After spending all last Sunday at a bridal shower and watching my Chicago Bears choke away another win against the Falcons, my trip to Reelfoot Lake for a Strike King writer’s event couldn’t come soon enough. Events like these are excellent opportunities to take photos, interview and chat with fishing pros, writers and other key people in the industry. And Strike King did one heck of a job.
For starters, Reelfoot Lake is gorgeous, as is Blue Bank Resort where the event was held. Tucked away behind a fortress of cypress trees, the resort is a true gem. I’ve already got my fiancee talked into heading back down there next year to get away and relax. And by relax, I mean flipping and cranking the endless stump fields in that body of water.
Then there were the people. I had the pleasure of meeting Strike King’s Crispin Powley and Chris Brown, two great guys who I look forward to working with for years to come. I also was introduced to many other members of the outdoor media such as Alan Clemons from Alabama, Mark Hicks fromOhio and Terry Brown from Wired2Fish, all of whom I look up to and respect.
But the greatest experience of the two-day trip was the pool seminar. Well, it wasn’t really a seminar, just a dozen pros on the Strike King pro staff, including Kevin Van dam, Shaw Grigsby, Greg Hackney and Mark Rose, cast and critique lures in the pool of the resort. Watching these guys joke with each other and talk about different baits was better than having press passes to the Super Bowl. They started off looking at some of the new colors Strike King is planning on unveiling in the future, which was pretty impressive. The pros are sticklers for detail. There were more than a handful of colors I would kill to have in my box, but were discarded because the back wasn’t dark enough or the stripe wasn’t bright enough. They even came up with new colors on the spot that I’m excited to see. Then they went to testing some of Strike King’s prototypes. Let me tell you, keep an eye out for some of these. One in particular had all the pros oohing and ahhing like children on the Fourth of July. I couldn’t ooh or ahh, I was drooling too much.
In the end, I wished I could have stayed longer. As a newcomer to the industry, events like this one made me very proud to do what I do and to be associated with people of this caliber. I’ve worked for years with coaches, athletes and members of the sports media, and while there were plenty of good guys, there were also plenty who weren’t. In the fishing world, you deal with good guys all around. As a fisherman, you should be proud too, because you’re also a big part of the industry.
Well, that’s all I have for now. I’m looking to get out on Kentucky Lake in the near future so I’ll report back. Plus I have a musky trip to Lake Kinkaid coming up as well. Nothing like chasing those toothy critters in the fall to get you pumped about fishing.
As always, slam the hooks!
Oh, and by the way, if you ever get a chance to meet or talk to Mark Davis, ask him about his MRI experience. Or any experience for that matter. That man needs to do stand-up comedy.