Date: 25 May 2006
Subject: The Midwest Experience

We are now in Duluth, Minnesota on Lake Superior. We have been traveling back and forth across the midwest for the past month. We have made many friends and appreciate everyone that stopped by the Shimano Fishing Tour. The weather has limited our fishing experience as of late, however we are looking forward to possibly doing some trolling for Lake Trout on Lake Superior and/or fishing for Steelhead here on the river before the weekend show at Marine General. The stores have experienced banner sales days at our last few stops and we expect more of the same in the weeks to come. -Ross

Date: 27 Feb 2006
Subject: The Florida Run

We are catching our breath and reflecting on the past few weeks. We have made many new friends and met some avid enthusiast throughout the Sunshine State. Florida fisheries are second to none. We completed 9 events over this timeframe. With Don Coffey Rep Matt Hodges, we worked Strike Zone in Jacksonville and Bass Pro Shops Spring Classic in Orlando. We were also treated to a day of fishing on Matt's Action Craft flats boat, despite tough conditions me managed a little "rod bendin" in Matt's words. Then we met up with Coffey Rep Spencer Marchant for four events including Tuppens in West Palm Beach, Crook&Crook in Miami,Finest Kind in Stuart, and Custom Rod&Reel in Pompano. These events were in predominantly offshore/ high end markets. Spencer also rewarded our efforts with a hands on education of butterfly jigging on a 1/2 day charter. I learned that even an unexperienced openwater fishermen such as myself can catch big fish on this revolutionary Butterfly jigging system. We managed to catch 9 species of fish in a short amount of time. We also worked with Everett Childs with the Coffey Group and Dave Toole with Shimano North America at the Bass Pro Shops Spring Classic in Fort Lauderdale. The event was jam packed all weekend. We had a record number of registrants for the Sweepstakes Giveaway. We met up with Steve Barnhill this past weekend at Laishley Marine and look forward to closing out the last leg of the Florida Run this week at Half Hitch Tackle in Panama City Beach and Outcast Bait and Tackle in Pensacola. We hope to see you all at the event in your area! -Ross

Date: 06 Feb 2006
Subject: Neuse Sport Shop Event

The Neuse Sport Shop event went very well despite the rain and wind which sent us into the covered entrance. It was a banner day for the store at a time of the year where they normally would not have been so busy. The local advertising brought out a good cowd. Patrick Smith, the Don Coffey Group Representative, set up a display at the Ducks Unlimited event next door, which made for a larger crowd. Russell, the General Manager at Neuse Sport Sop stated, "the only thing that could have made this event better would have been Mother Nature, which we can't control." We were very happy to have the opportunity to work with all the good people at Neuse and hope to see them all in the near future.
Between events, Adam and I have had the opportunity to enjoy catching monster catfish with a Calcutta-Crucial combo on the James River, We caught bass in the 2-6lb range on Citica-Crucial combo's and Stella-Crucial combo's, we also caught Reds and Trout on Symetre-Clarus combo's in Tampa Bay this past weekend. Gamma fishing line has proved to be the strongest most reliant line that I have used to date. I was really impressed with the my new Costa Rincon glasses which afforded me the opportunity to sight fish effectively on the flats on Adam's home waters in Tampa Bay. The new Sperry Fathom's are very comfortable boat shoes. I am really super stoked on the performance of all our sponsors products.

Date: 29 Jan 2006
Subject: Green Top's Annual

We were pleasantly surprised and greeted with unseasonally warm weather for the entire weekend. This made for a fantastic first stop. This year's addition of the entire Shimano arsenal, including the salt water line, delighted the patrons who raved about the new Shimano rods and reels on display. Green Top's planning, which included T.V. commercials as well as radio broadcast, brought out all the local fishing enthusiast leading to a record sales weekend for Greentop. We want to congratulate Wayne Helms who took home the big bag competition for the weekend, which awarded him a generous assortment of fishing gear from Gamma, Sperry, Costa Del Mar, and Shimano. We really appreciated the hospitality and professionalism of the entire Green Top staff, who went above and beyond their call of duty to make this event a memorable one. Will(15 year veteran Green Top Manager) conjured up a mean "slap your granny" barbecue for the entire staff. He has also arranged a monster catfish trip for Adam and myself. Then we'll be off to Neuse Sport Shop for Super Bowl weekend. -Ross