Sportsmen gather in Harrison for Tri-County Trout Club's annual show

With the region bracing for a bitter cold snap next week, anglers from near and far, young and old may have been thinking of warmer days ahead along rivers and streams as they gathered for a long-running annual sport show and flea market in Harrison on Saturday.

Nearly 50 vendors attended the show and market held by the Tri-County Trout Club at Guardian Angel Parish’s Patterson Hall in Harrison. Proceeds from the event support the club and its activities, including the free Burrell Lake Park Kids’ Fishing Derby, held in Lower Burrell in June.

“It’s getting better every year,” said Brian Opina, of Plum, holding a fly fishing rod he just bought.

It had been billed as the 20th annual, but was actually the 19th, with the club taking a couple years off because of the covid-19 pandemic, club President Steve Hegedus said. It had previously been held in Arnold.

Dating to 1977, the roughly 80-member club promotes fishing as an outdoor pastime, encouraging youth participation and generally aiming to get them active in the outdoors. It covers Allegheny, Armstrong and Westmoreland counties.

“It’s probably the first show like this of the year,” Hegedus said. “It’s a chance for people to get together, network, tell stories and sell stuff they’re not using anymore.”

Merchandise included new, used and vintage or collectible outdoor sporting items for fishing, hunting, archery, camping and trapping.

There were fishing lures ranging from itty bitty flies to what looked like a cat’s toy rat, which is actually for catching muskie, which was handmade by John Lipchik, a vendor from Pittsburgh’s West End.

“It’s a nice crowd, nice people, good atmosphere and it’s for a good cause. You see some amazing stuff here,” he said. “It’s a good break from the winter monotony.”

Tom Wright, of Brackenridge was walking around with his 2025 fishing license already attached to his hat.

“I fish all year. I’m retired now,” he said. “I’ll go when it’s cold — it depends how cold. Now that I’m older, I can’t handle the cold like I used to.”

He was looking around for lures, hooks, and maybe a pole if he saw a good deal. But, he added, “I need another pole like I need a hole in the head.”

After making flies for a dozen years, Kurt Shaffer, of New Kensington, started a business, PGH Fly Co., in 2023. It’s a side gig for Shaffer, a refrigeration technician by trade.

His fly skills have translated well into also making earrings.

”I got really good at tying them,” he said. “Each one used to take me five minutes. I got it down to two.”

Eric Bartoli, of Saxonburg and operating under North Country Flies, has been making his own flies since he was 15 years old. It was something his father told him he had to learn how to do because they couldn’t afford to keep buying them.

Now that he’s retired, “It’s what I do in my spare time,” he said.