Rough/micro fishing presentation

Set up right next to the bowfishing booth. And bring candy for the little kids. That should sway them in your favor.

(I’ll send ya a DM with some actual suggestions, don’t worry)

That sounds like a great idea, I'd definitely try to show off some of the "cooler" looking species like Gar, Sturgeon, big Buffalo, etc. to pique people's interest. Best of luck!

As for micros, depending on your state rules, maybe you could even have a tank setup to display them. If not, some pictures of the lit up ones in spawning colours would definitely get attention.

My advice would be to highlight big fish like buffalo, gar and bowfin.  Big, tough fish.  Exciting stuff.  That kind of crowd might not take well to microfishing. 

I would do everthing everyone has said.  Yes, highlight the big bad boys, yes have a section with photos of micros.  Make sure you have some actual hooks that you use for micros - people are impressed by that (likely most impressed by how crazy the idea is).  Anyway, something for everyone will be most interesting.

Tanks with fish are always a hit at these shows.  If you have fish that aren't normally seen, people could have fun trying to guess what they are.  I guess the biggest obstacles probably are:  Do you have the equipment?  And more so, it's really hard to catch fish in most states during the winter.

How much time do you have?  You might contact the Oklahoma Wildlife Department and ask them for ideas on displaying wild non-game fish.   If they're not already doing a similar display, they might collaborate with you and even might help collect fish for you...

Can't hurt to ask.  At any rate, contacting the State for advice will help form a bond and get their blessing on whatever you decide to display.

The tank seems like a really good idea. It might also be interesting to display some micro tackle and, if you have them, some shark hooks or something. People are interested in both very large and very small tackle.

That would be pretty neat to have side by side, as a cool visual and conversation starter.  "You could go fishing at a spot on the river and use very large tackle to target alligator gar or blue cats - while waiting for a bite, use micro tackle to catch carmine shiners.  Maybe use the carmine shiners as bait on another rod to catch a goldeye."

Also, it looks like OK has a lot of neat sunfish species - you could highlight that diversity too. 

My main suggestion would be to educate on the common misconception that gar and bowfin “eat all the bass” and that carp and buffalo “eat all the bass eggs”...... This seems to be what most uneducated people think that I come across.

Also the issue of releasing large fish with great genes and harvesting smaller to mid sized fish so to improve the gene pool and increase the numbers of large fish. A majority of people were taught to keep the big ones and let the little ones grow, which is ass backwards if you want to increase the quality of a fishery.

If you have access to any "roughfish" that you can cook up and serve and advertise as Walleye or some other well known fish that could be fun. Then when they tell you how delicious it is you can say it's a carp and blow their mind. 

Josh Knuth has some great prints of Gar and redhorse and some other fish as well. See if you could buy some from him if he has any prints left. 
 

A lot of people think the only reasonable way to catch carp, buffalo, suckers etc is to shoot them. Showing that they can be caught at all might interest some people.  

I would also make a point of distinguishing between invasive carp species and everything else. It drives me INSANE when I mention a random native species and people assume it must be an invasive because they have never heard of it.

And, lastly, if you could make a case in your posters that native fish are an important part of the ecosystem even if you don't fish for them. I have opened a few eyes by pointing out the high fecundity of buffalo (etc, etc) but the lack of small specimens. Where do they all go? In to predators stomachs, obviously. Rivers with good sucker runs also have monster smallmouth. Rivers with big redhorse also have big musky. What do fish shooters expect flatheads to eat after they arrow all the buffs, carp and suckers? Even if you don't want to fish for suckers and buffs at least you have to admit they are big part of the forage base.