AUBURN - County tourism officials, fresh from the grand opening of Bass Pro Shops, are already looking ahead to ways the area can benefit from the outdoor store's Fall Hunting Classic and the crowds it is expected to bring at the end of August.

Cayuga Tourism board member Chuck Mason shared some brainstorming ideas - including giving hunters a box full of helpful items that could be imprinted with the names of different businesses or Web addresses - with the county Planning Committee June 7.

But committee members said before anything is done to encourage out-of-town hunters, there has to be an effort to educate them as to where they can legally search out deer, turkey or other game.

Paul Dudley, from Cato, said there's a good reason more money has been spent to promote fishing than hunting here. Fishing is done mostly always in public waters with a lot of public access. There are fewer opportunities for public hunting in Cayuga County, he said.

Dudley and two other members of the Planning Committee are farmers. They said although their land is posted, they have problems with trespassing and vandalism.

"There are those who won't give you anything but a hard time and then cut your fences," Dudley said. "There are people we know who are responsible hunters, but with outsiders, it can be a different kind of story."

Public hunting is allowed in the county's Sterling Park on Lake Ontario with 900 of the 2,800 acres posted as a safety zone. There is also public hunting in the Montezuma Wetlands Complex with a permit, and in several other areas in the county controlled by the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

But most people hunt on private land with permission from the owner. Dudley, who is not opposed to hunting and hunts himself, said the key word is permission.

There was worry that promoting the county as a hunting wonderland would give the wrong impression that there is an over abundance of public hunting grounds here.

Meg Vanek, the county's tourism director, was not at the meeting, but she said there was apparently some confusion about the goal of the hunter promotion.

"Our whole point is to capitalize on the large group of people who will be here for the hunting classic, not to promote hunting in the area per se," Vanek said. "I think it came across a little bit differently to the committee."

Bass Pro's Fall Hunting Classic, besides being the store's "best hunting sale of the year," is three days of seminars, training and other special presentations. Displays from the county's top hunting manufacturers featuring new gear, techniques and strategies for the upcoming hunting season have brought large numbers of hunters to similar events in the chain's other stores.

There are also gifts and prizes, celebrity appearances and hunting experts on hand.

Vanek said her agency's goal is to get those who attend and their families out into the rest of the county. She said providing a package of free items, such as key tags with the county's tourism Web site address and phone number, gives people an opportunity to learn more about what the county has to offer.

Bass Pro Shops General Manager Greg Bulkley, has joined the tourism agency's board, so Mason expects Bulkley will help find an appropriate way for the county to appeal to hunting enthusiasts without sending them out to hunt illegally.

"I think we'll go back to the drawing board," Mason said.

Staff writer Louise Hoffman Broach can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 238 or louise.hoffman@lee.net