Jillian Murray set out to find something that would up her competitive fishing game and she may have found what she needed last weekend at the Tinley Park Fishing and Outdoor Show.
“It’s a custom lure that you can’t find mass-produced,” the freshman from Plainfield South High School said. “It actually moves like a fish.”
Murray was thinking ahead to the Illinois B.A.S.S. Nation State Championship later this year, where she will help defend her school’s 2017 title.
But the show, now in its 25th year at Tinley Park High School, didn’t just cater to fishing competitors. There was equipment and information on hand for everyone from those just starting to fish to the most avid anglers.
Rich Komar, who has organized the show for all 25 years, started it in the 1990s as a fundraiser for Tinley Park High School’s athletic programs.
Since then, the show has netted more than $750,000 that all has gone to fund school programs.
Komar’s five sons had each attended Tinley Park High School and had been involved in athletics, so he wanted to help their experience.
Now his youngest son is 31 years old, but he still loves to organize the show, which has grown exponentially over the years.
“I’m big on the outdoors and I like fishing,” Komar said.
He said the show started with about 40 vendors at tables in one of the schools gymnasiums.
This year, there were 170 vendors who filled the entire first floor of the school, resulting in 180,000 square feet of exhibitor space.
Komar said it was the type of show people might find at McCormick Place in Chicago, but it cost a quarter of the price and has free parking.
About 7,000 visitors usually come to the two-day event, a number that didn’t seem to decrease this year despite a foot of snow that fell a day before it opened.
“That says a lot about the show,” Komar said.
He said the snow might’ve actually helped with turnout because many people were looking to get out during the weekend after experiencing a little cabin fever.
That wasn’t the reason Scott Johnson, of Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood, made his way to the Tinley Park event.
“I come every year,” he said. “I never miss it.”
Johnson said he loves that the show supports local athletics while it helps him get ready for the fishing season.
“Some of the best fishing is in the Chicago area,” Johnson said.
He said he recently caught an 8-pound bass in Chicago but didn’t want to disclose the location of his secret fishing hole.
Visitor Al Kabat of Villa Park bought some lures at the show. He said some of the best nearby fishing is probably in Lake Michigan, where he regularly catches jumbo perch.
“This is one of the more well put together shows,” he said.
That’s why Art Remus, of Keeper Lures in Addison, said he’s been a vendor all 25 years of the show.
He said he and his wife, Kelly, do seven shows a year but Tinley Park is his favorite.
Brad Jackson, of Angler’s Outlet in Oak Forest, said Komar’s show also is his favorite from the many he does throughout the year.
“We always do nice business here,” he said.
Besides lure and fishing rod vendors, the show also featured exhibitors for vacation and hunting getaways from all over the Midwest and Canada.
Visitors also had a chance to shoot photos with live baby deer or reptiles and participate in such activities as hatchet throwing or archery with foam-tipped arrows.
Frank Vaisvilas is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
