Click the Above Image to hear the Podcast. Fast Forward to 1:05:20 to hear a recent radio interview I gave about Southern Trout Eaters, what we did, and some insights into where we are going.
I was recently interviewed by John Cassidy, Stan Vanderburg and Stacy Tochihara from Rod and Reel Radio. I want to thank John Cassidy for his years of support and just general good nature/aloha all the time vibration. I always appreciate dealing with good guys in fishing, and John is one of them. He owns Anglers Arsenal and has been a fundamental player and supporter of all thing San Diego bass fishing. He is a fisherman, a tournament director, he runs Angler’s Arsenal (killer bait and tackle shop with an online presence for localized/specialty San Diego style bass fishing baits), and he’s always involved in the El Cajon Ford Open, which is the funnest 2 day tournament I’ve ever fished.
You need to browse thru the Archives of Rod&Reel Radio sometime. You will find interviews with guys like Dean Rojas (former San Diego guy), Kevin Van Dam, Ken Huddleston, and others. There are regular fishing reports and updates, but interesting content freely available out there, with good information and entertainment value. I was interviewed by the Rod&Reel Radio Crew the summer of 201 that we released Southern Trout Eaters in the summer of 2011 after the release of the DVD.
To listen to the podcast, click HERE (fast forward to 1:05:20). Approx half way thru.
Thanking Ken Duke and the Bassmasters for the following article, published September 2012, in the BASS Times. Stoked to be featured as part of their ‘Lunker Hunter’ series:
Photo Gallery: Fish from the Southern Trout Eaters DVD
Thank you for your patience, I have been lagging on updating the blog and just providing some fresh content. Doing a lot of behind the scenes work for short, medium and long term plans I have with southernswimbait.com and related projects, and I like to fish a lot so there you go! Here is the first hardbait featured in our swim signature series. Hardbaits are much harder to film and get the true swim of the bait, especially fast moving hardbaits that require a lot of stalls and pauses and speed to really show them off. You need to be throwing the Triple Trout like you need to be throwing the Huddleston Deluxe 8″ Trout. You need a full bodied sinking softbait and a full bodied fast moving hardbait in your life. The 10″ Triple Trout was featured in Southern Trout Eaters. I’m still learning all the nuances of fishing the bait, especially as I’m tackling current and moving water situations. The 10″ Triple Trout is the workhorse trophy swimbait from Scott Whitmer. Scott makes all kinds of shapes, sizes and colors of Triple Trouts, but the 10″ is the standard bait trophy hunters grab to tangle with giant largemouth, spotted, smallmouth and striped bass. Trout or no trout, the Triple Trout is an excellent swimbait and bigbait. We have done a poor job documenting the swim of the Triple Trout, until now.
The 10″ Triple Trout is a standard. It’s like the Huddleston Deluxe 8″ Trout. When you talk baits and bites and rods and gear, it’s one of the benchmarks. Get into it. Don’t accept imitations and kook knock offs.
I’m using the official launch date of Southern Trout Eaters as July 3rd, 2011 as per this post announcing the film on the Trophy Fishing Forum of calfishing.com.
I wanted to thank the angling community at large, and certainly the swimbait fishing community for the support and genuine aloha around the release of Southern Trout Eaters. We announced a 6″ Triple Trout Giveaway on our Facebook Page that ends tomorrow at 5pm Central Time. We just posted a ‘success stories wanted’ contest on our Facebook Page and will be giving away six of our pre-rigged with Owner Hardware, 8″ Huddleston Deluxe Rainbow Trouts. That contest ends this Friday at 5pm Central Time. Keep an eye on our Facebook page for more.
At some point, if you are passionate about something and work at it long and hard enough, you want to have an advanced conversation that gets into the weeds, that explores things with photos and video, that tests things out, that documents trials and errors, you want to hear opinions and inputs of others who share the same passion, you want to hear the good, the bad, and some controversy. At least, that is where we are at. That is what professionals do. And to have so many people watch and comment on Southern Trout Eaters on online forums and on the Tackle Warehouse product page, so overwhelming favorably, just speaks volumes to me about the risks we should take, the directions to head, and who we engage to get there.
Southern Trout Eaters fans are all over the world, not just the United States, which is incredible. Our blog traffic has increased 5-10X at peak times, year- over-year. Our YouTube channel has gone from virtually nothing to almost 200,000 hits in a year and approx. 500 subscribers. We were able to get a copy of the DVD to Manabu Kurita in Japan, and he sent us a kind note in return. I have received phone calls from guys who have won BassMaster Classics and FLW Tour Events giving me huge props on the film and what we did. Someday I hope to document some of it with film. It would be incredible to get some of these guys talking about Southern Trout Eaters who have been tournament fishing as long or longer than I’ve been alive. Some of my favorite feedback has come from friends and family who do not fish. People who for the first time I think sort of understand what it is we do and the search we are on.
Those of you who are clicking thru the links in our blog, or thru the product page at southerntrouteaters.com, or the ‘shopping link’ to purchase products from Tackle Warehouse are helping us out tremendously and that model is working. Between the sales of the DVDs and your support of our Affiliate agreement with Tackle Warehouse, you are making our fishing possible. You are holding us accountable and helping us show we are providing content that has value. So I say thank you and I plan on returning the favor with some fresh new content this summer, non-trout eater, swimbait fishing that I think you will enjoy, via Youtube. DVD just takes so much more time, effort and cost, it will be saved for special projects only, is what my gut tells me is the right way to play it.
Keep an eye on our Facebook Page, we’ll have some more contests this week. Thank you all for your support, looking forward to the next 365 days.
Headquarters of southernswimbait.com, Cotter, Arkansas. That is the White River out the window, and my humble little desk. One of the most profound lessons of the last year has been the realization I need to get off the road. I recently moved back in with Mom&Dad and am working on my 2013 season already. Too much time on the road, not having your own place to hang your hat, and not having an office (no matter how simple), a social life, a gym, or any normal things has been hurting me. Arkansas is all the way around a good thing for me, my wallet, and my fishing. I hope to edit like the wind from my little desk this summer and keep after it. I’ve struggled at times the last 365 days with what the heck I’m doing: 35 years old, no money, no job, no girlfriend sort of thing but between Arkansas, the continued success of Southern Trout Eaters and southernswimbait.com, and the 1.5 Terabytes of unpublished data I have of stuff people will enjoy watching, I’ve got a clear path into 2013 and beyond. Thank you for your support and helping me find my path.
Southern Trout Eaters DVD Review from Rob Newell FLW Bass Magazine March 2012
