Oh, if you're wondering about Al's screenname - I emailed the idiot & found
out there's no aol account (surprise), so I figured he
somehow faked that screenname & email address. I went into my account
properties & changed my name to his to see if it would work. It did.

Sorry guys, I'm not Al lol. I have a life...

Warren ;-)
--
http://www.fishingworld.com/MesaTackleSupply/
http://www.outdoorfrontiers.com http://www.secretweaponlures.com
http://www.warrenwolk.com/ http://www.tri-statebassmasters.com/

"Gone Angling" wrote in message
...
Rich, if you watch the scene again you'll hear Mike say "This is the
winning
fish!" as he's bringing it to the boat. I believe he knew that 3 3/4
pound
bass put him over the top. Only seconds before encountering the bass he
was
saying how he fished hard but didn't think he had enough weight on his
limit
to win. He then missed the fish initially with one lure, instinctively
reacted by cranking in the first bait, picked up a second rod with another
bait on it & followed up the first encounter perfectly, instantly getting
bit on the follow-up lure. He then got the bass out of the weeds & into
the
boat like a seasoned veteran. He freaked out the instant he got the
lip-lock on the bass, sure enough. Yea, I had to turn down my volume, but
I
thought the whole scene above was awesome.

Mike screamed things like "Never give up!" & "Bass fishing is great!", but
I
never heard a single "I'm the greatest!" or "Take that Gary Klein!".

Mike is brash, confident & a little different than most. I'd be the first
the criticize him if I ever saw him intentionally bring down our sport.
But, frankly, I haven't ever seen him do that.

And I've been beaten by him many times.

Warren
--
http://www.fishingworld.com/MesaTackleSupply/
http://www.outdoorfrontiers.com http://www.secretweaponlures.com
http://www.warrenwolk.com/ http://www.tri-statebassmasters.com/

"RichZ" wrote in message
...
Go-bassn wrote:
I'm really surprised at some of you guys for disliking the guy just
because
he expresses himself differently than you would.

IMHO, he's not a good enough actor to make the phony level of exuberance
he
displayed pass for anything resembling reality. I don't have as much
problem
with his on-stage antics as with the way he hammed it up for the camera
when
he caught his last fish. At that point, he did not know that he had won,
just
that he had put himself in good position to do so. There wasn't an ounce
of
real emotion in his display, and it was the equivalent of an NFL
receiver
doing the most over the top endzone dance in history -- after catching
the
ball for a first down on the 20 yard line.

Of course it wasn't JUST Mike. There was a lot of excess celebration
every
time one of them caught a fish. I've ridden in the boat with many of
these
guys in the Classic for a lot of years. NONE has put on an ahole
celebration
every time they caught a fish. In fact, none has gone as nuts onstage
after
winning, as Mike did every time he caught a fish. I blame ESPN. I think
the
contenders have been coached by ESPN to show as much excitement as
possible,
to make "good TV", and ensure themselves on camera facetime. That they
didn't
act that way when there was only one outdoor writer in the boat with
them,
and the over-the-top celebrations started with the inclusion of the ESPN
cameras in their boats suggests that the behavior is more linked to ESPN
than
to their real emotions. And from what I can tell, Mike went farther
overboard
with it than anyone else.


This guy was a mere
Federation boy not half a decade ago fellas, he's lived the dream.

Not sure how that's an excuse, much less a reason. If it was, then Bryan
Kerchal should have been Mike to the power of 10, since he was still a
Federation guy when he won the Classic.

I applaud Mike's fishing skills. He is obviously right up there with the
best
of them. But I find his act embarrassing for the sport.

RichZ©
www.richz.com/fishing