With so many changes taking place with tournament organizations all across the country, the day of the co-angler has vanished. The days of getting in the boat with a touring pro and learning how to become a better angler are pretty much over.

Many of you are probably wondering, “What’s a co-angler?” A co-angler is usually someone who is in the early stages of learning how to bass fish or does not have the money or the time to dedicate to fishing against other anglers who want to fish the pro side. The co-angler entry fees are usually half of what the pros pay.

Most co-anglers just wanted to be able to get in the boat with what is known as a boater/pro and just go fishing. It was pretty much a cheap guided fishing trip as the boater/pro had total control over the boat and the trolling motor all day.

The co-angler, fishing from the back deck, was there mainly to monitor the boater/pro and make sure nothing was done during the tournament that might be considered dishonest.

In the Major League Fishing BFL and the Toyota Series format, co-anglers competed against other co-anglers and the pros competed against the other pros. It was basically two separate tournaments with two separate divisions.

It’s a sad state of affairs that MLF (Major League Fishing) has decided to eliminate co-anglers from the format they have stood by for over 30 years. They have totally blown up the BFL circuit, which was designed for the working man, by turning it into another team trail (like we needed another team trail).

They have also just announced the end of co-anglers with the Toyota Series which takes away the ability to monitor the pros who will now be fishing solo, opening more opportunities for cheating. They claim they will have cameras or Go Pros in each boat to help monitor each angler all day, but we’ll see how that works out.

And there’s another factor to consider: the cost. For 2027, MLF has increased the Toyota Series pro entry fee from $1,700 to $2,000 per event. That’s a $300 increase per tournament, adding even more financial pressure for anglers trying to compete at that level.

For me, this co-angler issue hits close to home because I started my tournament fishing career as a co-angler back in 2003, competing on the FLW Tour. I’m certainly not alone. Many of today’s top professional anglers started out as co-anglers, including Bryan Thrift, Andy Montgomery and Randall Tharp.

Over time, they switched over to the pro side as they gained more confidence, experience and desire to compete with the best anglers in America.

I came up through that system, and I know firsthand the value of having the opportunity to compete, sharpen my skills, and prepare for the next step.

Back in the early 2000’s, the old FLW BFL’s and the Toyota Series were great training grounds for developing up-and-coming anglers. Now that’s no longer an option for anglers who are looking to learn and improve their skills before moving up to the pro level.

So, what does this mean for the future of tournament bass fishing? While it’s too early to tell, I think it’s obvious that a valuable pathway into the sport has been eliminated, one that allowed co-anglers to learn and get better, while also being affordable for the “working man.”

Now, a lot of co-anglers will be forced to jump over to the pro side or just find a team circuit to fish with a buddy. Either way, MLF (Major League Fishing) is bringing the co-angler era to an end, and the future of tournament bass fishing looks very different than it did just a few years ago.

That’s a tough pill to swallow for those of us who remember what these opportunities meant — and for the anglers who may never get the same chance we had.

Contact Steve at sgraf26@yahoo.com

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Growing up as a kid who fished stock ponds his whole life, I could not wait for the day that I got my first bass boat. Every angler who loves bass fishing looks forward to the day they pull out of a boat dealer towing their first bass boat. 

As a new boat owner there are so many things that you must learn on your own. Not many dealers take you out and show you how to launch your boat or go over maintenance tips you need to do yourself. 

So much about a bass boat is learned through experience. You learn through trial and error, but hopefully the errors you make don’t cost you a ton of money to fix.

But there was one thing I learned the very first time I took out my new Pro Gator bass boat back in 1992. When you arrive at the dock after fishing, make sure you tie the boat to the dock properly. 

It was on Chicot Lake,  just north of Ville Platte, where I took it out for the very first time. I was so excited to go fishing in my new boat while learning all the ends and outs about it. 

There was one thing that got my attention as I idled away from the boat dock. I noticed on my left, there were several gators sitting on the bank sunning themselves. A couple of these gators were over 10 feet long and looked at me as if I would be their next meal. More on that in just a minute.

