It’s really unfortunate that people prey on the gullibility of others to make a quick dime. The site doesn’t try to hide anything, they even clearly state that they are a FOR profit organization. If anyone out there can actually show me footage of of a cat REALLY being use as bait, I’ll buy a shirt myself!

via Single Barbed

“Then there was the undercurrent of displeasure towards my situation from some of my fellow Classic competitors…which for a few of them turned into a personal vendetta.

Be careful what you wish for, hey. I wished to fish the Classic and that’s exactly what I got — boots and all. Thanks guys for making it real and not pretend. I’ve been to the Classic, and there was no special favourite sister or hold the door for the girl treatment. Yet out of the blue, friendliness, yes; some true greats of our sport who were competing at this Classic countered the negative vibes with their support and endorsements without the “although, but, what if.”

What makes things worse is the utter lack of online footage about this historic event. I found a few short, low quality video clips on various blogs, but the only serious interview I found is several months old. Not even YouTube had a decent video of Kim!

Female Qualifies For Bassmaster Classic – More related videos from Asterpix

So whats the deal here, why would something like this possibly upset people?
Would any of you have a problem competing against a woman in a fishing tournament?

I could go on about the driving here, but instead I think these photos I took Friday morning sum things up pretty well.

How does that even happen?

This past summer gas prices were over $1.60 a litre here in Eastern Canada. Even though I drive a pretty economical car, those prices kept me fishing close to home. I’m sure many boat owners fished less then usual this year due to the gas prices as well. Now gas prices are under $0.70 a litre, and I should be happy about that I guess, but I’m really just annoyed! Am I the only one that fished less as a result of the high gas prices?

Sea Kitten Fact: “Like their surface-dwelling cousins, the land kittens, sea kittens enjoy being petted. Their lack of arms makes it difficult for them to pet back, but they often gently rub against each other as a sign of affection.”

Creepy.

Thanks OFNC!

Lisa writes,

“You are horrible people. Fishing JUST to Fish, and Feel the so called ‘rush’ it gives to KILL an innocent animal is WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You should be ashamed of yourself!”

I think it’s pretty weird that people go out of their way to say something mean instead of something positive. Sure out site may show some dead fish, but we are advocates of conservation and catch and release. To me, keeping your catch is no different then buying a hamburger at the grocery store, an animal is dying either way. I guess people forget that a lot of the food they eat was once a living breathing animal.

I guess I’ve been reading too many news letters from Jon’s favorite site PETA.
Maybe we should all be ashamed of ourselves…nah. Can’t we all just get along?

Are you going to turn off your lights?

On really cold days I ask myself, why would anybody want to live in a place like this? Why not live somewhere that has warm weather all year long? In 2005, in the middle of the winter I decided that I had had enough of winter, and packed my bags and headed south to La Paz, Mexico to meet up with Jon and fish the Sea of Cortez.

I’m glad I did, it changed my life. After a month in the desert I met my wife to be, Gillian, but after almost six months we both agreed that La Paz was not the place for us. We headed back to Canada, specifically Mississauga, Ontario – the town I grew up. I had friends and family there, and got my old job at the bank back right away. By the time the chill of fall was in the air we both decided that staying for a freezing winter was not an option.

September 2005 marked one of the happiest time in my life, my return to the British Virgin Islands. Since my sister, mother and I left the BVI when I was five, I had only visited a handful of times. We arrived with nothing more then the shirts on our back, a tent, a camera, a laptop and of course, my fishing rods. We spent our first several weeks camping near the beach at Brewers Bay during hurricane season while we looked for an apartment to rent. After a few months settling in, things were going great. We lived in a small apartment on a mountain top with a brilliant panoramic view of several islands. Best of all, the ocean was a five minute drive from our apartment, and the sea was full of tarpon!

British Virgin Islands tarpon

Our time in the Virgins Islands had a lot of ups and downs. In the end, financial difficulties and health problems ultimately caused us to leave. We returned to Canada, and spent a year in Ontario, and have since relocated to beautiful Nova Scotia. I currently have two jobs, (three if you count Fishing Fury, but this is a labour of love, and as you can see by the lack of advertising, this doesn’t exactly bring in any income). Things are going great since we moved to the east coast, but it’s winter, and it’s cold and I don’t like the cold.

There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about life in the BVI. Since I can’t experience it in person, the next best thing is to read about others enjoying the sunshine and fishing. There is one blog that I check regularly to get my BVI fix, The Captains Log Blog. If you plan to visit the BVI or the Carbibean, these site will give you a taste of what you will get to see. And if you are looking for a sailing charter (with fishing), look no further!

images via Sail Dive BVI

I can’t help but wonder if that would make a pike taste better.

via fmft.net

The holes you see pictured above could be part of the manufacturing process, but is highly unlikely since I’ve never owned a rod with such a hole and every photo I can find of the Fuji TCS real seat (example 1, example 2) is lacking such a hole. It just doesn’t make sense from a manufacturing or design process. Not to mention that the hole is off center, has a suspicious looking unfinished lip, almost like it was drilled out and not sanded down, and the simple fact that quite a few of the rods on display had their triggers broken off at this hole.

So because I was tired of looking at it and feeling it, I decided to do something about it. While I may not recommend doing this to your rod, it’s the solution I came up with using items I had around my house that I knew were suitable for the job. All you’ll need to replicate this repair is a few plastic bags, some tape, a round file and some car bondo. What, you don’t keep bondo in your medicine cabinet?

Then just file out the hole a bit, maybe a little extra tape so you don’t get bondo all over the place, especially on the cork. Mix up your bondo, do this part outside because the fumes are pretty noxious, you’ll only need a little bit since it isn’t a large hole and start filling. Be very careful, this stuff generally sets in about 3-4 minutes so work carefully and diligently, don’t worry about excess because you’ll need to sand it all down anyway. Let cure for about 20-40 minutes and you’re ready to sand it down and remove the tape.

Either Pete Maina, missed out on the quality control of these rods, and is quite possibly kicking himself for them being “Signature Series”, or Bass Pro Shops manufacturing process is about as obscure as their naming conventions. I might even go so far as to say they have a mystical drilling gnome wandering about their factory.

We’ll see if it breaks, and how it performs, as we run it through the Northern Pike Gauntlet.

For more photos of the Pete Maina Signature Series Rod Repaircheck out our gallery.