At The Bassmaster Classic Expo

[Al Agnew]

Well, we left yesterday for the 6.5 hour drive to Tulsa and the Bassmaster Classic expo. Avoided the bad weather...Tulsa had gotten snow yesterday morning, but we didn't encounter anything, apparently getting across Missouri at the right time. Heard from my brother that there are four inches of ice at home.

My booth is number 1010, over in the smaller room on the southeast corner of the convention center complex. Today was set-up day. I haven't done a show like this for something like ten or twelve years, maybe longer. But way back when, I used to do the Natureworks Wildlife Art Show in Tulsa, and still knew some of the people running the show. They were nice enough to let me use one of the booth set-ups they use in their show, a set of upholstered display panels and lights. The place where they store them even brought the whole display over to the convention center yesterday and set it up for us! I owe them a huge thank you, because back in the old days when we had our own display panel system, we needed a big van to carry it and the paintings and prints, and we'd have to lug all that stuff into the building and set it all up ourselves. It would take most of a day to do. This time, all we had to do was bring in the stuff we are selling and our table, hang the prints, stack the other stuff (tee shirts, hats, hooded sweatshirts, and quick dry technical fishing shirts), and we were done.

Weather here today was above freezing, but cloudy and windy all day with a lot of rain and thunder-snow in the morning. Not much fun to be pre-fishing for the tournament, I'll bet.

We're staying at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, the biggest Classic sponsor apparently. I'm not much for casinos...I love to play poker with friends, but otherwise don't care much for gambling. Mary and I spent an hour or so playing the slots with limited success last night. Mary's sister and her boyfriend are here to help run the booth, and he played blackjack for a while. Lots of guys at the casino with clothing with rod, boat, motor, and reel logos on it. Boats on trailers in the parking lot from all over the place, spectators for the Classic, I suppose. We entered a drawing at the casino for a bass boat, got high hopes

Can't wait to slip away from the booth tomorrow and check out all the other exhibitors. Already saw a rod display that had a couple of interesting models, set up right across from us.

[Bird Watcher]

I'm going to try and be there when the doors open tomorrow. I'm excited to see the hoopla.

[Mitch f]

You're lucky you're not in Chicago and have to deal at McCormick place convention and the corrupt riggers union. You can't touch any of your own equipment...has to be brought in and set up by them. The only way to get your equipment out when the show is over is bribe them and magically your equipment gets out on time.

Anyway, sell a bunch of stuff and when browsing around see if you can find the small jig rod we want.......and please buy 3

[cwc87]

Hey Al if you run across a falcon six foot eight inch low profile Eakins model bait casting rod pick one up. Or not no big deal. I kicked mine off into the Osage river last winter and I'm at a loss without it. Med hvy. Have fun being around all those pros.

[Al Agnew]

Mitch, I found the Kistler rod that most closely matches the one I broke that was so good with the light jigs...bad news is that it's only available in their top of the line model at $400 plus. Good news (for me) is that I talked for a long time with the owner of the company and he's going to trade me one of them for a framed print!

I also talked for a long time with Gary Loomis. He's designing rods for a new company (not TFO) and they appear to be excellent rods. He has a couple of models that I think would be excellent for the light jigs. I told him about my quest for shorter, lighter power rods than are generally available, and he told me to just pick out an action and power that I liked in what he had available, and he would make me one whatever length I wanted in the same power and action. It was pretty busy, so I didn't get a chance to ask him how much THAT would cost, but how cool would it be to have a couple of rods designed by Gary Loomis especially for oneself?

Another company, Halo Rods, has a model that I think would be great for the jigs, too. I talked to them for a short time, and this rod was in the mid-100 dollar range in cost. Pretty rod but with bright red handle. Falcon also had one that would fit the bill. I'll get model numbers and exact prices on all these tomorrow.

Corey, I'll check to see if I can get that Falcon...not only are the Falcon people themselves here, but there are several companies set up that are selling a big selection of Falcon rods.

[jeb]

I chatted with Gary Loomis at Edge rods booth for about 30 minutes. Such a wealth of knowledge and drive for excellence! Really the highlight of the exhibt for me. His drop shot casting rod was really cool. Talking with Gary Dobyn's was neat too, but he was a little more guarded with his information. GL calls a spade a spade!

Very cool show, though. I'd only been to the Beaver Lake FLW show before this one, and this is an orders of magnitude bigger deal. Probably headed back over today as the wife wants to check it out, too.