After catching a few bass that evening, I decided to stay on the lake until after it got dark, as the bass were really biting just after the sun went down. It was around 9:30 that I headed back to the ramp. 

Upon arriving at the boat dock, I tied off my boat (or so I thought). I then headed to my truck so I could back my trailer down the ramp and load my boat.  After getting the trailer into the water, I hopped out of the truck and walked down the dock towards my boat. But as I got to the end of the dock, my boat was gone!

Now remember, there’s no one around for help and it’s pitch dark except for the light on the dock itself. So, as I scanned the bay and saw my boat floating about 50 yards out in the bay with its running lights on, panic set in on how I was going to get to it. At the same time, reality also set in and I knew there was only one way to retrieve the boat. 

That’s right, I was going to have to swim alligator-infested waters to retrieve my brand-new bass boat. So, I did what any crazy man would do. I stripped down to my underwear and made a running sprint down that long boat dock and dove headfirst into the lake. 

Let’s just say that had this been an Olympic swim meet, I would have set a new world record for the 50-meter freestyle. Arriving at the boat and having the fear of a gator pulling me under as I grabbed the side of my boat, I hopped in it quicker than a rabbit jumping over a briar patch. 

The moral of the story: always make sure you properly tie your boat to the dock, so you don’t have to make an unnecessary swim. Good luck, good fishing and remember, every time you go fishing, it’s a great trip whether you catch fish or not. 

Contact Steve at sgraf26@yahoo.com

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I started tournament fishing in the spring of 1990 and can remember it like it was yesterday! A friend of mine who was known as a very good angler asked me to fish a tournament with him. While I balked at first and did not have much interest in fishing tournaments, I gave in after several phone calls and a lot of begging. 

To say I was hooked after this event would be an understatement. This took place at a point in my life when I was no longer playing minor league baseball and was looking for another avenue where I could go out and compete. 

Tournament bass fishing has filled that niche and provided the opportunity to satisfy my competitive fire. But during the early ‘90s, there were not a lot of tournament trails like there are today.  

Angler’s Choice and the old Redman Series, along with a few charity tournaments, were all that were available at that time. Then in the mid ‘90s the FLW organization (named after Ranger Boats owner Forest L. Wood) was formed and they introduced several lower-level trails that allowed young up- and-coming anglers to learn and master fishing skills. 

It was an organization that offered grass roots anglers the chance to compete, get better and move up to the higher levels that FLW offered like the Everstart’s (now Toyota Series), FLW Series, and the original FLW Tour (now the MLF Bass Pro Tour), the highest level of professional bass fishing. 

FLW also introduced what is now called the BFL Tour (its lowest level) which stands for Bass Fishing League and was designed for the weekend warrior or what many called the working man series.

I fished a ton of these starting out and it was not uncommon for the BFL and Toyota Series events to draw 200 to 250 anglers for both the pro and co-angler divisions. It was so hard to get into these that if you did not sign up for all the events on the schedule, you did not get in.  

The best decision I ever made was in 2004 when I decided to sign up and fish as a co-angler on the FLW Tour, the highest level of FLW. This experience was invaluable for my development as an angler. 

I drew some of the best professional anglers to ever wet a hook with former FLW Cup and Bassmaster Classic Champion Dion Hibdon, former FLW Champion and three-time Angler of the Year Clark Wendlandt. 

Spending time in the boat with this caliber of angler will make you better. I learned so much, not just in terms of technique, but time management and scouting. I learned even at the highest level these guys do not over complicate the issue of catching and locating bass; they keep it simple.

I was really surprised how simple pro anglers keep their tournament preparation. It’s attention to detail that makes the highest level of anglers stand apart. 

Making sure their hooks are sharp is very important. Anglers will take the time to change out both sets of treble hooks on a crankbait if they have been fishing around wood or rocks. 

Sharp hooks equal bass in the boat, and bass in the boat equals paychecks! They also make sure they have fresh line spooled on each reel the day before the tournament starts. 

The great anglers are fanatics on tackle storage organization. Being able to put their hands on whatever they are looking for in a timely manner is very important. They can’t afford to waste time on tournament day looking for tackle. No detail is overlooked by anglers who fish for a living. 

