THE BUSINESS NEWS OF FISHING. |
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Brady Winans is a long term Native Texan who has
fished competitively for almost 35 years. Brady has fished trails such as Media Bass, Ignition Bass, Victory Bass, Texas Team Trail, Team Trail Outdoors and even larger trails such as the Bassmaster Opens and MLF Toyota Fishing Series. On top of being an angler, Brady is an 18 year veteran
of the fishing industry. He has worked for the Rep Agency, Sunbelt Sales, for his entire fishing industry career. On December 12, 2021, Brady and one of his closest friends went fishing on Cedar Creek Reservoir in Texas. They started early and were traveling to where they wanted to start off their morning fishing, the Dam. As they took off and traveled to the dam, the lake was clear of any weather or fog. As they got within a few miles of the dam, they encountered a couple fog banks that had come over the top of the dam and drifted into the lake. Brady’s partner did as he should and reduced speed. As they approached the dam, the dam came upon them faster than anticipated and they struck the dam. Upon impact, Brady was thrown forward into the trolling motor and graphs on the boat and then was thrust into the air until he landed on the top of the dam. Brady suffered a broken spine, a shattered
left ankle, a compound fracture of his right femur, a broken clavicle and two broken ribs. Upon arrival of emergency services, the decision was made to CareFlight Brady to UT Health Trauma in Tyler, Tx. Upon arrival at the hospital, he was sedated and within the next week, he had three surgeries to repair his injuries. Brady spent 3 months in the hosptial and in-patient rehab, and has now transitioned back home where he continues he recovery and out-patient rehab. He has several more surgeries ahead of him as well as a long rehab battle. Brady is married and has two young boys. Ages 4 and 7. His world revolves around his family. They are his inspiration to making a full recovery and he is prepared to go the distance to make sure he returns home as complete as he can be, no matter how long it takes. This auction is being put on by some of Brady's friends and thanks to the support of generous organizations and friends in the outdoor and fishing industry these items are being auctioned to support Brady and his family during this time and throughout his recovery. Check out the auction here.
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Who Needs Tackle When You've Got Snackle? |
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While most of us are busy the night before a big tournament re-stocking our tackle boxes with our favorite baits, BeatDown Outdoor's Megan Lueckenotto has other ideas. Megan was recently recruited to assist on a photo shoot at Lake Of The Ozarks, and showed up totally prepared for the day with her "Snackle Box". Fully stocked with some of her favorite snacks, the box was a big hit at the event, so much so that several of the participants asked how they could get their own. While Megan was happy to share, she hasn't decided to mass produce the handy "Snackle Box" quite yet. "It's really just something I came up with as an easy way to carry boat snacks and ended up thinking of the name and cutting it out with a label maker and sticking it on the box. Everyone who has seen it gets a good laugh out of it, so it is a great conversation starter. I switch up what I carry, and sometimes it requires it to be stored in the cooler. I really haven't thought about making them for other people, but I guess its a possibility!" Lueckenotto concluded. Check out all of the Beatdown Outdoors products here.
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Heading into Stage 4 of the Bass Pro Tour Jeremy Lawyer was an odds on favorite to make some noise at Lake Of The Ozarks. Lawyer advanced to the championship round, however he didn't catch a scoreable bass on the final day. You may be asking yourself how is that possible? We caught up with Jeremy to get his thoughts on the event, and asked him to explain his final day strategy. "My game plan going into this event was to try and use my local knowledge to my advantage (a good portion of the anglers had never seen LOZ before) and with the spawn just coming on I knew that looking at cruising / bedding fish on the lower end, where the water was the cleanest, was going to draw a lot of attention in this event and the most pressure. LOZ has such a great fish population throughout the entire lake that I felt confident an angler could win anywhere on the lake so I was comfortable with sampling pieces of different areas in only 2 days of practice. I burned a ton of gas in those 2 days (80 gallons) really just trying to get a feel of how the lake was settling up and if a guy could compete not sight fishing on the lower end. With two bright sunny days of practice on a warming trend I saw they were pulling up all over the lake to spawn and the more stained water in the mid lake section was all but vacant of competitors. Plus, a guy had a good chance of catching some bonus fish up shallow "just fishing" rather than only having to look at them. Turns out it was a good practice game plan but weather really started changing daily from out two official practice days. It stormed on group A day one (I was group B) and so some of the lower end water sight fishing got cloudy and hard to see causing anglers that went all in on sight fishing to struggle. Although, with the mid section of the lake already being stained there really wasn't any effects to my area and I lead group B day 1 first period when the lines went out and finished the day in 4th overall by fishing blind for cruising fish shallow in pockets and flipping boat docks. Day 2 I was comfortable with my lead of roughly 14lbs, being able to qualify for the knockout round so I decided to let those areas from day 1 rest and go run new water on the lower end of the lake and see what the fish were actually doing by being able to see the fish physically with my eyes. It was pretty apparent that the daily clouds/rains had held the fish idle on spawning from what I could tell. With having an idea that somewhere around that 35lb mark would make the knockout round I was confident that running the same wacky worm pattern fishing blind even in the clear water would get me enough bites to qualify to the next round and it did with 43lbs. After reaching that amount I put my garmin force trolling motor on 100% and went looking for some guaranteed spawners to start on the next day in the knock out round and found 7 solid fish. Knockout round: I decided