[mikedatiger]

Here is my 6+ hour Houston boat show breakdown as well:

• "W" is semi-famous, especially with Hackberry Rod & Gun. I spoke to several vendors about sponsoring the tourney and people all the way down to the Shimano reps were aware of his stardom May have a few "surprise" big name sponsors in the upcoming days, but I emphasize maybe. Most of the tackle/rod companies said that times are still very tough.
• Cajun Phil is one of the nicest men in the world. We spoke to him for at least 30 minutes and it was great to hear all of his stories. The new grip on the american rodsmith rods are awesome.
• Don't hate on Texans fishing Big Lake. Hate on guides promoting Big Lake to Texans. I think LA guides outnumbered TX guides 2 to 1. (if you have a problem with this at all)
• It pays to walk around the boat show with a load of competitor rod gear and then run into the guy whose wife owns Castaway...Hopefully more to follow on this.
• In my opinion, Haynie boats are one of the best bangs for your buck - catch, you must have been looking at those high end tourney boats that they had displayed...
• I would like to thank "W" for being my Haynie guinea pig. Thanks to him I designed a FAR SUPERIOR rig that is only about 7 MPH faster.. BTW, I looked at all the boats and then came back to Chris. During the design, I started asking: What about trim tabs? jack plate? on board charger? etc.. and the answer was always, that it is already included.
• Lastly, for reasons which I will not print, the CCA booth was by far the best