was the biggest let down in my personal opinion... the fishing exhibits were not all that hot, an the majority of everything were guides... only about 2 of the dozens of isles were bass fishing related, all the rest practically were guides an fly fishing...there were several different companies pushing there kickboats though an alot were incredibly nice. other than that an all the bass boats it wasn't that great. i only spent about 50 bucks. just to let ya know. it was still fun i guess but not spectacular like the Bass-O-Rama. oh well jsut my 2 cents. ~Angler Andy

thats why its not called the bass o rama, its not just bass fishing, i was talkign to paul, they had only 3 fishign shops there too last year, personally i loved the last years ISE, i drooled and drooled. i'll be there friday
later buddy
David C

Good seeing Rob & Jeff there at the show. Rob, you showed who's boss again in the casting contest, gotta practice some!

To those who don't know, I'm helping with both clubs gathering donations and already have some confirmations. Bass West's owner already said he would give the clubs a few free subscriptions, a product manager from Big Poly said he would get us some lures, and Dink Mendez said he would be glad to get us some Rodstrainer lures! There were a few other manufactures who said they were interested but I need to follow up. I'll keep you guys posted!

Oh, since I am both a bass, fly and other species fisherman, I really did enjoy the show, only wish I had more time to talk with the reps! Spent so much time trying to sell the clubs I didn't get to spend too much money! Darn!

Late

Team Boca Bearings - www.bocabearings.com
Smelly Jelly
Paycheck Baits - http://www.paycheckbaits.com/
Big Bear Fishing Rods - http://www.bigbearfishingrods.com
http://www.bassanglerprofiles.com/toddiwamoto.htm
www.geemoto.com

Charlie and I went to the ISE. It wasn't too big but the competive edge rods were sweet. I need to get me a couple of those. Also a great flyfishing section.

I would concur with everyone else, but I would say that if you took the time to check around there was some cool stuff. Definitely worth checking out was the Uma-x Co booth. Small booth kind of in the middle. You can check their website here
http://www.umaxco.com/
They had the new osprey swimbaits and a bunch of sweet drop shot worms like the no name worms etc. Very cool.
Another cool booth was the STI booth, the guy makes a rip bait and a spook type bait. The cool thing was this new spook type bait he is making called the pup-fish is 8" long and painted perfectly like a trout. I had to buy one of those.
Coyote bait was decent and there was some other decent stuff but I would agree the show was mostly guides and non bass fishing stuff. I still had a good time though.

This years ISE looked good I thought. I wish there were better speakers on Wed. I want to see Cooch and Hemphill. I had a successful trip though, I got my Slammer and picked up some Hodgman waders for $39. Was going to get some Crackle, but the demo didn't work. I also played with those new EON reels at the Abu Garcia booth and they sucked. I like the drag on it, but everything else looked and felt cheap.

Nicolo

LAST EDITED ON Feb-01-01 AT 11:15 AM (PST)

The word @ the Coyote tackle booth was that the shipment of DOZENS of MS Slammers hadn't been received yet, after having shipped over a WEEK ago! Did Coyote have a couple on hand early in the day? (That was great, seein' Rob's picture posted up by the register, by the way!)

Man, if they don't get those lures before the end of the week, not only will alot of guys miss their chance to purchase one at the show, but Coyote's gonna have a TON of 'em sitting on their shelves for awhile!

Oh, well, that'll just mean the fish haven't seen 'em yet, once **I** get to throwin' 'em around! :-)

- jeff

-----------------------
Every day Congress convenes, we lose a little more of our LIBERTY!!!

(-- Mark Levin, radio-show host/KSFO 3-6pm)

There was one at Coyote early.

Geez, I was damn near HOARSE, after all the talkin' I did at the show Wed. night. First of all, to all the club members I saw -- Rob, Todd, Al/Robert/Chris -- & then to Dave Rush, Aaron Coleman (in the Coyote booth), who's that big guy who works at Coyote B&T, Denise from Coyote (left some club flyers at their cash register -- not to mention sprinkling them around to guys in the various booths), big Stewart @ Big Poly, the STI guy ('Mike'? I bought one of his clear deeper-lipped jerkbaits, which he wanted me to send him some feedback on), Andy Gianninni (NCBF'er, with Persuader lures), the Bass West guys... on & on & on, right up 'til closing.

I guess it's all about what you make it! I didn't spend more than 10% of my time in anything but that first row, by the demo tank. But then, why would I want to go anywhere else, other than to look at the kickboats, gadgets, special lures & such in the other aisles?