with the slick calm conditions to go straight to the 7 bedding bass I marked the day before. Even, though this is only my first year and only 4th event at the BPT I understood that in order to have a chance to make the championship round an angler has to have a solid first period to compete and not get left behind! I was able to catch 3 of the 7 bedders for a little over 11lbs to get rolling. From the point of lines in on the second period I was out of bedders and had to go looking. With cloudy conditions and a storm delay in the 3rd period the conditions were not good for trying to sight fish as the day grew longer. With these raining / dark conditions I saw myself slipping away from the top 8 cut to make the championship round. Falling back on my local knowledge of LOZ and with the current weather conditions I felt like there would be a good opportunity to catch a main lake top water bass and if I could it would more than likely be the kind of bite I needed to make the championship round..... With less than 30 minutes to go in the round and setting in 8th place I fired a (vixen) walking style bait on a mainlake channel point getting a 4+lb bite but only to loose her feet from the boat. Although, still holding on to 8th place at the end of the round to make my first championship round! Championship Day: At this point we'd had 4-5 days in a row with cloudy and colder rainy weather and bedders were leaving. Also, the dam was starting to pull larger amounts of water to control the lake level which in turn pulls current along the main lake typically causing an opportunity for fresh fish to pull up on points/bends to feed. Now, I felt like I had to options to attack the final round. Take my denali Android spinning rod and finesse tactics to the lower end to try and gain possibly a couple extra spots to make a little more money or secondly, try to out run the "best of the best" with quality over quantity..... I couldn't get rid of the thought of only throwing a topwater bait for roughly 45 minutes the day before and having two opportunities at scoreable bass and I felt like the conditions this day were going to be even better for a moving bait so I chose the quality option of trying to land on a section of the lake that had some prespawn fish moving up to feed with the weather conditions rather than playing the safe card to grab a couple more points knowing I had no chance to win. It didn't work out at with a topwater on that final day at all and somedays that just happens. Was it a BAD decisioin, Absolutely NOT.... Was it the Right decision, Absolutely NOT..... it was just simply the wrong decision for that particular day, which in a TOP 10 cut day I DO NOT regret at all on a very familiar body of water being the "local"!
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5. Baits Not Being Talked About |
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For anglers who are looking the drop the hammer on hungry bass, the Greenfish Hammerhead Buzz is the premier choice. Modeled after a previously discontinued buzzbait, the Greenfish Hammerhead Buzz is built with a premium buzz blade and a specialized head shape, which create a unique “hammering" acoustic with each rotation.
Forcing bass to strike out of sheer agitation, the Greenfish Hammerhead Buzz is formed around a heavy-duty wire and backed by a razor-sharp 5/0 Mustad Hook. Fitted with a flowing silicone skirt for added attraction, the Grenfish Hammerhead Buzz is sure to become your go-to buzzbait for topwater action
Check out the full lineup here.
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6. What We're Watching & Listening To |
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Boat Insurance 101..What's Covered? |
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Do you truly know what your boat insurance covers? Ken Smith sat down with Martin Gill the President of Reveal Insurance to talk about boat insurance, and get a better understanding of how to make sure all of my STUFF is covered. See the full video here.
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Photo Courtesy MLF
Recent Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit champion Nick Lebrun's sponsorship lineup includes Cypress Baptist Church, Skeeter Boats, Fitzgerald Rods, Sunline, AFTCO, Hayabusa, V&M Baits, Lowrance, Pumps Plus, Bill Lewis, Yamaha, and Covington Lumber & Building Materials just to name a few.
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Sunline Camo Line Storage Bag |
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The Sunline camo line storage bag is a padded tackle bag with adjustable center dividers. It is great for storing line, leaders, reels or loose tackle. It features durable rip stop exterior construction, large rubber handle, padded interior, adjustable dividers and bands to easily hold bulk spools. The inner dividers are feature Velcro fasteners for easy adjustment or removal. There are also six elastic bands that will hold bulk spools securely in place. Protect your investment of bulk fluorocarbon spools or braid. Designed to fit our 660 YD bulk spools of FC and nylon, or 600 YD spools of braid. Check it out here.
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This summer get out of your comfort zone and spend some time showing others how to fish. Your passion for fishing can be contagious. Take a friend fishing, show them the things you love most about a day spent out on the water, the excitement of getting a tug on your line and the joy of reeling in a fish. The water is open, spring is in the air and there is no better time than now to take a friend or family member fishing! As a seasoned angler, you know what it takes to plan a day on the water. This summer, we urge you to take a friend fishing, especially someone new to the sport. Many beginners need help getting started or in refreshing their skills. As we prepare for the biggest on-the-water celebration of the year, National Fishing and Boating Week, June 4-12, 2022, we can think of no better time to take a friend fishing.
To help you, we have created some simple tools and a checklist for teaching beginning anglers. There’s even a one page “cheat sheet” to help you get started. This summer, help us secure the future of fishing and take a friend fishing! Check out more information on this great campaign here.
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Do you subscribe to any fishing magazines that aren't included in a membership package?
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Like what you see, refer a friend.
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