Fishing Bug

The fishing bug has really grabbed me.  Got home after taking Kim to the airport late this afternoon, and felt like working on organizing the boat a little.  Still have a LONG way to go, but definitely made some progress tonight.  It's all about having the stuff you use at your fingertips and knowing when you are getting low on the things you use the most.  Thank god for Plano and Plano knockoff boxes!  Walmart needs to get some more in as I've pretty much purchased all they carry.  You can never have too many Plano 3700 & 3750's.  Wonder how many will fit in the boat and still leave room for my partners gear? Guess we'll see.

Speaking of fishing, I can't help but think about the guys that I grew up with who have gone on to be pretty good fishermen.  There is a whole host of Professional Walleye Fishermen from the local area, my favorite is Neil Hammargen.  That's just my bias showing through.  There's Tom Skarlis, Scott and Darrin Grapp, Doug Newhoff and Greg Azbill.  Bunch of good sticks there.

On the Bass fishing side, which of course I'm very partial towards, two of the best I've ever known are my cousin Steve Runge (Waverly) and my good friend Brad Rockwood (Cedar Falls).  I've always said that if you put those two in a boat together, they'd probably never lose.  There's Jeff Ritter, who is from Waterloo but now lives in Prarie Du Chien, WI.  Bob Howland from Cedar Falls is someone I need to fish with a few times.  Andy Sommerfelt from Waterloo is another guy that can find fish.  Kevin Christensen and Garry Satterlee from Independence are real consistent.  They you have the younger crowd from Indee, Trent Beier, Todd Reed, Dave Gissell and Brent Roloff.  On any given day, any one of these guys can bring a winning bag to the scales.

Then there is me. I'm not in the same class as most of those guys I mentioned.....I'm sure that I over think this thing and talk myself right out of fish most of the time. I started fishing with my cousin in tournaments back in 2005.  I was so pumped!  We finished 2nd at our first tournament down at Smithville, MO and I was hooked, lined and sinkered!  After Steve, Brent Roloff and I got together for 3 years.  Some days we fish like professionals.  Some days, well, its like we've never fished.  I think most guys have those days, I hate them.  This year, Brent and I are going to try running our own boats and different partners.  Steve Pasker is going to be in the back of my boat this year.  We'll fish the CVBM tournaments and try our hand at a couple of the Bass World Sports events and go against some of the guys I listed above. 

I realized I have a scheduling issue already this year with Spring State.  Kim's cousin Tyler is getting married at the end of April.............in Mexico.  Spring State is May 4, 5 & 6.  Since I'll be in Mexico on April 28th for the wedding, not sure what I'll do about fishing Spring State.  May have to skip it.  If I miss Spring, I'll need to miss Fall State too.....no sense in fishing one if you aren't fishing both. That's okay, I qualified as a non-boater for this season through the club, I'll be boating next year. Guess we'll see what happens.

I'm sure there will be plenty of fishing conversation between now and next Thanksgiving.  Until then, here's something for all you guys that are getting bit by the same bug: