As a television professional, I love this commercial.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Boyd's Blog
Boyd Duckett has a new blog that is very interesting to listen to. He's doing audio blogs and you should check them out if you are interested in professional fishing. This is Boyd's first year fishing the Bassmaster Elite Series and he started strong....by winning the Bassmaster Classic. What a way to hit the ground running.
Boyd's not a rookie. He has fished professionally at the Tour level, but took a few years to get his business to a place where he could spend his time pursuing a professional fishing career. He owns a tank truck leasing company in Demopolis, AL and chances are you've seen one of his silver bullet trucks on the highway.
So now he's juggling a pro fishing career and a thriving and time consuming business. His audio blog will give you a good idea of what it's like to fish the Elite Series.
And, by the way....this incredible shot of Boyd taking his victory lap at the Classic was taken by none other than James Overstreet....see below.
Boyd's not a rookie. He has fished professionally at the Tour level, but took a few years to get his business to a place where he could spend his time pursuing a professional fishing career. He owns a tank truck leasing company in Demopolis, AL and chances are you've seen one of his silver bullet trucks on the highway.
So now he's juggling a pro fishing career and a thriving and time consuming business. His audio blog will give you a good idea of what it's like to fish the Elite Series.
And, by the way....this incredible shot of Boyd taking his victory lap at the Classic was taken by none other than James Overstreet....see below.
Great fishing photography
If you haven't discovered ESPNoutdoors.com's Zoom Gallery yet you are in for a treat. Incredible photography from the Bassmaster tournaments. James Overstreet is the guy behind the camera in most of the shots and he knows his f-stops. Peep the pics when you have time.
Overstreet also has a SmugMug site where you can see his photography covering a variety of outdoor subjects. It's a Photo Blog. You can see it here.
Overstreet also has a SmugMug site where you can see his photography covering a variety of outdoor subjects. It's a Photo Blog. You can see it here.
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Guntersville Bassmaster Elite
Watched the Guntersville show this morning and I was not disappointed. I think Kevin VanDam showed remarkable restraint when he caught his big fish. I'm sure he wanted to celebrate. But he has a lot of presence of mind when the cameras are rolling. Now ZONA....on the other hand knows no restraint in his analysis. He'll say or do anything.
Terry Scroggins is showing out lately. Big Show finished 4th at Guntersville and then hot footed over to Santee Cooper to win the Southern Open there. Prior to the Guntersville event, his team won the Toyota Texas Bass Classic. It was good to see him win outside the state of Florida, and now that he has that monkey off his back....look out. Which reminds me that I ned to change my fantasy fishing team roster.
Speaking of Big Show and KVD who are both Toyota sponsored anglers, a cool site that everyone should check out is ToyotaFishing.com. I love their video clips. Very well done. And also good to see Toyota activating their sponsorship of the sport. I wonder how much traffic they get....
Activation in an integral element of sponsorship deals. A marketing executive at a major company who sponsors an individual angler told me that he would use the same budget to activate the sponsorship as he paid the angler. That's a good thing for the sport. A strong sponsorship activation means that the brand - and the angler - will receive more impressions. And those impressions are what keep the sport on the minds of the fan. And I am all for more people being involved in fishing. I can't help but think that the people who are involved in this sport, or hobby as the case may be, are enriched because of the participation.
So Toyota is activating. And they have the platform to go big. And they have a team of pros in place that will be hanging out at the top of leaderboards for a long time.
Anybody want to wager on how Big Show will do at High Rock?
Terry Scroggins is showing out lately. Big Show finished 4th at Guntersville and then hot footed over to Santee Cooper to win the Southern Open there. Prior to the Guntersville event, his team won the Toyota Texas Bass Classic. It was good to see him win outside the state of Florida, and now that he has that monkey off his back....look out. Which reminds me that I ned to change my fantasy fishing team roster.
Speaking of Big Show and KVD who are both Toyota sponsored anglers, a cool site that everyone should check out is ToyotaFishing.com. I love their video clips. Very well done. And also good to see Toyota activating their sponsorship of the sport. I wonder how much traffic they get....
Activation in an integral element of sponsorship deals. A marketing executive at a major company who sponsors an individual angler told me that he would use the same budget to activate the sponsorship as he paid the angler. That's a good thing for the sport. A strong sponsorship activation means that the brand - and the angler - will receive more impressions. And those impressions are what keep the sport on the minds of the fan. And I am all for more people being involved in fishing. I can't help but think that the people who are involved in this sport, or hobby as the case may be, are enriched because of the participation.
So Toyota is activating. And they have the platform to go big. And they have a team of pros in place that will be hanging out at the top of leaderboards for a long time.
Anybody want to wager on how Big Show will do at High Rock?
Saturday, May 5, 2007
Saturday with no Bassmaster show
This is Kentucky Derby weekend. No Bassmaster Elite Series show. I'm eager for everyone to see the Lake Guntersville show because it's really good. Kevin Van Dam is a hell of a champion and he puts on a clinic.
At Guntersville, I was lucky enough to be invited over to the house where Kevin, Davy Hite and Scott Rook were staying. They were cooking out on the grill and were nice enough to call. Zona and Sanders were there too. There was a lot of talk about the shad spawn. And how quickly viewers of the Bassmaster shows pick up on what the pros are doing. Nothing is a secret in this sport. The avid fans watch everything on slo-mo, I think, clicking through the footage frame by frame to see exactly where the winners are and exactly what they are throwing.
There was lots of talk about fishing , but Kevin never reveals too much about what he's doing. He is a champion on the grill too, I have to say. Kevin might be the most competitive person I know. Jerry McKinnis is a close second. If there were a competition for grilling, Kevin would enter. And win.
Kevin is known to fish very fast. Last weekend, while the TV crew was waiting for the weigh in to start, one of the camera guys was telling me about covering Kevin. He said that it seemed like he was catching them on every cast. His exact words were, "He was just skiing three pounders into the boat and tossing them off the other side. Then he hooked one and everything got realy slow. I knew he had something special."
Here's my take on Kevin. He is without a doubt, the most positive person I know. My personal mantra has become....WWKVDD? What Would KVD Do? Whenever I am challenged by something and feel myself give in to the temptation to whine or complain about something in this fishing business, I literally ask myself that question. I have learned a lot from being his friend.
You can listen to an audio blog of Kevin's Lake Guntersville experience here.
And you can see the Lake Guntersville tournament next Saturday on ESPN2.
At Guntersville, I was lucky enough to be invited over to the house where Kevin, Davy Hite and Scott Rook were staying. They were cooking out on the grill and were nice enough to call. Zona and Sanders were there too. There was a lot of talk about the shad spawn. And how quickly viewers of the Bassmaster shows pick up on what the pros are doing. Nothing is a secret in this sport. The avid fans watch everything on slo-mo, I think, clicking through the footage frame by frame to see exactly where the winners are and exactly what they are throwing.
There was lots of talk about fishing , but Kevin never reveals too much about what he's doing. He is a champion on the grill too, I have to say. Kevin might be the most competitive person I know. Jerry McKinnis is a close second. If there were a competition for grilling, Kevin would enter. And win.
Kevin is known to fish very fast. Last weekend, while the TV crew was waiting for the weigh in to start, one of the camera guys was telling me about covering Kevin. He said that it seemed like he was catching them on every cast. His exact words were, "He was just skiing three pounders into the boat and tossing them off the other side. Then he hooked one and everything got realy slow. I knew he had something special."
Here's my take on Kevin. He is without a doubt, the most positive person I know. My personal mantra has become....WWKVDD? What Would KVD Do? Whenever I am challenged by something and feel myself give in to the temptation to whine or complain about something in this fishing business, I literally ask myself that question. I have learned a lot from being his friend.
You can listen to an audio blog of Kevin's Lake Guntersville experience here.
And you can see the Lake Guntersville tournament next Saturday on ESPN2.
Friday, May 4, 2007
The Iaconelli Kerfuffle
I find it interesting that anything Mike Iaconelli does tends to be such a flashpoint to fans of professional bass fishing. Last weekend at the Lake Guntersville Bassmaster Elite Series event, there was lots of talk about Iaconelli "going Ike" at some point in the tournament. The rumors were abundant.....Ike went off on his truck, broke the window out, threw a fit, embarrassed himself, embarrassed the sport, embarrassed the pros, embarrassed the sponsors.
The funny thing about it was that I never talked to a single person who saw it happen. There were several versions of the story, whispered in the weigh in lines, but oddly.....no one with whom I spoke actually saw the dirty deed.
As the week progressed, the rumors spread. A couple of internet sites discussed it. Everyone had an opinion it seemed. But still, no one could actually say they saw it happen.
I haven't asked Mike about it. I probably won't. We all know that Ike has a temper. (Who doesn't?) In my experience, he just wears his emotions on his sleeve. You usually know what's going on with Ike....there are rarely any secrets as to his mood.
But he takes a lot of unfair criticism, in my opinion. I've seen him get mad. Really mad. I've also seen him light up a room with positive energy. The thing about Ike is that he is completely and utterly comfortable on camera, in a crowd....anywhere. I don't think I've seen him uncomfortable in years. So he is okay with letting anyone anywhere know what's on his mind. Very little censorship. I grudgingly admire that.
When the cameras are rolling, he's on. He's waited for the big time his whole life. He revels in it. But he also feels bad when he makes a mistake. This I know for sure, because I HAVE talked to him about that fact.
But what's really interesting to me is how fans of professional fishing react in such an emotional way to Iaconelli. Compelling to sit back and watch. In fact, I think last weekend there were a few people who actually gleefully repeated the rumors they heard. This was juicy stuff. Was Ike in trouble again? What would happen next? I mean an Iaconelli meltdown has some intrinsic entertainment value for some. (Unless its 5:30am and he's staying next to you when the meltdown occurs.....that's just annoying... and another story entirely)
I have to admit that I even repeated the rumor. (gasp!)
But the stand up guy I repeated it to very pointedly looked me in the eye and asked if I had spoken to anyone who saw it happen. That stopped me in my tracks.
Hmmmmm.
It's easy to believe that kind of rumor about Ike. I regret passing it along. I regret that I accepted it as probable. I hate that I just assumed it was true.
I still don't know what actually happened. Maybe he did go off. Maybe it was just a burst of frustration that turned bad when the CO2 canister on his PFD hit the back window of his truck as he tossed it (fervently) into the cab. But I know a good friend (who I trust) DID speak to Iaconelli about it and it really sounds like something that was blown out of proportion.
I've been covering professional fishing for about 12 or 13 years. I remember early on some little controversy sparking up that worried me to death because people were speaking of some angler in not-completely-positive terms. Another friend who is a huge sports fan and consumer of sports culture shushed me but saying......"You'll know that bass fishing has arrived as a professional sport when people start loving and hating elements of the sport....publicly."
Every other professional sport has it's haters and it's lovers. But the fans are passionate one way or another and eager to express their opinions.
Well, bass fishing has definitely arrived. There are some serious, hard-boiled, passionate fans out there. They love and they hate in equal measure. They even love one day and hate the next. And they're not afraid to let anyone know of their love or hate.
Gotta love the passion.
The funny thing about it was that I never talked to a single person who saw it happen. There were several versions of the story, whispered in the weigh in lines, but oddly.....no one with whom I spoke actually saw the dirty deed.
As the week progressed, the rumors spread. A couple of internet sites discussed it. Everyone had an opinion it seemed. But still, no one could actually say they saw it happen.
I haven't asked Mike about it. I probably won't. We all know that Ike has a temper. (Who doesn't?) In my experience, he just wears his emotions on his sleeve. You usually know what's going on with Ike....there are rarely any secrets as to his mood.
But he takes a lot of unfair criticism, in my opinion. I've seen him get mad. Really mad. I've also seen him light up a room with positive energy. The thing about Ike is that he is completely and utterly comfortable on camera, in a crowd....anywhere. I don't think I've seen him uncomfortable in years. So he is okay with letting anyone anywhere know what's on his mind. Very little censorship. I grudgingly admire that.
When the cameras are rolling, he's on. He's waited for the big time his whole life. He revels in it. But he also feels bad when he makes a mistake. This I know for sure, because I HAVE talked to him about that fact.
But what's really interesting to me is how fans of professional fishing react in such an emotional way to Iaconelli. Compelling to sit back and watch. In fact, I think last weekend there were a few people who actually gleefully repeated the rumors they heard. This was juicy stuff. Was Ike in trouble again? What would happen next? I mean an Iaconelli meltdown has some intrinsic entertainment value for some. (Unless its 5:30am and he's staying next to you when the meltdown occurs.....that's just annoying... and another story entirely)
I have to admit that I even repeated the rumor. (gasp!)
But the stand up guy I repeated it to very pointedly looked me in the eye and asked if I had spoken to anyone who saw it happen. That stopped me in my tracks.
Hmmmmm.
It's easy to believe that kind of rumor about Ike. I regret passing it along. I regret that I accepted it as probable. I hate that I just assumed it was true.
I still don't know what actually happened. Maybe he did go off. Maybe it was just a burst of frustration that turned bad when the CO2 canister on his PFD hit the back window of his truck as he tossed it (fervently) into the cab. But I know a good friend (who I trust) DID speak to Iaconelli about it and it really sounds like something that was blown out of proportion.
I've been covering professional fishing for about 12 or 13 years. I remember early on some little controversy sparking up that worried me to death because people were speaking of some angler in not-completely-positive terms. Another friend who is a huge sports fan and consumer of sports culture shushed me but saying......"You'll know that bass fishing has arrived as a professional sport when people start loving and hating elements of the sport....publicly."
Every other professional sport has it's haters and it's lovers. But the fans are passionate one way or another and eager to express their opinions.
Well, bass fishing has definitely arrived. There are some serious, hard-boiled, passionate fans out there. They love and they hate in equal measure. They even love one day and hate the next. And they're not afraid to let anyone know of their love or hate.
Gotta love the passion.
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