Fishing Through the Stress
(The writer's opinions and observations expressed here are his own, and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views, policies or positions of FLW.)
For some of us, the Forrest Woods Cup’s memories are still fresh. They come back again and again to give us moments of satisfaction and joy as we’re reminded of the great times we had during those hot summer days at Hot Springs.
Now autumn is here and some anglers are taking time off from professional fishing to spend time with their families, do some hunting and perhaps prepare for the 2016 season.
Count me among them. After several weeks of tumultuous work, I really needed a “timeout” so my wife Marycamen and I decided to go fishing at a lake not too far from our home. In looks and layout, this particular lake reminds me of Beaver Lake. It’s also a tough cookie to bite and turns off a lot of fishermen. Still, it’s a great “learning ground,” even though a few famous fishing personalities from north of the border have had a tough time recently dialing in this reservoir.
As in other moments, my recent fishing timeout helped me a lot, though not so much for the R&R factor as a moment to catch my breath and take account of all my thoughts and ideas regarding the new FLW international program.
As you all might know, we had the honor to sign an agreement at the Forrest Wood Cup to conduct sanctioned FLW tournaments here in Mexico; just as Canada, South Korea, and China did recently.
We’ve been making several trips to different Mexican cities to promote FLW and invite fishermen to fish with us. So far we’ve had a good response from the fishing clubs and the fishing community in Mexico.
Our goal is to have a great first season next year and make sure our champions are ready and prepared to fish the FLW Series Championship on Table Rock Lake next November and represent our country well. We are expecting good results for the first time, though nothing good comes without much work.
Our first tournament will take place in February, so the clock is ticking. Surely we will have everything ready in time. Now I understand and see clearly all the hard work and hours spent behind the curtain by FLW staff. It’s a never-ending job!
This new era in FLW history is attracting a lot of attention. Going forward, a few anglers who are international champions from different countries are going to compete in those “season finale” tournaments [the Series and the FWC], which will make them more competitive and interesting.
The competition to get to both the FLW Series championship and the Forrest Wood Cup will be fierce and the winner is going to be “the top of the top” in this sport, perhaps becoming the true world champion in the future.
Think of it: We’ll have more people around the globe involved in fishing and following their national champions as they strive to reach the summit of their sport. These champions might go from hometown heroes to fishing superstars; people around the globe will be watching the FLW website as their champions compete.
Meanwhile, we organizers are working against the clock to have everything ready for the 2016 season. Even so, now and then we also have to take a timeout to enjoy some fishing and refresh ourselves for what promises to be a very exciting year to come.
Viva Bass Fishing!