Overall, I have enjoyed and learned so much during my 30-plus years of tournament bass fishing. I’ve met and made so many friends through tournament fishing.  Some of my best friends today have come from the bass tournament world. 

Anglers are like a coaching fraternity; there’s a unique bond that you just can’t find anywhere else. If there’s one thing I will miss when I decide to quit competing and lay my rods down for the last time, it’s that infectious comradery you have between anglers. 

Contact Steve at sgraf26@yahoo.com

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There are two times during the year that are awesome for bass fishing, spring and fall. During the spring, bass are moving up into the shallows to spawn and make more little bass. So, it’s a great time to catch that fish of a lifetime as the big females are full of eggs. In the fall, the bass are going through a feeding frenzy and fattening up for the winter which also makes for exciting fishing.

Of these two times of the year, fall is probably my favorite. If you want to catch fish in the fall, tie on any lure you want as long as it looks like a shad. 

Shad colored spinnerbaits or crankbaits are deadly during the fall. Bass will slowly migrate out of their deep summer haunts and will move up shallow and into the back of the creeks. 

They will literally go into ambush mode and destroy a school of baitfish. If whatever you’re throwing looks like shad, they will eat it! Here are few tips on what to throw if you’re not sure what you need to tie on. 

I love to catch them on a shad pattern spinnerbait this time of year. You can throw either a white or any type of shad color and catch fish. Your hook up ratio with a spinnerbait seems to be really good. But a good shad colored crankbait like a Bandit 100 or 200 series in a pearl color with a black back or a white splatter back will also put fish in the boat. 

It’s also a great time to throw a buzz bait or any kind of topwater bait. Bass love a walking style bait like Heddon Zara Spook in either chrome or white. 

But there’s also another bait that is pretty much a guarantee for catching fish in the fall, a rattling shad bait like a Bill Lewis Rattle Trap or a SPRO Aruku Shad. Both baits truly mimic the bait fish bass are gorging themselves on this time of year. 

Fall can also be an excellent time to go out on the lake and find new places you might want to fish next season. And if the lake is low, it’s really great to try to locate and mark those hard spots bass love to get on in the winter and early spring. 

Too many anglers miss out on some of the best bass fishing of year as they park their bass boats and load up four-wheelers and head to the woods. Many start to focus on getting deer stands cleaned out or building and dressing their duck blinds. 

So, take advantage of uncrowded boat ramps that the fall brings. Head out to your favorite lake and enjoy some of the best bass fishing of the year. You never know, you just might catch your personal best.   

Contact Steve at sgraf26@yahoo.com

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Hans Riegel was born in Bonn, Germany, in 1893.  After completing primary school, he began an apprenticeship as a confectioner, a candymaker.  During World War I, Hans fought for the Germans.  After the war, he returned to candy making and was hired by the Heinen confectionery company in Kessenich.  On December 13, 1920, Hans left the Heinen company and founded his own candy company.  His capital for his new venture included one sack of sugar, a marble slab, a chopper, a masonry stove, a copper kettle, and a roller.  It was a small operation compared to what he was used to at the Heinen company.  Working out of his small home at Bergstraße 37 in Bonn, Hans was only able to make about 110 pounds of hard candy per day.  As soon as a batch was ready to sell, Hans’s wife Gertrude loaded the candy into a basket on her bicycle and hand-delivered the sweets to customers.  Business was not growing as quickly as Hans had hoped.  He knew he needed a unique product to bring in funds to allow him to expand his business.  But what? 

Hans’s target demographic was children, so he thought back to the things that made him happy as a child.  In the late 1800s and early 1900s, showmen brought captive bears into towns to perform for passersby who would give them coins.  The bears were street performers.  The bears walked upright and performed numerous tricks, but the one the children enjoyed most, according to the number of coins taken in, was when the bears would dance as the showmen kept a beat on the tambourine.  They were called Tanzbären, or dancing bears.  In 1922, Hans used his fond memories to mold his candy into the shape of a dancing bear.  Hans shaped his bears with four outstretched limbs so they could sit upright or could stand on all four paws.  Children often played with the bears before eating them.  Hans created an edible toy.             

