So we had our second tournament today, and boy do I suck! It was pretty much a repeat of the first tournament, up too late the night before, up too early for the tournament, rain, cold and wind. It was actually colder this time around, and I wasn't prepared for it as well. The main thing I forgot was my hat, which I dearly missed all day long. The night before my friends chop burned to the ground, including a lifetime supply of fishing baits, all of his tackle, his boat, tools, everything you would normally keep in a shop. The weird thing is that when his shop started to burn, he called me to say we couldn't go fishing tomorrow....Thoughtful, yes, but I would have been freaking out, not calling folks and telling them I'm not going fishing!

So I fished with Jerry today, and he makes the first cast, and immediately yells for the net, a jerkbait. I get his fish, make my cast, with my gold Yo-Zuri style trap, and I'm yelling for the net as well. Oh boy....double header on the first cast. It pretty much went like this for the rest of the day, we probably boated 60-70 fish total, the problem is that while he WON...I only caught ONE fish that was above 14", just ONE! You would think that odds would have been in my favor today, but no such luck for me. Either way, I haven't had a numbers day in a while, and despite the cold, rain, and losing, it was fun! For the record, I couldn't get them to bite any sort of crank, but they were liking the trap, spinnerbait and curly tail worms.

So I've been working on a few logo's, I'm not the best guy with Pixelmator, so most of these are the result of some form of tutorial, but not all! I still cannot decide which I like, and I may start over and do something completely different, as I have a new application that I am using, it's even helping with lure design. I generally would like for the baits to speak for themselves, which I think they do a great job of that, but it's not always feasible to display an entire photo album full of stuff! Anyway, enjoy:

So I finally got a trout done, Rainbow is by far the most popular that's seen on lures, but I think I am going to try some other trout patterns as well, maybe a Lake Trout? The Rainbow is no doubt popular because of the nice colors, I've been fishing with this color for a while, and while there are no Rainbow's anywhere close to here, the Bass do not seem to mind at all!

I've still got to add the rattling baits, balsa baits with rattles are a handy thing to have

I finally got around to updating the photo album with a few new lures. Not too many, but I really like the Chug Bug. The picture is awful, I really need to learn how to use the new camera I got, there appears to be no substitute for the manual! I've got an old school SLR camera, and know how to get great output with that, but it doesn't translate over as easily to the endless menus of modern digital cameras. Soon, though, I hope! There is also the digital editing, which I am trying to learn as well, I enjoy doing that stuff, but it does get tedious at times.

I also just completed a project for a guy. I really do not know the end result for this, as these are mainly tests, and I rarely show anything I am working on. I don't like my failures to be aired, I don't suppose anyone does! Hopefully the test for this will go ok, as it's a really cool way to spruce up a rod build. Next tournament is next weekend, I can't wait. You guys have a great Easter!

Today is my oldest daughters birthday. It was also a very busy day at work, but I hurried through the route. I normally get home around 1-2PM, I made it back around 3:20 today! I had ordered her a laptop, and a phone line. Both have had their own problems getting here, but hopefully those are resolved soon!!

I got some repaints almost done, and I'm real close to adding the rattlin' balsas to the store. I've got a few going out to the guys at Tinboats.net in the next day or so, but they kind of have an inside line on what I'm up to! One of the repaints I'm finishing up is a larger Storm Chug Bug. I love the smaller version, specifically in Bone color. Something wicked took mine from me at Falls year before last, and I have not found another since. I didn't even think to go over to try to find it once the water came down.

The next club meeting is tomorrow night, hopefully I'll be able to get the rest of the schedule, and know more about our Hyco tournament. I'm ready to go fishing again. I've missed more fishing this year than I care to admit. I've normally been at least a dozen times by now, or however many Sundays have passed since New Years, but things just don't seem to be working out for me this year for some reason! One minor thing keeping me from going is my need for 2 new batteries, but there are plenty of folks to go with, or even places to get batteries, so that's not really an excuse!

After this poor count, and all of the worrying I have been doing, I am happy to say that I stayed at the level I was already at, which means every Saturday off, as well as the same money!!

This is my least favorite time of year. Get up in the morning, and it's freezing cold. I have long pants, even a hoodie on, although for the most part, I have started wearing lighter shirts as it's not but so cold, but it sure does stink when you get to work around 7:30AM, then at 10:00AM when I leave to get on the road, it's warm enough for no sweatshirt, and by noon, it's warm enough for shorts, it's almost impossible to dress correctly now. It's great fishing weather, though!

I went to a local pond the other day for a few hours, I only ended up catching one, but it felt good to push everything to the side, and just go fishing. No boat, no big tackle box, just standing there at the shoreline. I think i'll go again tomorrow, as there is a cold front coming in this weekend, hopefully they will be biting.

I got everything caught up and out of the shop, but got some more things to do today, I do not think I would know what to do with myself without something to work on. Well, I could add some new patterns! I've got a few I would like to add, they are standard patterns, but I think if they are out of sight, out of mind, so it's probably best if I add them.

I've not lacked something to do, I've been working on learning a few new graphics programs, and having a pretty good time. I've got a new background image for the site almost ready, wanting to fine tune a few things before. It's a pretty simple image, and if I knew what I was doing, I think it would have been done a long, long time ago, but it's fun to see it come together, plus the more I learn, the more I can add to it, which will probably make it a worse looking image in the end!

