Woods and Water

All weekend, I have been in Imlay City, Michigan at the Woods and Water Outdoor Weekend Expo. I was there for doing seminars and signing autographs for STIHL. My truck and boat were part of their display as well. It was a great outdoor event and crowds were estimated at over 20,000 for the three days.

Tomorrow, I head to New Mexico for an archery elk hunt for the High Places show. It has been years since I have drawn a good elk tag and I am really excited about this opportunity!

Backwaters

Well you know when I'm snapping pictures of alligators and birds during a practice day, fishing must be pretty bad. I saw a lot more wildlife today on the Red River than I did bass! The main river is nearly unfishable due to the mud and strong current. Everyone is crowded into the backwaters looking for clear water and it is making this place fish very small. Hopefully, my practice will go better tomorrow.

Winner for this week:  Congratulations to Anglers Ace who won this week's drawing for two Lucky Craft lures.  Anglers Ace, please email JTPFishing@insightbb.com with information as to where to send your lures.  Next week, I'll send one lucky winner an embroidered Stihl baseball cap.  Thanks for all the readers' comments and letting us know who you'd like to see fish UMF.

Made of Stihl

Today, I took my rig to Springboro, Ohio for the Grand Opening of Moe's Ace Hardware. Moe's is one of our newest and largest STIHL dealers in Ohio. I had a chance to meet a lot of the customers, sign autographs and just talk fishing! Once that wrapped up, I headed home to pack my gear and work on my tackle. Tomorrow, I head down to Chatanooga to start practice for my third FLW Event of the season.

Alaskan Brown Bear

I had a chance to stop in to Bryan Equipment Sales training showroom to see my big Alaskan brown bear mount which was recently delivered. I took the bear with my bow in 2008 while filming a hunting show for Outdoor Channel. It is pretty bad when you have so many mounts that you have to get the area STIHL distributor to house one for you. It looked awesome!  My local taxidermist, Mike Redding, said he put over 80 hours into the mount. It sure brought back great, but terrifying memories. You can see the video clip of the bear hunt on my YouTube hunting channel.