Okay, I confess. I’m not one to clean or wipe down my boat after every fishing trip. I live on the muddy end of the lake. So when it comes to cleaning my boat, it needs professional strength cleaners. Some cleaners are made just to wash off dirt, scum, and grime. After washing the boat, a waxing product should be applied to protect the boat’s fiberglass shell. I found one product that does both clean and wax. Shazzam is a one step cleaner and waxing product all in one bottle. It does not require pre-washing or water. Just spray it liberally to a small area, enough to allow it to run then wipe with a terry cloth in straight lines to remove grease, dirt, and other grunge; this will also spread the wax on at the same time. Immediately wipe with the micro fiber cloth that’s supplied with the product to remove any dirt and to buff the wax dry. Do not wipe in circles; instead, wipe in straight lines which will prevent wax swirls. If you do get a swirl or unwanted finishes, mist the area lightly and re-wipe again with the micro fiber cloth. Shazzam leaves a boat with a floor room finish shine, a super slick coat, and can be used on painted surfaces, chrome, fiberglass, vinyl, leather upholstery, and trim. The multi liquid silicone coating will produce a high gloss UV coat that last for months.
Here is one really quick question for you. How many electronic devices do you have on your boat including a VHF radio, GPS units, sonar units, or maybe a chartplotter? Take a second to think about it and tell me the brand and model numbers too. Okay, now how many can you afford to give away to would be thieves? None! Well, in the time I ask you to tell me what electronic devices you have, it’s possible that would be thieves could have taken a unit or radio. Anglers can do two things to keep their electronics safe when not on their boat. One is to take all the electronics off and take them with you. This is not really convenient and time consuming. The other option is to lock it up.
“This is the final straw; I will no longer be using crankbaits or lures with hooks anymore!” I protested loudly to my fishing partner. It was no wonder; my rods were snarled and jumbled together in a large pile. Spinning rods and reels were poking out from a huge web of baitcasting rods and reels. “Yep, I am just going to fish my crankbaits, worms, topwaters, spinnerbaits, and any other lure I got without hooks,” I reiterated to him. “Well, you would probably catch just as many fish as you do now without hooks, but you can solve your problem with one thing,” he said. “What’s that? Take up golf?” I replied. “No. Nothing that drastic,” he continued, “just use lure covers on all your lures.” “Lure covers, what’s that?” I responded. “Just look over here at my lure covers,” he went on, “they cover all my lures like shallow water or deep diving crankbaits, topwater, spinnerbaits, lipless crankbaits, swimbaits, or jerkbaits; now, do you have any questions?” “Just one, why did you bring so many rods rigged with all those lures in the boat; when you know, we always end up fishing your custom built balsa wood crankbaits over there against them ol’ Cyprus stumps?” I replied.
I have got to get all these lures, knife, needle-nose pliers, hemostats, scissors, jig heads, hooks, line snaps, and my hook sharpener off the deck of the boat. It was obvious. I had stepped on a pile of lures and tools only to get them stuck in the bottom of my shoe. “Now that’s funny, I don’t care who you are; can you pick off one of those lures from your shoe so I can fish with one and don’t forget the clippers to cut my line with?” my fishing buddy said as I tried to pry the tangled mess from my shoe. His annoying laughing about the situation only seemed to agitate me more causing the hooks to go deeper into my shoe. “Okay wise guy, how do you keep that from happening in your boat?” I asked him. Still chuckling about my shoe he replied, “I have a Gear Grabbar on my boat, “he continued, “it holds all that stuff stuck to your shoe right on the side of the boat; it’s got powerful magnets that holds all of it in place.”
“I got one, how about you? So do I; hey, that guy over there in that boat has one. What did you get? I got a red fish; how about you? I got a yellowfin tuna and that guy over there has got three or four large tarpon! I cannot believe it. They are everywhere.” By now you probably think the fishing is really good where those guys are, but they were not talking about live fish. No, they are talking about a new product called Fishfenders. Fishfenders are a blend of art and utility. They are boatfender covers created from select water color art prints by renown angling artist Flick Ford and licensed from The Greenwich Workshop, North America’s Leader of fine art publishing.
Anglers have just a few fears when it comes to fishing and most of them do not revolve around the act of fishing itself. Heck, actually fishing is fun no matter how many fish they catch. No, the fear comes with trailering and keeping their boat, trailer, and motor safe; not only going down the road, but parked or stored. Think I am exaggerating the situation? Then why are there so many books, DVD’s, and internet articles on trailering your boat? The reason is no matter how many times you have hooked up your boat and drove down the road, they is always the apprehension that something negative can happen. Trailering accidents and thief happens, but prudent anglers have found some devices that can eliminate these problems.
