MrTightLInes

Not I. I agree, he seems like an easy "instant" pick, but there's just TOO much good stuff going on in A Bracket to ignore. Hope I don't regret not picking him, but I'm extremely confident in at least 4 of the others in there... maybe more.

Just purchased the Deeper Pro+ Sonar (the best of the 3 released) and will be giving this a try in my local ponds and fishing haunts, out of both my fishing Yak and my 10' Pelican Bass Raider. I have a feeling this is going to give me lots of key info that should help on the "slower" fishing days. I saw a video where it was compared to a high end Lowrance unit, and it was very impressive of a comparison. the temp was a couple degrees off, but the depth was spot on. Just seemed to have a couple degree difference from the Lowrance. Maybe because the Deeper's transducer is at the very top of the water and the Lowrance transducer was installed into the water, further down on the Bass boat? This is just a theory. Either way, it's been known to mark fish properly, and show magnificent contour. Can't wait to try it out MYSELF though this year. C-mon ice out!!

Oh my... where do I start this tale, and who really is going to read it? Ok, here we go. This is a long winded story about where I come from, what's gone on lately in life and my direction. A lot about me basically. Since I was a little boy I always loved fishing. My father was taught by his father and so on. My Dad used to do commercial fishing out of Portsmouth NH, and had many days like the one depicted in "The Perfect Storm". He even had one boat of his sink and was saved in February, in the Atlantic! That's another tale for another time. All my life I was raised to enjoy fishing, particularly trout fishing (Brookies / Rainbows / Browns) and mostly from the river or stream. I was raised on a little pond that had loads of various bait fish. I caught sunfish daily, growing up! I'll never forget the first day of fishing season for lakes growing up here in NH (4th Saturday in April). My father would wake me up around 2am to get to the fishing spot by 3am, in which hundreds of fisherman were already there! The earlier you got there, the better your spot was. We would stand shoulder to shoulder on the bank, casting straight out with worms most of the time, and wait for that fateful bite. Some years were better than others, and we'd always hear tales of the small jon boats and kayaks that went out and did amazing for the day, as they came in late morning, near us (this I will reference later in my story). Let's fast forward to around 15 years old. A this point, my attention started heading towards girls, cars, friends, basketball... and unfortunately drugs. And from 15 - 20 I did more drugs and partied more than most kids my age ever have! I used to go to raves and listen to very loud electronic music, while doing lots and lots of drugs. When I started to lose myself and many jobs, things snapped and I finally started living with my sister, in her basement, trying to rebuild my life. At this point I'm working at a gas station as a clerk, and a girl I had met right around when I was 16 years old, comes walking into the store with her mom. She flashes me a huge smile and I remembered her snagging my attention pretty good when I was younger but I never had the courage to ask her on a date. At this point in my life I had absolutely nothing to lose, so I asked her (right in front of her mom) if I could have her number and call her sometime. Her mom says “Oh lord, here we go again” (kinda facetiously), but something magical happened....she did give me her number! Now, here I am, 15 years later....having stopped the drugs around age 20, and I have married the love of my life and have a 6 year old daughter! She made life great. But, let's get back to tying this into my fishing ventures explanation / introduction So here I am, in my 30's and I had not fished in almost 2 decades (roughly 17 years). My father had lived with me for nearly 14 years...the last 6 of which he was dying of COPD. I guess 2-3 packs of cigs a day for over 55 years isn't a good idea. It wasn't a good sight, but one thing happened from this all. Before he died last year, May 2nd, I was able get my fishing license and get back to the rivers in the spring. I brought him home some brookies before he passed on, and his expression was priceless!! It had been over 5 years, or so, since he'd last had any fresh trout. I don't eat it, and I had been off trying to live life the wrong way...without fishing. Well, getting that fish for him re-sparked some AMAZING feelings inside of me, and I was ready to be back fishing. The day he died, as I was on the way to the hospital I felt this crazy warmth and “energy” flood over my entire body. It started from the tips of my toes, and within about 10 seconds I had this resonating feeling all over my body, right to my hair follicles. It's the strangest feeling I had ever felt. 20 minutes later, I arrive to the hospital to my mother exclaiming that my father had passed. After the usual encounter you would expect with your mother on this matter, I had composed myself and asked her; “..was it about 20 minutes before I showed up?!” She said it was almost exactly that amount of time. One tends to think his energy dispersed into mine at that very moment. The fisherman came alive like I can't explain! First thing I did on the way home from the hospital was make some casts in his memory. I literally just tossed a few out there and mumbled; “that's for you Dad.” I didn't catch anything, but never expected to. This experience reconnecting with the world in such a manner that fishing provides, was overwhelming! That day... changed me for the rest of my life. Anyone that knows me, knows that fishing was the last thing on my mind for nearly 2 decades. It just wasn't for me anymore....or so I thought! Well, here I am...it's summer time, last year, and I only knew of fishing from April till June. The trout stop (generally) biting around June near my parts that I fished for trout, so to me fishing was over. This couldn't be further from the truth (as many anglers know). I was then invited on July 