Mud Hole Custom Tackle has been informed it will not be accepted as an exhibitor at the “West Coast Rod Show”. This is truly disappointing to us and the industry in many ways. Especially for Mud Hole, who just spent five days talking to thousands of potential and current rod builders and promoting the “West Coast Rod Show” at our booth in the Fred Hall Show in Long Beach, CA a few weeks ago. At the Fred Hall Show, Mud Hole was shown our booth location for the “West Coast Rod Show” by a show sponsor and we were excited about attending the show. Based on this, Mud Hole passed out promotional fliers for the “West Coast Rod Show” from our booth at Fred Hall with the promise of returning to the “West Coast Rod Show” in a few weeks to help educate people on the art of rod building.

Now, our enthusiasm and excitement has been extinguished by the wishes of a single vendor. Mud Hole Custom Tackle has been told that we would not be accepted as an exhibitor at this show. No better reason than the business narcissism of competing supplier was provided. This is very distressing for us as Mud Hole has taken a position in this industry of promoting education and growth so that all who enjoy this rewarding craft can prosper and benefit. This will unfortunately be one of the problems with this type of show when one of the shows owners (and competing supplier) is allowed to make decisions upon who may or may not attend depending upon whether they are competitors or not.

Until a truly open show is held on the west coast, one that is free of self serving business interests of any one supplier will the rod building industry benefit as a whole in that area. Promotion of any event disguised as “open to all vendors” when it plainly is not, is not only misleading, but it negates the efforts of those in the industry who truly wish to promote rod building shows which are indeed “open to all vendors” and burdens them with the need to dispel misinformation spread by private shows such as the “West Coast Rod Show." This is one of the reasons for the huge success of the really big show in North Carolina - there are no individual interests when it comes to who displays.

For those who will be attending we are sorry we won’t be there to service you and provide you with the top notch customer service that Mud Hole is known for world wide.

Regards,
Tom McNamara
President
Mud Hole Custom Tackle, Inc
P: 407-447-7637
www.mudhole.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/20/2008 04:58PM by Tom Kirkman.

First off, this isn’t a “Rod Building Show”, it’s a Custom Rod Show. There are more Rod Builders displaying than anything. There are six dealers selling Blanks & Components, and several of the “Tackle Shops” attending also sell blanks and components from their store fronts, but have opted to focus on Custom Rods at the show.

Next, there are two sides to every story of course.

Just to set the record straight, when Mudhole’s representative and I spoke on the phone, we were already sold out of vendor booths. Utmost had to let their booths go due to health issues that the owner was having, however we had a number of people on a waiting list incase something opened up.

Mudhole’s representative had requested a 10’ booth for Mudhole and a 10’ booth another company and I told them I’d see what I could come up with. This was just as all of you were leaving for the Fred Hall Show in Long Beach. I went ahead and moved things around to get you two side by side booths and added you to the floor plan, which I handed to your Representative in Long Beach. We also added Mudhole’s name to the exhibitor page of the website and at that point we were going to take care of the paper work when you all got back to Florida.

At the same time, a number of both vendors and customers approached other members of the show committee while the Fred Hall Show was still going on complaining about Mudhole’s conduct at the show. I won’t air all of that in a public forum, but it's been discussed with Mudhole on the phone.

There is a committee (which I am only one forth of) that votes on show applications. The general consensus was that we didn’t want the same thing going on at OUR show, especially not in its first year. As this involved Mudhole and not the other applicant that you requested space for, they are still part of the show.

Mark Griffin
[]
C&M Custom Tackle
San Dimas, California

While I certainly do not want to get into the middle of this, I do want to thank everyone who prayed for my quick recovery while taking some time off after undergoing back surgery. I have been blessed by the thoughts of many and have had virtually no pain and, in fact, stand about an inch taller now. My doctor has informed me it will take about three months to fully recover so the show was out of the question. Utmost is in good hands during this period of time.

Mick Batson
Utmost Enterprises