I Made It To the Classic

I wish I did as an angler. Last week I attended the 2009 Bassmaster Classic in Shreveport/Bossier City, LA with an invite as the DE B.A.S.S. Federation Nation Conservation Director. What a blast! I flew down the Thursday prior and got settled in my room. Later that evening, the coordinator put on a Texas Hold'em poker tournament. Had a great time with that. During the mornings we would have our conservation workshops, designed to help us along with the projects we encounter in our individual states. B.A.S.S. provided lunch each day and bused us all over to the huge fishing expo at the convention center. Then the bus would come grab us from the expo and run us over to the Century Tel to witness the weigh-in. After the weigh-in we would return to the hotel where any number of activities would be taking place. Dinner, drinks, pros, fishing talk or just chilling out in your room watching TV if it was a big day. Everyday was a big day. Day 2 weigh-in I was back stage, handling the fish as they got weighed in and sent to the tank truck to be released. Pretty sweet. Then back at the hotel, who shows up? Jason Quinn, my favorite angler on the Elite series tour! We just chilled out up in the hospitality room sipp'n on some Evan Williams Single Barrel. The whole trip was almost surreal. i could hardly believe I was seeing all the huge names in fishing right in front of my face, shaking their hands and even hanging out with them.

One of the things that gets me, is how much of a big commercial the whole thing is. Everywhere you see the logos of any one of numerous vendors trying to pound the image of their logo into your head like a subliminal message. I can't really say anything because I have my favorites. Ironically none of them have anything to so with my favorite angler. As you can see in the rest of my blog, I pick what catches fish. But one company that has be steadily consistent in producing for me is YUM. Just a me thing.

Some things I was able to learn from attending this event; a lot. I noticed these guys are constantly moving. Always swinging to promote their sponsors. It would seem like a life of sales... a traveling salesman that goes fishing to show you the product and wins money doing it. These guys are becoming more and more famous all the time. The sport of bass fishing gets more and more popular every year, and when I get there, I'm gonna be a star.