ONE-MAN SHOW.

Byline: Mike Stahlberg The Register-Guard

It takes hundreds of people to put on the annual sportsmen's show in Eugene. In a pinch, however, Walterville's Scott Haugen could present an entertaining and educational show all by himself.

Stroll down one aisle of the imaginary Scott's Sportsman's Show, and you might find Haugen manning one booth on Hunting in Africa, another on catching Dungeness crabs in Oregon and a third on fly-fishing in Alaska. On another aisle, he's selling copies of the several books he's written at one table and signing up subscribers to the new magazine he edits at another.

Meanwhile, on stage he's giving tips on curing fish eggs one hour, and the next he's sharing the secrets of smoking salmon and steelhead.

Over at the indoor fish pond, Haugen's giving a seminar on how to catch steelhead in the Umpqua River.

And ringing the outside walls of the show are dozens of booths, each featuring a television set screening a different hunting or fishing show hosted by - who else? - Scott Haugen.

Haugen, 41, is a former schoolteacher who in eight short years has turned himself into a prolific outdoor media machine. He now wears many hats:

Author of nine books (with a couple of others in progress).

Free-lance writer and photographer with close to 1,000 published articles (and several dozen magazine cover photographs) to his credit.

Host of about 100 episodes of various television hunting and fishing programs.

Editor of a slick new full-color magazine, Hunting the West, the third issue of which is due on newsstands next month.

Public speaker who'll make about 40 appearances this year.

A half-dozen of those talks will come this week at the 33rd annual Eugene Boat and Sportsmen's Show, which runs Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Lane Events Center. Haugen will give two seminars each day in the "Sportsmen's Theater" - one on "Spring Hunting Opportunities" (bear, turkey and varmints) and the other on "Late Season Blacktails."

The real sportsmen's show will also feature seminars and demonstrations by a dozen other outdoor experts. They include guide Gary Lewis speaking on smallmouth bass and shad, Dean Finnerty on steelhead fly-fishing, Martin Thurber on fishing for oversize Columbia River sturgeon, Dave Wahl on the use of downriggers, and Roger Sellner on field judging and scoring trophy game animals.

All of those men know their stuff, but none has the range of experience of Haugen, who spent 250 days in the field during 2005, traveling from Alaska to Africa and filming enough hunting and fishing action to fill 64 television show episodes.

Haugen has been a hunter and fisher since childhood. But only in the past eight years has the work earned him invitations into the dens and living rooms of hunters and fishers around the world.

Haugen submitted his first article, about hunting mouflon sheep in Hawaii, to Safari Magazine in 1997. Since then, Haugen has turned himself into one of the most prolific outdoor writers in the country.

He began branching out into television in 2001, when officials of Cabela's asked him to guest-host a show on fishing for sturgeon in the Columbia River for their TV program on ESPN.

"That did really well, won some awards," Haugen said.

Then Haugen was approached by the owner of Wolf Creek Productions. After filming a couple of episodes in Alaska with him, the company hired Haugen to host a program called `Limbsaver's Outdoors,' which airs on the Men's Channel on Tuesdays at 5 p.m. and Wednesdays at 6 p.m. Pacific time.

Haugen does 26 half-hour shows per year for that program, divided between hunting and fishing.

Meanwhile, another producer contacted Haugen to host two programs on the HDTV version of the Outdoor Channel.

"Those have been really fun shows to shoot because of the quality of the toys you're playing with," Haugen said. "You're going from $3,000 cameras to $150,000 cameras - you have two of those in the boat, plus a $75,000 high-def underwater camera. Those allow you to shoot some incredible shots."

Haugen has filmed 13 hourlong `Salmon, Trout & Steelheader' shows, plus 26 episodes of "Adventures Abroad," a program about international big game hunts, for Outdoor Channel 2HD, the HDTV version of the Outdoor Channel cable network.

"The frustrating thing is that the 2HD channel is just not in many homes," Haugen said. "I don't know anybody in Oregon who has it."

Haugen said the thought of getting involved in television never occurred to him.

"The TV thing just kind of happened," he said. "People coming to approach me, based on my writing."

His background as a schoolteacher also helps immeasurably, he said, because the shows are totally unscripted.

"You teach to the moment," he said. "You don't know what's going to happen to the animals or the fish or the conditions, but you want to be educating people on things no matter what happens."

In 2005, a year during which he filmed 64 TV shows, Haugen was also called upon by Frank Amato Publications in Portland to serve as editor of its new quarterly magazine, Hunting the West.

"We felt there was a real need for a comprehensive Western-based hunting magazine," Haugen said.

How can one man alone do so much?

In truth, he cannot.

"On TV and in the magazine articles, it looks like a one-man show, but it's far from it," Haugen said. "I couldn't do any of this without Tiffany (his wife, who helps out with copy editing and photography and is co-author of Haugen's cooking-oriented books) and my folks.'

Haugen's parents live nearby and help with everything from caring for the Haugen's two young sons to his father rowing a camera boat or driving a truck so Scott's free to write.

Haugen also relies heavily upon Bret Stewart, a local fishing guide who now serves as his "main cameraman" for the `Limbsaver's Outdoors' TV shoots.

"Finding camera skills and hunting and fishing knowledge in one person is very difficult," Haugen said.

For more information on Haugen and his work, see www.scotthaugen.com. For information on the Eugene Boat and Sportsmen's Show, call [phone].

SHOW TIME!

Here are the basic details of the 33rd annual Eugene Boat & Sportsmen's Show:

When: Friday, noon to 9 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Where: Lane Events Center.

Highlights: New "camping pavilion," Boone & Crockett trophy deer and elk display; seminars by seven hunting and fishing experts; continuous angling demonstrations at the 50-foot live fish tank; displays of the latest model boats and other watercraft; plus exhibits by vendors of hunting, fishing and camping products and services.

Cost: Admission is $6 for adults, $1 for children. Coupons good for $2 discount on Friday and Sunday admissions are available at sponsoring Bi-Mart stores.

CAPTION(S):

Scott Haugen, who has hunted in such places as Africa, has an impressive trophy collection in his Walterville home. Scott Haugen Scott Haugen, who will give six presentations at the sportsmen's show this weekend, is silhouetted against the dawn sky during an early morning archery hunt for mule deer in South Dakota. The hunt was being filmed for one of the 64 episodes of televised hunting and fishing programs that Haugen hosted in 2005. Scott Haugen Scott Haugen and his camera crew film a segment on a wild turkey egg while on a hunting trip in the Umpqua Basin.