day or classroom instruction and a day on the water. It’s scheduled for April 30-May 1. The Oak Island Kayak Fishing School is a little later when the water has warmed. It is a classroom session on Saturday, May 14, that offers limited spaces for an additional optional session on the water that afternoon.

The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission offers a variety of outdoor education programs through four educations centers across the state, in Corolla, Raleigh, Pisgah Forest and Fayetteville. Visit www.ncwildlife.org/Learning.aspx for schedules and details. Perhaps the Commission’s most-popular education program have been their Becoming an Outdoor Woman (BOW) programs. They include a variety of single-day, multiple-day, evening and weekend options at various locations across the state. The BOW Weekend has been scheduled for May 20-22 at the Eastern 4H Environmental Education Conference Center near Columbia.

Educational opportunities are not limited to seminars and schools. There are multiple opportunities to pick up tips on just about everything at all of the shows. Many manufacturers  bring pro-staff and team members to the shows to talk to interested people. You wouldn’t want to monopolize someone’s time, but it is a good opportunity to learn about the products from people who use them regularly.

This is also a time to enhance your knowledge on things other than just the outdoor activities. I have learned a lot about boat insurance, financing, dockage and storage by talking with representatives of insurance and finance companies and marinas at shows. This isn’t something you do often, but the knowledge is invaluable when shopping for a new boat.

I advise attending seminars on the same topic that are given by different presenters. This allows hearing multiple insights, tactics and techniques, and one of them may be the thing that lights the bulb over your head. Most fishing expos offer multiple seminar rooms to separate offshore saltwater, inshore saltwater and different freshwater fishing areas or techniques. This gives fishermen a choices and allows them to pick the topics that are important to them. There might be more concern about information overload than anything else.