No one faces more safety issues on the road than anglers. Their truck, boat, trailer, electronics, and fishing tackle together can easily cost more than $100,000. Knowing this, the majority of anglers have come to depend on high quality locks for keeping their boat and trailer connected to their trucks. Nothing is more devastating than to return to the boat ramp only to find your boat trailer stolen or using a buddy’s boat and parking your rig in the parking lot to come back and find someone stole your rig. Think it won’t happen to you; think again. Boat trailers and spare tires are easy picking for unscrupulous thieves who thrive on taking unprotected, unlocked trailers and tires.
It’s all about taking care of your fish and not just in bass tournaments. Anytime an angler is out on the water fishing for bass that are in deepwater they need to have a fizzing tool and know how to properly use it. For bass it’s a matter of life and death; for anglers it being a good steward of their resources. The Pro Fizz FZ-1 was designed to safely and quickly deflate a fish’s swim bladder that aids in regulating their buoyancy. A bass controls where they are located by adjusting the amount of gas pressure in the bladder to correlate with the atmospheric pressure in a certain depth. Bass brought up quickly increases the gas pressure in the swim bladder that affect the ability for a bass to swim correctly. Anglers can release this gas pressure by fizzing fish with a venting tool.
Its dark and the electricity went out again. Thanks to another lightening storm, we have no power again. So, I am in search of a flashlight. Okay, I can find all kinds of flashlights, but none of them work. Of course, all of the batteries are dead. This is not the first time it’s happen. Living out in a rural community our electricity is off more than on, but it is not just in the house where I need a working, high quality flashlight. I need one in my boat. Just like the majority of other anglers, I start early before the sun comes up and stop well after the sun goes down. Having a good flashlight can make the difference between a good fishing trip and one from…you get my drift. Lucky for me, I have a new Pelican MityLite 1900.
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.
“This is the final straw; I will no longer be using crankbaits or lures with hooks anymore!” I protested loudly to my fishing partner. It was no wonder; my rods were snarled and jumbled together in a large pile. Spinning rods and reels were poking out from a huge web of baitcasting rods and reels. “Yep, I am just going to fish my crankbaits, worms, topwaters, spinnerbaits, and any other lure I got without hooks,” I reiterated to him. “Well, you would probably catch just as many fish as you do now without hooks, but you can solve your problem with one thing,” he said. “What’s that? Take up golf?” I replied. “No. Nothing that drastic,” he continued, “just use lure covers on all your lures.” “Lure covers, what’s that?” I responded. “Just look over here at my lure covers,” he went on, “they cover all my lures like shallow water or deep diving crankbaits, topwater, spinnerbaits, lipless crankbaits, swimbaits, or jerkbaits; now, do you have any questions?” “Just one, why did you bring so many rods rigged with all those lures in the boat; when you know, we always end up fishing your custom built balsa wood crankbaits over there against them ol’ Cyprus stumps?” I replied.
I have got to get all these lures, knife, needle-nose pliers, hemostats, scissors, jig heads, hooks, line snaps, and my hook sharpener off the deck of the boat. It was obvious. I had stepped on a pile of lures and tools only to get them stuck in the bottom of my shoe. “Now that’s funny, I don’t care who you are; can you pick off one of those lures from your shoe so I can fish with one and don’t forget the clippers to cut my line with?” my fishing buddy said as I tried to pry the tangled mess from my shoe. His annoying laughing about the situation only seemed to agitate me more causing the hooks to go deeper into my shoe. “Okay wise guy, how do you keep that from happening in your boat?” I asked him. Still chuckling about my shoe he replied, “I have a Gear Grabbar on my boat, “he continued, “it holds all that stuff stuck to your shoe right on the side of the boat; it’s got powerful magnets that holds all of it in place.”
“I got one, how about you? So do I; hey, that guy over there in that boat has one. What did you get? I got a red fish; how about you? I got a yellowfin tuna and that guy over there has got three or four large tarpon! I cannot believe it. They are everywhere.” By now you probably think the fishing is really good where those guys are, but they were not talking about live fish. No, they are talking about a new product called Fishfenders. Fishfenders are a blend of art and utility. They are boatfender covers created from select water color art prints by renown angling artist Flick Ford and licensed from The Greenwich Workshop, North America’s Leader of fine art publishing.
No one faces more safety issues on the road than anglers. Their truck, boat, trailer, electronics, and fishing tackle together can easily cost more than $100,000. Knowing this, the majority of anglers have come to depend on high quality locks for keeping their boat and trailer connected to their trucks. Nothing is more devastating than to return to the boat ramp only to find your boat trailer stolen or using a buddy’s boat and parking your rig in the parking lot to come back and find someone stole your rig. Think it won’t happen to you; think again. Boat trailers and spare tires are easy picking for unscrupulous thieves who thrive on taking unprotected, unlocked trailers and tires.