Sales of the dancing bears quickly exceeded Hans’s expectations.  By 1923, Gertrude could no longer keep up with demand on her bicycle, so Hans purchased the company’s first delivery automobile.  Hans’s candy went on sale in nearby shops and gradually expanded outward.  By 1930, Hans’s candy was available throughout Germany.  By 1933, Hans employed 400 people.  Production stopped during World War II due to the lack of supplies.  Hans died in March 1945, six months before the war ended.  Following the war, Gertrude managed operations until two of her sons, Hans Jr. and Paul Riegel, took over management of the company.  They built the company into a worldwide enterprise who employs about 8,500 workers in 16 factories in 11 countries who make more than 1,000 different sweet treats.  Their top seller is still the product Hans designed after the dancing bears that he remembered from his childhood.  Earlier I said Hans produced hard candy, but the dancing bears were something altogether different.  You may not have heard the word Tanzbären, but it is likely that you or someone you know has enjoyed Haribo’s gummy bears.

 Sources:

1.     “Hans Riegel,” Kessenichy ist Kult, accessed September 13, 2026, https://www.kessenich-ist-kult.de/kessenich-herz-des-bonner-suedens/personen-der-geschichte/hans-riegel/.

2.     “Haribo – About Us,” Haribo.com, accessed September 13, 2026, https://www.haribo.com/en-us/about-us/history.

© 2026 Brad Dison. All rights reserved. Remember This? is distributed for licensed publication only.

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I’m a huge fan of the Little League World Series. There’s so much joy watching baseball at its purest form, kids having fun in a game that has been played for over a century, not worried about how much money they are making.

It’s probably the one time in a young baseball player’s life that money is not a factor. It’s kids playing a game they grew up with on a sandlot or in the side yard of their neighbor’s house. 

This is how I learned to play baseball, either on a sandlot or in someone’s backyard. Sure, there were a few broken windows and an occasional broken nose when someone (probably me) lost control of a fastball. But at the end of the day, it was just a part of the game we all loved!

Of course, once a window was broken, we scattered like a covey of quail and ran to our houses as if nothing had ever happened. No one wanted to accept or admit they were responsible for the damage done. But eventually over time, the truth would come out and the person responsible had to pay for the window either by handing over cash or doing yard work for a month, or maybe even both. 

While we very seldom had enough players to field a full team, baseball is the only game that I’m aware of where you have ghost runners. That’s right, imaginary runners who could literally fly around the bases. You could play with 3-4 players on a team and make it work, all due to the ghost runner rule.  

The thing about growing up in a small Texas town was that there really were neighborhood rivalries. East side vs. West side, North side vs. South side. One elementary school vs. another. The rivalries were real until you got to high school and you became one team. 

What is the secret to a winning athletic program? Well, in the town of Mt. Pleasant, Texas, during the 1970s, the athletic talent level was insanely high for such a small town. There were many great athletes coming through MPHS during this time frame. The Mt. Pleasant Tigers had a statewide reputation for winning and doing well in all sports. 

Championship teams were a constant and expectations from the community were high. But the one thing I remember the most was the support we had from the school and the community itself. 

The leadership came from a lot of people like the mayor, school principals, teachers, booster club members, the student body, auxiliary groups, coaches and our parents, that paved the way for so many championship teams. You cannot put a price on how much community support means. 

We took pride in representing Mt. Pleasant High School and looked forward to anyone who wanted to challenge the Mt. Pleasant Tigers in any sport.

I was so blessed to have the opportunity to play for a Texas baseball state championship in 1978 and win. I’ll never forget what our head coach told the team after we won. “Fellows, this win tonight will mean more to you later in life than it does now.” Truer words have never been spoken.

To this day at the young age of 65, it’s the proudest moment I have ever experienced as an athlete including the day I signed to play college football and baseball at Northwestern State. Winning a state title has meant more to me than being drafted by Major League Baseball.

There’s something special about growing up in a small town and winning a state title during your high school years, playing with guys and friends you grew up with. 

