“Words are weapons sharper than knives…”

Devil Inside – INXS (1988)

Texting our realtime results from the field – April 21, 2018

Ah yes, the wonderful world of technology and its effect on my hobby.

Plenty of things that we take for granted never even entered my mind back when I started chasing bass in the 1980s.

Blogging for instance, or even the internet for that matter. Heck, I had to wait for the October 1984 issue of Bassmaster to find out that Rick Clunn had captured his third Bassmaster Classic title in mid-August of that year . Nowadays, in a couple weeks I’ll be able to track near realtime catch and weight data, read up to the minute blogs and watch the live daily weigh-ins from the Bassmaster Classic on the computer in my living room.

Or better yet, on my phone, from anywhere.

Which brings me to today’s Blog Banner picture which is actually a screenshot.

So, my brother, Brent, and I are roaming around some Knox County strip mines last April doing a pretty good number on the bass. Well, as he lands a few good ones I fire away with the camera which is actually part of a phone these days. And it’s not good enough to simply store the pics on the phone which boasts a storage capacity that was unheard of on personal computers not too awfully long ago. Nope, you’ve also gotta boast a bit to the fans at home. Instant feedback via texting rather than having to take your film in for processing before it can find a home on the local baitshop counter or bragboard.

Instant feedback indeed in sending a note and picture from the middle of nowhere to Mom, Dad and Julie to keep them up to speed on our results. I’ve gotta say that while sometimes I have about all the tech I can take, the ability to send out on the spot fishing updates is still pretty cool.

For this outing, Brent’s 2-12 would stand as Top Bass, besting my best bass by exactly one pound. Looking back I have to laugh at Julie’s response of “Where’s yours?” as it confirmed that I was once again getting outfished by my younger brother. My reply of “Stay tuned” conveyed that I still had high hopes but in the end I couldn’t effectively provide her with a suitable text and pic reply.

Sometimes the whole instant feedback thing can be double edged sword. Talk to you later. Troy