Good to see Ike and VanDam doing well! Had to be a darn chilly day on the lake, though.

[Mitch f]

Mitch, I found the Kistler rod that most closely matches the one I broke that was so good with the light jigs...bad news is that it's only available in their top of the line model at $400 plus. Good news (for me) is that I talked for a long time with the owner of the company and he's going to trade me one of them for a framed print!

I also talked for a long time with Gary Loomis. He's designing rods for a new company (not TFO) and they appear to be excellent rods. He has a couple of models that I think would be excellent for the light jigs. I told him about my quest for shorter, lighter power rods than are generally available, and he told me to just pick out an action and power that I liked in what he had available, and he would make me one whatever length I wanted in the same power and action. It was pretty busy, so I didn't get a chance to ask him how much THAT would cost, but how cool would it be to have a couple of rods designed by Gary Loomis especially for oneself?

Another company, Halo Rods, has a model that I think would be great for the jigs, too. I talked to them for a short time, and this rod was in the mid-100 dollar range in cost. Pretty rod but with bright red handle. Falcon also had one that would fit the bill. I'll get model numbers and exact prices on all these tomorrow.

Corey, I'll check to see if I can get that Falcon...not only are the Falcon people themselves here, but there are several companies set up that are selling a big selection of Falcon rods.

Wow, a custom rod by G Loomis, that would be way cool! as long as its not too much to spend. You know what to ask him to make!. The

Let me know what the prices are! Thank you for the rod research!

[dtrs5kprs]

Mitch, I found the Kistler rod that most closely matches the one I broke that was so good with the light jigs...bad news is that it's only available in their top of the line model at $400 plus. Good news (for me) is that I talked for a long time with the owner of the company and he's going to trade me one of them for a framed print!

I also talked for a long time with Gary Loomis. He's designing rods for a new company (not TFO) and they appear to be excellent rods. He has a couple of models that I think would be excellent for the light jigs. I told him about my quest for shorter, lighter power rods than are generally available, and he told me to just pick out an action and power that I liked in what he had available, and he would make me one whatever length I wanted in the same power and action. It was pretty busy, so I didn't get a chance to ask him how much THAT would cost, but how cool would it be to have a couple of rods designed by Gary Loomis especially for oneself?

Another company, Halo Rods, has a model that I think would be great for the jigs, too. I talked to them for a short time, and this rod was in the mid-100 dollar range in cost. Pretty rod but with bright red handle. Falcon also had one that would fit the bill. I'll get model numbers and exact prices on all these tomorrow.

Corey, I'll check to see if I can get that Falcon...not only are the Falcon people themselves here, but there are several companies set up that are selling a big selection of Falcon rods.

Al...stop by the St Croix booth and ask them about the Eyecon series. They are built for walleye, but have some super bass actions in the spin rods. I use a 6'6" MLF for the "Ned Rig" (1/16oz head and half of a senko, more or less, popularized by Ned Kehde) and for drop shot work. They make a 6'3" M that is an extra fast blank, feels like it would be an awesome float rod/small jig rod (as in skirted 1/16 and 1/8 type jigs, or hair jigs).

[kjackson]

They are very nice rods, but they're not custom as in "built by Gary." They were designed by him in his new shop and at his new company (North Fork Composites is the company, although the rods may go by another name). They have tubular graphite handles, very nice real seats, micro guides and seem to be incredibly sensitive. They are extremely light; I've known Gary for nearly 30 years, and his rod design is all about shaving as much weight as he can without sacrificing strength or quality.

Having said that, there are a lot of really nice rods at the show. I think his are the most sophisticated.

[Al Agnew]

Those rods are very expensive, but I talked some more with Gary, and I'm going to have one made. No, Gary doesn't actually make the rods, just did the designs, but because this one is going to be so much shorter than what they have made before, it will take some modification from his existing designs. The retail price on it would be around $400.

The rod that was closest to what I'm going to get was 6'6", and it was still the lightest rod I've ever had in my hand. Can't wait to handle this one. Between it and the Kistler I picked up today in trade, I'm gonna have to be a lot more careful about how I take care of my rods. Although I'm not out all that money right out of my pocket, these will still be the most expensive rods I've ever owned...and I probably won't ever spend that much money on a rod again.

Mitch, I didn't get a chance today to find all the model numbers of rods that I think will work for the jigs. I'll try to do so tomorrow. Today was just too busy until the weigh-in started, and was busy even then.