I am supposed to get the final result from the mail count tomorrow, I am, according to my calculations, an hour and a half down, which means I will lose a bit of money, as well as every other Saturday off. It's a major bummer. I did find some mistakes that were made by the people counting, but I fear they are not going to be enough to make that extra time up.

I'll have some new repaint pictures, as well as some more cool paint to show off soon!

So, finally, count is over, and I couldn't be more worried, or happier at the same time. The worry comes from the actual numbers, I think they are a little low, but will not know until later this week. The happy comes from not having to deal with waiting on people to count my stuff before I can do anything.

Other than that, been spending a bit of time working on the sites, sadly, not this one! I have some ideas for some new stuff, but not gotten around to adding them yet. I guess you could say I am using the other sites as sort of a testbed for some stuff. Spent the morning down there today, trying to get information and some pictures. Got the pictures, but man, those folks are busy on Saturdays, I'll not waste another Saturday morning trying to get any sort of info.

Just got some new Falcon FTO boxes yesterday, the built-in storage I added to my boat is designed for Plano 3600 boxes, and that's been a limiting factor in finding nice storage. The Plano boxes are what they are. BPS sold some rebranded Shimano boxes for a while, and I have two, but cannot find anymore, I would love to have those. The new FTO's ate a bit smaller, and I can stack 8 in the space that 4 of the 3600's fit, and have them all tangle free. I can't stack them in there like the Plano's, but I'll appreciate the tangle-free nature of it when looking for that perfect bait, and it ends up being in the bottom of the pile!

I also ordered the Crucial Dropshot casting rod I've had my eye on for a while now, it's pretty light, and actually more than I expected for the price. I've yet to get it out on the water, or even hang a reel on it, but soon! While I was at it, I picked up a Revo SX. I've got a STX, and love it, and wanted to try it out on Carolina Rigs. I've always been a round reel guy for that, but if I do not like it, I still have the Calcutta, and the option to go back to it. Trying to decide what to do about a C-rig rod. I was going to have one built, and still may. I am currently using a BPS Extreme. It's not a bad rod, but it's old, creaks when I don't think it should, and I want something a bit nicer. Ever since I got my first custom, I've stopped looking at lower end rods for the most part. Yes, I know a Crucial isn't a high end rod, but some techniques I just don't spend enough time with! I'm kind of there with the C-rig rod. The obvious answer is to go get a SC V or a GLX, and rock on, but we'll see!

Finally got the Daiwa BBS I've had in the shop painted. I was given complete artistic freedom in painting it, and that's where most of the problem was. I thought about it, and started painting that thing at least 10 times before I actually did. I ended up asking Terry, who suggested I start with one color, then build the rest around it. I asked her what one color, and she picked the Sunset Candy....so I went with that. There are 4 different colors in that part of the paint, and only Rootbeer in the other part, which comprises the frame and dragstar, but I think it went together nicely. Here is a sample, larger, resizable pictures in the gallery!

OK, so I'm a little late on the Metalli-Gill, but it's there now! I also did a Bass, but I am going back to the drawing board on this one, so....soon! I've also been working on the backend of the site a bit, trying to make it just perfect.

I've also been working on the Salon site, Today's Look as well as another site, Goldsand Bassmasters It's a bit confusing trying to keep up with three sites, but honestly, once all the initial work is done, any updates should be minor to the salon, and only once a month to the fishing club.

Working on painting a Daiwa BBS for a guy now, it was left up to me to decide the color and what I did with it, and honestly, that is turning out to be the hardest part of the job. The guy lives in Japan, and I am floored, flattered, and all sorts of adjectives as to him sending it all the way over here for me to work on it. I think that's the hardest part, I don't want to let him down in any way, and the speed at which I do the job is suffering because of it! I've got it sanded, taped, and basecoated now, I hope to get another coat on it shortly, then finish it up tomorrow, if not tonight. I have to run to town shortly, which might kill the finish it tonight part, though!

So I had my first tournament today, after a lot of worrying if my stuff would get here, which it did, and running around trying to get things together, it turned out to be not that bad of a day.

It was pretty cold this morning, not as cold as we were prepared for, with our helmets and pocket warmers, but just in case another Ice Age arrived, we were ready! The wind persisted pretty much all day, running the batteries down, and forcing us to have to duck into pockets to fish every now and again. ALL the fish action happened within the first 30 minutes, Greasy caught his fish, under 2 pounds, and shortly after that, I nailed mine, at 4.65lbs. That one fish was all it took to land me in 3rd place with Big Fish of the Day. We were fishing at Gaston, where I placed second both times we fished it last year, always behind Jerry.

Sadly, I was still behind Jerry, who placed 2nd with 6.25lbs, 4 fish. 6.55lbs. won it. One more fish...typical story! I didn't even get the second bite, though. I am going to start a website for this club soon, keep an eye out for it! I've got some killer ideas for this one, hopefully it will put the last one I did to shame.

I added some new pictures to the Flatsider 6 album, as well as a few repaints to the photo album. Hopefully after tomorrow, I'll get the other new patterns I have been working on done, and have even more to share.