It’s that closeness and comradery that made us great, along with the talent we possessed as a team. It has made us friends for life as we continue to get together from time to time to celebrate our accomplishment and share the same stories over and over. 

The one thing I have noticed over time is just how much better we have gotten with each passing year. That’s right, we’re now legends in our own minds!  

How lucky was I to have been a part of such a great community of people who cared about and made sure we had the support we needed to be successful! I would like to say thank you to those who played a part in not only my personal success, but the success of many teams that represented Mt. Pleasant High School. Go Tigers!

Contact Steve at sgraf26@yahoo.com

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Back in 1990 when I started fishing bass tournaments, I had a great partner, Randy Farrar, who helped teach me a few things about how to pre-fish before a tournament — pre-fishing techniques like how to find bass but not catch them right before a tournament. You always want to catch them on tournament day and not so much in practice.

So many guys go out and catch bass right before the tournament and take them home for a good fish fry. One thing I know for sure, you will not be able to catch them on tournament day after you’ve eaten them!  

I learned a lot from my first fishing buddy. One thing he taught me was how to “shake fish off” and not hook bass during practice since you want to catch them on tournament day. 

“Shaking” refers to when a bass bites your lure, you shake the tip of the rod and hopefully the bass will let it go. Close to tournament day, the last thing you want to do is set the hook and sore mouth bass you’re wanting to catch when it counts.

However, during pre-fishing when the bass are in spawning mode, you don’t have to worry if you hook a fish. Because during spawning, bass are very aggressive and will strike a lure multiple times if it comes anywhere close to their spawning bed.

But over the years, I have learned on my own that bass might be the most unpredictable creatures on earth. So many times during practice, I have gone through a particular area and shook off a lot of bass thinking they will be there on tournament day. Well guess what? For whatever reason, the bass have either left or will not bite. 

This is when fishing gets very frustrating! But then there are times when finding those bass, a day or two before tournament day, actually pays off.

Another pre-fishing technique that I now employ is fishing without a hook and using what is called a screw lock. I use this when I’m fishing with any type of soft plastic worms. This is where you tie on a screw lock and use it to hold your worm or soft plastic bait instead of using a hook.

This way you never have to worry about hooking any fish you want to catch on tournament day. This is a pre-fishing technique I always use, especially the day before the tournament. 

In today’s bass tournament world, if you don’t pre-fish several days in a row before a tournament, you’re probably not going to win. The anglers winning today are guys who are on the water at least three days before the tournament. 

The days of showing up and winning or even getting a check are gone, as there are too many anglers putting in 8-10 hours a day locating bass. Even fishing on a lake that you know very well is not good enough to beat the guys putting in hours of pre-fishing. 

There are a lot of variables that can affect your ability to locate bass and catch them on tournament day. The first and foremost is the weather. This is something an angler has no control over, but you must understand bass behavior well enough to know how the weather affects them. 

Another factor you can’t control is the movement of baitfish they like to feed on. Bass will always be close to wherever the bait fish are. It’s their buffet; it’s their grocery store. Wherever the baitfish go, the bass will follow. 

So, if you want to compete and have a shot at winning or even getting a check in today’s bass tournaments, you better pre-fish and find as many schools of bass as you can during practice. Otherwise, you’re just donating your entry fee.  

Contact Steve at sgraf26@yahoo.com

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In 1863, the United States of America and the Confederate States of America were in the midst of what we now call the Civil War.  On June 1, 1863, nineteen-year-old Willis Meadows of Lanott, Alabama, joined Company G of the 37^th Alabama Regiment.  Willis was a fierce hunter who realized early on that missing a shot at wild game meant that he and his family would not have any meat on the table.  Within days of his enlistment, his superiors recognized his shooting skills and made him a sharpshooter.  One month to the day after his enlistment, July 1, Willis was helping defend Vicksburg from the Union army.  Through a small hole in a sheet of boiler plate, Willis took careful aim and fired a single shot at a time at Union soldiers so as not to give his position away.  He waited several minutes before firing again so the enemy could not pinpoint his position.  Every few minutes, Willis took down another soldier.  