Trust me, more guys are aware of our club now! I've been dropping flyers around for the past few years now; some of the guys remember me from years past. Unfortunately, one of the comments I keep hearing is: "Oh, yeah! Jimmy Reese used to run that club, didn't he?" Naturally, I have to spend ten minutes explaining that that's the SONOMA club, and that we fish each others' tourneys on a regular basis, blah, blah, blah...

Yeah, I did some shopping, too -- to the tune of around $150 bucks. Lots of SWEET-looking lures!

Dave Rush had an impressive double-hook drop-shot demo, where some of the biggest fish kept inhaling the bottom green-weenie worm, cast after cast after cast! Suck it in, blow it out, suck it in, blow it out. I really gotta get & try that double-hook technique! He had those baits just shimmying around, looking SO seductive! Those fish just couldn't leave it alone! (Pretty surprising, since I've seen shows where, if it's their first day in the tank, those fish don't go after NOTHIN'!).

I pointed out Dink Mendez to Todd, whereupon he hit him up for some spinnerbait & jig donations -- Dink has said for the past couple of years he's more than willing to support our events! It just seems that nobody's ever come to him, when it comes time to work a deal. Sounds like Todd is gonna change THAT, though! :-)

Boy, Todd was lookin' pretty SWANK in that flashy grey suit! Not your typical FISHING GARB, by any means! ;- )

Go get 'em, bud! You were WORKIN' them booths!


Anyways, as you might surmise from this novel here, I had a GREAT time! Not sure if I'll make it back this week, but then again, there's always PLEASANTON in a couple of weeks! (I never made it to the CATCH CAM booth!) :-) . Later! -- j

- jeff

-----------------------
Every day Congress convenes, we lose a little more of our LIBERTY!!!

(-- Mark Levin, radio-show host/KSFO 3-6pm)

Gotta give you props Jeff! You really were handing out those flyers to EVERYBODY (including me)! You hit every booth I ended up talking to before I got there! Made it a little easier sell, thanks! Wish I could have worked some a little more. Couple places the rep wasn't even there, darn.

You know, if we are all just a little proactive in getting our name out and soliciting donations we could have a REALLY PHAT club! I mean we could possibly have lures and gifts for everybody during our tournaments. Just a thought.

Todd

Yeah, Max and I went yesterday. I felt it was a pretty good show, just about the same as last year. We saw Rob there but no other club members, guess we just didn't spend enough time there. I didn't have any money w/ me yesterday so I'm hopin maybe to go back again w/ some money and get some stuff. I'll have to say that I was definately very impressed with this years competitive edge rods. They have more backbone tan before and now have cork grips too. I spent about 20 min talking to a sales rep from Comp. edge and he told me all about the upgrades. They are also the lightest rods in their price range and some of the lightest rods on the market. (exceeded only by loomis which are about $300 more expensive!) Good job guys on getting our name out there, hopefully we'll get a bunch more members this year and some sponsors to boot. Well, gotta go, talk to ya'all later.
late
Charlie

I GOT MY ST CROIX! its F*CKING DOPE, andy, those kovisa or whatever drop shot soft plastics that u guys got are tight, i got 3 packs.

It was exactly the same as last years show. john prevost(sp?) helped me out a lot and i talked to andy gianani(sp?) for awhile, Paul was there and so was "Schlong" (LOL). i got me a Duh! blade to, its sick.

Dude i got the biggest staredowns by the other rod comp reps when i walked by their booths, hahaha, becuase i was repp'n my st croix. i spent like 220, and i got raped for 14 bucks on admission and parking.

UMA-X was trying to rape ppl of 50 bucks more on the scorpion, $200 what a jip. i told some folks "go to USAtakle.com" hahahaha, help out kevin. them Basstrix swim baits are awesome looking too.

David C

This is a stupid question, but what the hell are Slammers?
Max

I won't tell you what they are but I will just show you what they catch

http://www.msslammer.com/photos_2000.html

you didnt enjoy the show,you need to be prepaired in the future that most shows dont cater to you being a bassfisherman only(like me).

I thought the show was fun,I didnt get to check out to many booth's but did get to work a few hours side by side w/ Aaron Martins in the Snag Proof booth,since Okuma and Snag Proof shared a booth.I did get to meet quite a few people that had heard of BNT.

All and all most of the vendors I spoke w/ said sales were about avarage for this years show.Not such a bad show.