There is nothing quite like getting off early from work.  Some days it relegates you to a myriad of chores a bit earlier than planned.  However, on this day my mind went straight to the River, and the evening bite.  The water was low and gin clear, and as the sun dropped behind the trees, the potrait of the river was transformed…

I fell in love with her the moment I saw her.  She was slim, sleek, and tall, oh boy was she tall.  She was probably 20 years older than me but that didn’t matter, it’s just a number anyway right?  Her glossy candy apple red finish had faded over the years, and she was a tad to the heavy side but looks aren’t everything.  No, she had personality, miles and miles of it.  They showed through every scratch and ding along her hull.  That’s right, my first love wasn’t a girl, or even a car, it was an Old Town Discovery 174 that showed up in our yard on my 13th birthday.

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Article by:  Bo Painter (VaSmallieGuy89)

…Eddie Cochran said that “there ain’t no cure for the summertime blues”.  I never understood quite what he meant, because I never had a problem with the blues coming in the summertime.  Summer’s full of  long, warm, lazy days, and of course; bass.  What self respecting river fisherman has time to be blue then?  No the summertime blues never gave me any trouble, its the wintertime blues that are getting to me, and sitting around the house is doing me about as much good as ol’ Eddie calling his congressman. Continue Reading

….. This story starts at work in the cubical of my good buddy Zack. A Serbian refugee, now an American citizen, Zack lives in St. Pete and fishes saltwater exclusively and has never fished for bass.  So being the confident “jacked up” bass fisherman that I am, I told him, “I’ll take you fishing on the Santa Fe River and I promise you’ll catch a bass!”  Ok, that was mistake #1…never promise anyone that they will catch bass or anything for that matter.   In the mean time, circumstances changed and Zack and I decided to fish the Myakka River instead.  Mistake #2, if you promise someone they’ll catch bass, at least take them to a river you have previously fished.  I have no previous experience fishing the Myakka River.  Although a very beautiful river, the Myakka failed to produce a single fish for either of us…all we caught was sunburn.  Back at work, I have not heard the end of our failed fishing trip.  Zack keeps reminding me about “broken promises” and the bass he never caught. Continue Reading

On September 4th I was lucky enough to be back in Peru helping install a water treatment system in a small village in the Amazon Jungle.  I am fortunate enough to be in Peru 4 times a year working on community development projects and on this trip I was able to get away on three separate days to do some fishing.

This is the same area BasserDrew, TyGa 10, Sumter Shoalie Fan and I were back in June but at an oxbow lake that was close to the lodge (Palo Verde Lodge, operated by Amazon Expeditions) where I stayed.

I don’t make videos as well as BasserDrew, but here is my first stab at a video – the first of what I hope to be many.  Enjoy!

Amazon River Runner

May 1, 2008! The last time I have fished on a river. Cancer came calling at my door and I went through chemotherapy and radiation in the attempt to rid my body of the deadly disease. For one year I’ve looked out my kitchen window to see my kayak calling me back to the waters I love; back to the beautiful creation God has handed to man for enjoyment. My fly rod and casting reels collected dust and I slowly watched the months pass by with nausea, vomiting, fatigue, weakness, shingles, blood clots and peripheral neuropathy. I kept looking at articles and websites related to river bassing and longed for the day when I would get to return, but I had bigger things on my mind as survival, family and friends took center stage. Continue Reading

Sumtershoaliefan, RatherBfishin, and myself (ShoalieSeeker)had a trip planned to fish for shoal bass all week but the weather didn’t cooperate. So looking at the surrounding states and the water level continuing to rise, we needed an alternative for our week long fishing trip.

Pursuing the Guadeloupe Bass had been a long time thought of SSF and mine. So it only took one suggestion of a trip to Texas and we pulled the trigger. Continue Reading

By Phillip Potter, aka TarDevil

Driving to the river recently I passed an elderly fella walking by the road and he raised his hand to me as I drove by.  Got me wondering about salutations, waving, acknowledging folks ya don’t know – never met and perhaps never will.  Just a friendly nature?  The desire to impart a wee speck of goodwill and a warm “hello?” I dunno, do you? Continue Reading

By:  Phillip Potter, aka TarDevil

On a beautiful June day in 2007 I came to two important conclusion; 1) flyrods and sunglasses are perfect tools for something other than catching fish, and 2) ALWAYS bring my camera.

I ached all over.  I was so sunburned I glowed.  But it had been a satisfying day… not particularly productive (three smallies and several green sunfish caught and released) but six hours of blessed solitude on a gorgeous day. Continue Reading

By:  Phillip Potter, aka Tardevil

It was an annual ritual; my father and I flew west every August for a week of fishing and camping with my cousin Troy. We floated the famed Deschutes river for rainbows, waded the Salmon River for steelhead and fished for sturgeon in the Columbia. After several years of cramming a smorgasbord of adventures in one week, the three of us decided the most enjoyable and productive of our outings was casting from the north jetty at the mouth of the Columbia for a variety of fish, depending on the tide. Continue Reading