On Feb 22, 9:44 pm, "Doug" wrote:
Oh yeah, Al rocks, no doubt about it! His brother, the little skinny guy,
he's pretty good too, but he's mostly muskie it seems, which is okay still.
Those things are HUGE! I remember back in the day when almost all the shows
were quality, but as another poster said, most of those guys are getting
older now, and when they did their shows, they were still competing, or had
just gotten out of it.
I did just watch another episode of BassEdge, and it's not the caliber of
In-Fishermen, but it's good too if you have that in your programming in your
neck of the woods!

Hopefully, I'll be able to get out and get some hands on here pretty soon!
It is getting warmer here, but will be a few weeks yet I'm afraid...

John W (a.k.a Tibbeecreekfish), yes, please do let me know how it goes at
the Classic, and how things went for you! Have a safe and fun trip more
importantly!

**I did misspell Roland before, I stand corrected too btw... I have no idea
what I was thinking?**

Anyway, tight lines everyone!

Doug

"johnval1" wrote in message

. ..







"BIG FISH 2006" wrote in message
In- fishermen rules

matthew 4:19
follow me and I will make you fishers of men.

Any show where guys catch fish is good for me. BUT, Al Lindner is the
man. I also like The Next Bite. I keep going back to Al.

Doug,
Just got back from the Bassmasters Classic. It was awesome! I went
up on Saturday. Birmingham is a little over two hours away from my
home so I didn't have to get up too early. The convention center
didn't open until 10:00.
It was like being a kid again in a candy store :-) They had
everything you could imagine in tackle and boats. Of course most of
the top fisherman were out competing in the Classic, but there were
still quite a few pro anglers at the booths answering questions and
pitching for their sponsors. Bill Dance, Jimmy Houston, Roland
Martin, Forest Woods, Guido Hibdon and Hank Parker were there signing
autographs and holding court. I had a chance to talk with Roland
Martin. I ran into him when he was in one of the tackle booths. I'm
originally from Charleston SC and we talked about fishing Santee-
Cooper. I found him very down to earth and friendly.

I spent most of Saturday looking at all the new lures and of course
buying some. Lots of great buys and of course I couldn't resist :-)
The big controversy on the second day was Gerald Swindle's
disqualification. He was one of the favorites and is well liked by
the local crowd since he is from Alabama. They let him weigh in his
fish, and he then talked about his disqualification. It was a very
emotional speech with the crowd cheering him after he walked off the
stage. Being at the weigh in was fun. Sort of like being at a
football game in some ways. The only thing I didn't like was the
large amount of reserved seating. The sponsors reserved most of the
good seating, but life-time BASS members did get some of the good
seats. I was way on the top on the left side of the stage.
Fortunately, they had two big TV screens so you could see using them.

I saw lots of families at the expo and weigh-ins. It was great to see
the kids being a part of it. They even had a Kid's Casting
competition. Lots of folks from all over the U.S. and from other
countries as well.

I think there was a lot to see and do at the Bassmaster's Classic.
I took someone's advice and spent two days. You really need to spend
more than one day there. I probably should have done it at a slower
pace because by the second day I had seen most of it. But, I did
get a chance to go to some of the seminars. Overall, I really
enjoyed going and would go again if I have the chance.

John W