21-year-old Peter Knapp and three other members of the 5^th Iowa volunteers were ordered to eliminate the sniper.  They slowly scanned the area while they awaited another shot.  Finally, Peter saw a flash come from the small hole in the boiler plate.  Peter was a crack shot as well.  As Willis peeked through the hole in search of another target, Peter fired.  The one-ounce cone-shaped bullet went through the same hole Willis had been firing through and struck him, Willis, in his right eye.  Peter saw Willis collapse and knew he was either dead or dying.  Peter and the other three reported that they had eliminated the sharpshooter and were sent on another assignment.

A short while later, a Union soldier found Willis and realized that he was still alive.  He and other Union soldiers took Willis to their surgeon who transferred the wounded sharpshooter to a federal hospital.  Doctors operated on Willis and concluded that it would be too dangerous to try to remove the bullet.  They stopped the bleeding and hoped for the best.  Despite the doctors’ grim prognosis, Willis’s condition slowly improved.  Except for the loss of his right eye, Willis regained his health.  Willis was eventually paroled and returned to Alabama.

58 years later, Peter was reading the newspaper when he read Willis’s incredible story.  He soon realized that Willis was the man he shot and whom he thought he had killed.  Peter wrote to Willis and they began corresponding back and forth for the remainder of Willis’s life.  The newspaper article which turned former enemies into friends was published on March 22, 1921.  On the day before, Willis, then 78 years old, was in his kitchen when he began coughing.  His coughing progressed into a coughing fit.  Willis held his handkerchief over his mouth, but nothing he tried would ease his coughing.  After several long minutes, Willis’s coughing ended abruptly when something struck his handkerchief.  He lowered the handkerchief from his mouth and stared in amazement.  58 years after being shot through the eye and left for dead, Willis coughed up Peter’s bullet.         

Sources:

1.     The Wellston News (Wellston, Oklahoma), April 1, 1921, p.2. 

2.     Phillips County News (Malta, Montana), September 8, 1921, p.1.

3.     “March 14, 1921 Coughing up Bullets,” Cape Cod Curmudgeon, March 24, 2018, Accessed August 30, 2026, https://todayinhistory.blog/2018/03/24/march-24-1921-coughing-up-bullets/.

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I’ve always felt that I grew up in the perfect era. It was the early ‘70s and the Vietnam War was coming to an end. My generation never had to worry about being drafted by the armed forces. If you wanted to join the military, it was strictly voluntary. 

While a few of my classmates chose to go in that direction, my attention was trying to get an athletic scholarship to play either football or baseball on the Division 1 level.

Let’s go back to my early years of growing up in the small East Texas town of Mt. Pleasant. As a child during this time frame, we had a lot of freedom. If you had a bike, it was this form of transportation that was basically unlimited. If you could ride your bike on it, there was no limit to where you could go. 

We woke up at daylight and were on our bikes by 8 o’clock every summer morning and only came home for lunch, or right at dark. My kids still have a hard time understanding that the only rule we had — be home when the streetlights came on. 

Parents didn’t always check on their kids. They pretty much knew where they supposed to be. My mother always knew where I was and who I was with most of the time. There was also a certain amount of trust between parents and their kids, until that trust was broken and we got into trouble. 

We lived about three miles out of town and several days out of the week, I would ride my bike for miles. I was either playing ball somewhere at a local ballpark or somebody’s back yard. We rode our bikes looking for coke bottles on the side of the road that we could trade for candy at the local country store.

We played in creeks and ditches, especially after a big rain. As friends we were always together every day and spent a lot of time playing baseball or going to the local pool. 

Occasionally, you could find me fishing at one of the stock ponds, or tanks as they call them in Texas.  If I wasn’t at one of the ponds on our ranch, our neighbor Mr. Rayford Jones, who lived across the road from our house, owned a cattle farm and allowed my brother and me along with his grandson to fish his two ponds (tanks) that were full of bass and catfish. 

Growing up in the country meant you probably had a garden to tend to. Every other day, I had to spend a couple of hours raking grass out of the garden, which was absolute torture for me. But the produce that came out of the garden was incredible, especially after dad had a load of chicken manure brought in! 

