The skepticism being voiced over the arrival of Bass Pro isperfectly understandable. Typically Buffalo, for sure. But perfectlyunderstandable.
I would have been mystified, too, 10 years ago, if anoutdoorsmen's emporium had been hailed as a catalyst for the revivalof our ghostly downtown. But that was before I picked up a fishingrod, traveled to Pike and Gainesville, Dunkirk and Lewiston, andrealized that sportsmen from states and provinces near and far areintensely envious of Western New York's natural resources.
'People are blown away when I tell them we have the bestfreshwater fishing in America here,' said Jim Hanley, Erie County'ssports fishing coordinator and host of the television show'Northeast Outdoors.'
'They don't want to believe it.'
Frank Campbell, a 13-year charter captain based in Lewiston, saidthe community as a whole 'is really under-educated as far as ournatural resources and who uses them.'
It's true. There's not another part of the country that can matchthe diversity of Western New York fishing and its never-endingseason.
Last January, while researching a Lake Erie ice-fishing column, Iinterviewed three people who, it turned out, had journeyed here fromWilkes-Barre, Pa.
Two weeks ago, while wading the Cattaraugus in East Otto, afellow fisherman asked if there are any good inland trout streams inthe area.
'There's probably 10 quality streams within 45 minutes of myhouse,' I said, 'including a spring-fed stream I can fish on thehottest days of August.'
'You're lucky. We don't have anything like that around us,' hesaid.
'Where you from?'
'Near Wilkes-Barre.'
A month ago the pull-off at the Aldrich Street bridge in Gowanda,an immensely popular steelhead locale, looked like the parking lotat Disney World. There was a vehicle with Tennessee plates, withNorth Carolina plates, the usual glut from Pennsylvania and Ontario.
The best steelhead tip I've received came from a Torontonian Imet on Hamburg's Eighteen Mile Creek.
I've seen cars and trucks from Maryland and Michigan, fromMassachusetts and Ohio. Campbell said 85 percent of his more than200 annual charters are booked from outside Western New York.
The arrival of Bass Pro will help further spread the word, luringmore people to the area, spawning ancillary businesses, serving as aspringboard for economic recovery. Hanley envisions the number ofcharter fishing businesses will quadruple to more than 300 withinthe next three years. He thinks we'll see the re-emergence of theparty-fishing boat, allowing neophytes to experience lake fishing inlarger groups at minimal expense.
To determine whether Bass Pro is a good fit for Buffalo, just askyourself this question: What does Western New York have going forit, what's here to be tapped? Start with two Great Lakes and theNiagara River and then fill in the incidentals, whatever they mightbe.
But there's no making everyone happy. Detractors like attorneyJames Ostrowski said that the $66 million in public fundingcommitted to the Bass Pro project amounts to corporate welfare, andcalled it a poor deal for taxpayers. I guess he'd rather wait untila business with comparable potential comes along and takes a flieron economically depressed, obscenely taxed Western New York. Let'sdo that. And when you're the last person out of town, Jim, pleaseturn off the lights.
Bass Pro is a solid investment for the area, one steeped incommon sense. Think of it as $66 million spent on advertising if iteases your taxpayer pain. All I know is it's about time we landed abig one.
e-mail: bdicesare@buffnews.com
