It seemed a little strange to be talking with professional bass angler Fred Contaoi from Clear Lake, California, about something small.  Everything else in Contaoi’s life is big.  The lures he fishes with, the bass he catches, even his smile are all gigantic.  The towering Contaoi seemed somewhat out of place holding on to the new E21 Carrot Stix with micro guides.  Of course, Contaoi was all smiles hold up a big, fat Table Rock spotted bass that had just eaten his soft swimbait.  The key to catching bass that bass was making a long cast and slowly reeling it back in. 

I had to recheck my GPS unit one more time.  I wasn’t lost.  I had been to Flippin, Arkansas before and visited a renowned boat company.  This time I was going to visit a major rod manufacturing and blank making company.  As I drove through Flippin, I wondered how many of the residents knew that this cozy little town was well-known not just for the boat company, but a rod building and blank making company.  The reason why I had to recheck the GPS unit was the size of the building at the address.  I really thought it would be slightly smaller.  What I found inside the large building was a facility able to take raw graphite and turn it into high quality graphite blanks that could be used for all kinds of fishing rods including bait casting, spinning, and fly rods.  The history of Rebrods goes back to 1976 when Ray Bauer and his dad Clarence moved down to Flippin to start a rod manufacturing company.  When they started the work was all private label and contract rod manufacturing.  Today, Rebrods has the ability to build blanks to the required specifications for large rod manufactures to custom rod builders. 

Professional tournament anglers, weekend warriors, and recreational fishermen all have one thing in common; they all want to catch more fish.  No matter if it’s largemouth bass, smallmouth, stripers, white bass, trout, walleye, salmon, tarpon, redfish, or bream.  If it swims, anglers will fish for it; however, not everyone has time to study lake maps or find out where the fish are biting before heading out fishing.  In today’s world more and more anglers are getting fishing information on the web.  Unfortunately, fishing reports are dated and limited in beneficial information.  What caught them last week probably will not catch them this week.  The real key to using the internet for getting fishing information is to have a dependable source of information.  That’s where ProPatterns, a web based database comes in.  ProPatterns is a community of anglers that not only fish for bass, but every species of fish that swim.  What makes ProPatterns different from other social angling network is the ability to share personal fishing information with other members or record them for personal use later.  Unlike fishing reports, ProPatterns database has in-depth information on lure color, water temperature, air temperature, water clarity, time, date, and other essential information.  It’s designed to allow anglers to form patterns or starting points on ponds, rivers, lakes, reservoirs, inshore saltwater, flats, or offshore saltwater they will be fishing.