We also had about two acres around our house that had to be mowed once every two weeks. Not with a riding mower, but with a push mower! That’s right, a 14-inch cut push mower, which required at least two days to complete the job. 

I had a brother, seven years younger, who was supposed to take over the lawn cutting duties after I left home for college. Guess what showed up two days before I left home: that’s right, a Sears riding mower! 

To say I voiced my displeasure to my parents about this purchase would be an understatement. For five years I push-mowed two acres and now my little brother would get to use a riding mower! 

That being said, there were several chores demanded of me that my brother never took on. So, I guess you could say being the youngest had its privileges.

Looking back, I had an awesome childhood with more freedom than kids have today. They say it’s a different world than what my generation grew up in. I’m not sure that’s totally right. 

There’s just so much more media exposure with up to the minute news and social media sites that are always shedding light on topics most really don’t want to hear about. 

There’s always been bad people in the world who are looking to prey upon the weak. Today’s kids are growing up in a bubble of overprotection. Parents are less likely today to allow their kids to roam free like we did. 

I think kids and young teenagers today are not near as mature as earlier generations. This is due to parents being overprotective, afraid to let their kids make mistakes they can learn from. With my generation, we all had summer and part-time jobs that helped us to mature and understand responsibility at an early age. 

Our parents did a great job of preparing us for the real world. That gave us something I think is lacking with so many of today’s youth –maturity and accepting responsibility. We can only hope and pray that the generation of today will find its own path to success sooner rather than later. 

Our country is at a crossroads in so many ways today. Far left extremists continues to gain ground in small areas of the country. But I don’t think when it comes down to a national election, they will have enough support to win.

I think common sense once again will prevail with the American people,like it did back in the good ole days. If it wasn’t for today’s social media, these small pockets of far-left activists would never even be heard. In God we trust! Stay strong America!

 Contact Steve at sgraf26@yahoo.com

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In sports there’s nothing better than playing at home. Doesn’t matter if it’s a regular season game or a playoff game, playing at home in front of your home crowd can make a huge difference in the outcome of the game.

But there is one sport where the “home field advantage” doesn’t always pan out. In fact, it can actually be a disadvantage! The sport would be tournament bass fishing. 

When you’re the “local” angler, you are usually considered the favorite due to the amount of success and knowledge you have about the lake/river.

Anglers always look forward to fishing an event on their home water. It’s an opportunity to sleep in your own bed, eat a good home cooked meal and everything is very routine. You tend to be more relaxed, but you also feel the pressure of being the favorite.

Then as you prepare for the tournament, you put a game plan together that usually involves looking at past history. This is where things can go wrong!

Just like people, anglers are creatures of habit and tend to lean towards fishing the same way we have in the past, especially when we’ve been successful on our home lake/river. 

When you are fortunate enough to have an event on your home water, you want to make a good showing and hopefully bring home a win. 

But why is there so much pressure on the angler who is fishing his home lake? Here’s the problem. Because you know the lake/river so well and you know so many good areas that hold fish, you can’t decide which area you should hit first. 

Do you go where you caught them last year at this same time, or go where you caught them two years ago where you won the tournament? Too much history on a body of water can really clutter the brain and destroy a game plan. 

Then you decide to go with your gut and start in area A where you’ve done well in the past. But after you start fishing this area on tournament day with little to no success, you start to question your decision. 

Now confusion or panic sets in and you really start thinking too much! So, then you decide to fall back to Plan B to try and salvage the day and just make a good showing. 

Too much knowledge on any body of water can be detrimental to putting a good game plan together and is the fear of every angler who fishes their home water, especially in a big event.  

Sometimes you’re better off throwing history out the window and approach the lake like you would any body of water you’ve never fished before. This is why scouting before an event is so important. Pay attention to what the fish are doing at that particular time and make your game plan around that.

All anglers at some point make fishing complicated. We tend to try and outsmart the fish and end up outsmarting ourselves. While I’m not sure who said it, but the words “keep it simple stupid” are very fitting for bass anglers! 

Contact Steve at sgraf26@yahoo.com

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