Simpler Times

Here I am with my Granddaddy, Haywood Wiggins after a great day on the water catching redfish. Back then (I think I was probably 15 or 16 years old here), I brought home almost everything I caught so my mom could cook it up for the family to eat that night. We didn't let a thing go to waste and lived off of the simple things like freshly caught fish, vegetables grown in my Dad's garden, and sweet sun tea. Those were the days!!

Hey - I wanted to give a quick update on how me and my fishing partner Todd Royall did in last weekend's tournament. Remember I was up in Destin for the 9th Annual Old Nick's Redfish Roundup tournament? Well, me and Todd took 1st in the spots division. Pretty darn cool.

Had a great turnout for my seminar on Friday night and then the tournament hit an all time high record for attendance. I hope those numbers increase next year too . . . we'll definitely be back! Thanks to Nick's and to Legendary Marine for the invite.

We've been traveling a lot lately, shooting shows and fishing. Last week I got to do something we've never done on AF . . . fish and film on a Bass lake. That's right, I said it - B A S S fishing. We were in St. Cloud fishing with Skeeter Bass Pro, Chuck Pippin. It was a beautiful lake and we had a great time with Chuck, just a little tough bite though. We'll show a little of it in an episode later this season. I think I'll stick to saltwater, I think I've got a little of it running through my veins. Ha!

Now, I'm off again to the Everglades in pursuit of tarpon! How many of you remember Capt. Gary Thompson from season 6 in "Tarpon Time"? Check out the AF YouTube Channel to see what Gary had me catching back then. We're hoping for a Part two of that same experience. Haven't caught a tarpon yet this season, so fingers crossed, no bananas on the boat . . . here we go!

This week's episode is a little something special for our friends at Star Brite. Last season we went to the Dry Tortugas and Key West on the Star Brite (62' Viking) and caught some amazing fish. This year we were scheduled to go again and do something a little different, but they had to postpone due to a "family member" having surgery and treatment coming up. We decided to do a look back to that Key West trip, put in some footage you haven't seen and dedicate it to the speedy recovery of "Jake." 

We're cheering you on Jake and can't wait to see your tail waggin' again soon! Tune in tomorrow to see "Keys Chronicles" (Friday, May 23rd at 10:30 a.m. ET on Fox SunSports). Check the AF website for replay times on Sunday and Wednesday.  

I'm heading back out on the water for now!  

Until next week . . . tight lines,
Blair

That ain't 5 - 10 mph!

Here's a real old one for ya's for this Thursday's Throwback. How many of you remember when this episode hit television. How many of you remember that old AF logo and the old Sunshine Network logo? This one's from 2001. Seems like just yesterday we were shooting our first season of Addictive Fishing and I was sayin', "Now that's a black drum, baby!" Ahhh, that was fun. I love to catch those big ugly drum!

I'm a little tired of this weather. I'm starting to get a little cranky and so is my Producer and crew. I get it, at least the sun is shining and we're not digging out of snow banks like some of y'all in the country, but c'mon! The weatherman said after our latest rain and cold front that Wednesday was going to be beautiful with winds at 5-10 mph. Um . . . WRONG! We went out in Tampa Bay again to try to finish off a show we started a couple of weeks back with Capt. Chad Manning. That episode shoot got cut short because of the weather and so this trip we were thrilled to hear the forecast. We get out to where Capt. Chad's got us fishing in Tampa Bay, we catch bait, we get to our spot, lines in, cameras rolling, we're catching some nice slot redfish, and then at about 10:30 a.m. someone turned on the wind machine and it started blowing. We fished hard, stuck it out and got an episode, but let me tell ya, it was tough. Thanks for stickin' it out with us Capt. Chad! 

I headed over to Dick's Sporting Goods in Wesley Chapel today to shoot our "Rig it Right" segment and to get some shots for the new updated Dick's commercial spot. The folks at that store are always great to us . . . it's kind of our "homebase" when it comes to shooting what we need for the show. Thanks to everyone there and the the couple of shoppers who will have their first cameos on television. 

Don't forget to visit your nearest Dick's Sporting Goods store this week. They've got some sweet Saltwater deals going on until Saturday, March 22nd. Here's a few for ya:

I've gotta run to do some research and make some phone calls to see where the fish are biting and where our next shoot is going to be. Hope this wind stops blowing and the fish get ready to play! 

Until next week . . . tight lines,

Blair