24th, to go out on a Bass boat, and do some casual Bass fishing with a couple other guys. I had never fished for anything other than trout up to this moment, but now that I wasn't constantly tending to my dad (those last 6 years were terribly tough) I could go out of the house and do some things. I had never fished for Bass, nor had I ever fished from a boat, beyond some deep sea stuff when I was very young, but that's entirely different. I thanked the person for the invite and gladly accepted! I was directed to be at Squam Lake very very early in the morning. They had the tackle as I was clueless to the entire process of Bass fishing. Come to find out, I would go on to catch 11 Bass that day (another guy had over 20 and the other had 7) and just had the absolute time of my life!! Just to be out on the boat, on that water, on this beautiful sunny July day...was nothing short of amazing. Then you add in this terrific species of fish to catch, sprinkle in a little comraderie and you have yourself the makings for a nearly perfect summer day. On this day I was HOOKED, pun intended. That was July 24th. By August 8th, I had then purchased a 10' Pelican Bass Raider and equipped it with the biggest marine battery I could find, paired with a 55lb Minn-Kota trolling motor. I also purchased a 12' Field And Stream fishing kayak. From that day on, I fished every day I possibly could. I quickly joined a local fishing club that's B.A.S.S. Nation certified, and started to do tournaments. I didn't win any, but came respectably close a couple times. Through the end of the year my personal best rose up from 4.5lb, caught in a tournament we had on Conway Lake...to a 5.5lb hog that was caught in a secret pond location that I will never give up (Thanks Kevin!)....all the way up to my current PB, which is 7.16 lb! I caught that on October 20th, last year, on a Lew's Baitcaster setup, using a Zoom Tube (watermelon color) with 17lb mono filament. I'll never forget that day, or really any of the days I went out on the water during that first year for me. I saw so many Bald Eagles / Hawks / Ducks / Deer drinking near the shore just feet from me...Osprey! So much epic wildlife! Seriously, an Osprey dove 50 feet straight down into Brindle Pond this year, and took out the largest Bluegill I'd ever seen, just yards from us! The connection with the Earth and my energy within is so palpable, and all my friends and family know that this year in particular, I will fish each and every single day that I possibly can! I went nearly 34 years without Bass fishing, and I need to really make up for it all at once, this year in particular. We don't live long enough to waste more time...this passion I have has overtaken me something crazy. I read and watch videos all day long. I have many YouTubers I look up to and have helped me and taught me along the way. I've learned everything I know about Bass fishing in a few months, and caught many Bass last year over 4lb off artificial tackle. I can't wait to see what I can do this year with full dedication! I know one thing for sure; Remember at the beginning me mentioning the first day of fishing, and all the boats that would come in with epic tales of their catches? Well, finally I can do JUST that, and for the first time in about 25 years I will not only partake in the first day of fishing...I will be one of those little boats that goes out to create his own epic tales! My father will be right there within me, guiding each and every cast. Whispering in my thoughts to keep those lines tight.... And with that said, this brings me to this year. This year marks the 50th year that the New Hampshire state record Large Mouth has been held for. The current record is 10 pounds 8 ounces, and it was set in 1967 by a G. Bullpit. I promise you all that this year I will aim for that record as best I can. If I can catch a 7 pounder with only months of Bass fishing experience, then nothing is stopping me from this record besides; Time. This may sound egotistical, and heck I kind of hope it does! Because, this is my passion and my drive and my confidence in myself that I'm projecting into the world. It's going to take a heck of a force to stop me! You better believe that. Now before you think “OH YEAH?! I've been trying to beat that record for years now so you better get in line!” … then... well, I'd have to say to that; “Great! I hope you beat it too!” I hope that record gets beat multiple times this year. I've been told that the record had been beat many time unofficially, but that's just it. We need it official. It's been 50 years as of this year, New Hampshire, let's get it done! But I warn you, I'm trying my hardest so I hope you all do too. With all the fishing I'm going to do, I will bring my Canon DSLR camera with me. My GoPro with all the mounts and loads of batteries, memory cards and my time! You will experience the good, the bad and the “what the hell” moments right along with me. I'll do tip videos, V-LOGS and even some tournament coverage from the local tournaments I will do this year. I'm going to learn how to edit my videos with quality b-roll to keep you entertained, like many YouTubers do out there (Jon B. I'm looking at you, sir!) I even got a Deeper Sonar this year, to help me on the slow days and generally identify various statistics of a body of water, especially if I'm not familiar with it. Now, if you're still reading this... thank you! That means I intrigued you and/or that you care. Now please, SUPPORT ME! If I ever post YouTube videos or various tid bits about my journey, please support me. Reach out and talk to me! Give me your thoughts and words of encouragement. Like / Subscribe / Follow whatever I'm doing and share it with your friends, please! This ended up being basically my life story about fishing and what it all means to me, and how I got here. I know it's very long winded, and heck you may have hated it and not even gotten this far. But if you did like it, and you do care to be reading this, then I genuinely thank you from the bottom of my heart. This is only the start of an amazing journey. Please be with me at the start, not just when I'm successful.