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Monday, December 27, 2010

Happy Holidays!

Welcome one welcome all. I’m going to make this pretty brief, so enjoy the special Christmas blog, written in the style of “One Horse Open Sleigh”, which I’ve renamed to, “New Baitcaster Reel.”

New Baitcaster Reel

Driving to the lake,
With a new baitcaster reel.
To the bait shop we go,
Getting worms to make a meal.

Lures on the end of yer line,
A tackle box full of shit,
Hoping to catch number nine,
If you don’t you’ll throw a fit.

Ocean swells, Ocean swells,
Ocean swells in winter,
O what fun it is to say,
FishAddix is for anglers.

A day or two ago,
I had to write this blog,
It then started to s now,
And my dolphin I did flog.

The site was quiet and dark,
I need another rhyme,
Who will catch the biggest shark,
I cannot wait til springtime.

Ocean swells, Ocean swells,
Ocean swells in winter,
O what fun it is to say,
FishAddix is for anglers.

A day or two ago,
I tried to go ice fishing,
On the lake there was some snow,
For warmth I wishing.

A gent was walking by,
With a new baitcaster reel,
He laughed at my frozen fly,
But then he tripped and made a squeal.

Ocean swells, Ocean swells,
Ocean swells in winter,
O what fun it is to say,
FishAddix is for anglers.

Now this story ends,
Chipty bids farewell.
A season’s greetings FishAddix sends,
For this tune I expect a Nobel.

On behalf of everyone at FishAddix, have a Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday, and one hell of a New Year.

Fish On,
CHIPTY

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Why Join FishAddix? Whats in it for me?

Novice Anglers

-Post fishing reports and get tips from experts
-Discover new places to fish near you
-Keep a detailed fishing log and learn how to catch more fish
-Showcase your best catches

Experienced Anglers

-Receive detailed recommendations on how, when, and where to fish
-Improve your catch rate
-Gain insights into your catches, lures, and places you fish via a multimedia fishing log
-Meet and compete with friends and other anglers in your area

Fishing Guides and Charters

-Increase sales
-Attract new customers by showcasing your catches, tips, and experience
-Create a Professional website for FREE
-Expand your online presence via the FishAddix social fishing platform

We are not a fishing forum. We are not a directory.

We are Reel Information. We are Real Anglers.

We are all FishAddix.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Fisherman's Holiday Wishes

Welcome one welcome all. I’m going to make this pretty brief, so enjoy the special Christmas blog, written in the style of “One Horse Open Sleigh”, which I’ve renamed to, “New Baitcaster Reel.”

New Baitcaster Reel
Driving to the lake,
With a new baitcaster reel.
To the bait shop we go,
Getting worms to make a meal.

Lure on the end of yer line,
A tackle box full of shit,
Hoping to catch number nine,
If you don’t you’ll throw a fit.

Ocean swells, Ocean swells,
Ocean swells in winter,
O what fun it is to say,
FishAddix is for anglers.

A day or two ago,
I had to write this blog,
It then started to snow,
And my dolphin I did flog.

The site was quiet and dark,
I need another rhyme,
Who will catch the biggest shark,
I cannot wait til springtime.

Ocean swells, Ocean swells,
Ocean swells in winter,
O what fun it is to say,
FishAddix is for anglers.

A day or two ago,
I tried to go ice fishing,
On the lake there was some snow,
For warmth I was wishing.

A gent was walking by,
With a new baitcaster reel,
He laughed at my frozen fly,
But then he tripped and made a squeal.

Ocean swells, Ocean swells,
Ocean swells in winter,
O what fun it is to say,
FishAddix is for anglers.

Now this story ends,
Chipty bids farewell.
A season’s greetings FishAddix sends,
For this tune I expect a Nobel!

On behalf of everyone at FishAddix, have a Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday, and one hell of a New Year.

Fish On,
CHIPTY

Sunday, November 28, 2010

How do you post a catch on FishAddix?

Posting your catches on FishAddix is quick, easy, and a must do for most anglers.

WHY?
All your top catches will be stored forever at in your fishing log. This allows you to quickly and immediately remember back to how you caught that lunker, where you were, what time of year, lure, weather, etc., all the key details you need at your fingertips.

You're also helping the fishing community build bigger and deeper insights into regional fishing strategies, such as catches at particular places to fish, statewide strategies and tips, and even aggregate species catch information. All catches are deeply analyzed by the FishAddix program to provide fishermen better insights to help them catch more fish every time out! Exciting new features will bring you local strategies on where to go fishing near you, what lure to use, what species to target, and more!

How
Posting your catches is a simple 3 step process.

Step 1: Click the Post a Fishing Report link in the top navigational bar



Step 2: Select from either one of your Places to Fish Locations or Add a New Location



Or



Step 3: Add your catches



Get Started Now!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

The Angler Awards

The hottest awards in fishing just hit the red carpet and are live right now!

We’ve decided to up the ante one step further in our quest to bring the entire fishing world under one hood. Angler Awards Titles are now up for grabs! Now you’re probably wondering “what the heck are Angler Awards anyways and why do I need them?” Well let me tell you then… They are the ultimate bragging rights and badge of honor for the everyday fisherman or professional angler alike. See how many awards you can achieve and you’ll get a good idea of how good a fisherman you REALLY are!

Whether you’re out there slugging it out everyday, fishing like a Beast, or in your backyard fishing hole catching nothing but the elusive Tree-fish, there is an Angler Award for you… All you have to do is participate.

What do I mean by participate? I certainly don’t mean you need to log into FishAddix.com every 10 seconds for the latest update (although it wouldn’t hurt and some of you wild addicted anglers out there already do).

What I do mean however, is when you come back in from being out on the water, get to your computer and post your fishing report! Put your feet up, sit back, grab that brewski, and just go for it. Post some pictures, watch a few of Mike W’s millions of videos, or maybe invite your friends to your favorite place to fish for an all out may lay winner take all smackdown event, whatever floats your proverbial boat… just participate within the community in a meaningful way and you’ll start collecting your Angler Award Titles!

You already know that FishAddix is the best place to learn about fishing. The community boasts some of the greatest features ever to grace world wide fishing community:
-Log your catches, track your fishing stats, per lure, location, brand
-Compete in the leader boards for top Supremacy
-Share and learn the latest fishing tips
-Find new places to fish and battle your way to the Captaincy like Mike Zerilli!
-Wage war with your friends over top lunker in your local hole
-Pretty much kick ba$$ all day and then show off how you did it

Now get out there troops and earn your keep – Angler Awards!



Top Secret!





Did You Know?
1. FishAddix can keep track and store all of your catches, all time, per brand, lure, weather conditions, location, …forever?
2. Your personal catch stats are stored in your profile under the Achievements Tab and shown in sexy chart formats?
3. You can create or follow your own favorite fishing holes? Invite your friends to follow them too and you can compete with each other for the Top Lunker or Most Catches at each spot in the local leader boards!
4. The Places to Fish page tells you the hottest places to fish right now, Near You!
5. The Lures page lists each of the lure types along with each lures catch stats and tips from other members!
6. You can add quickies right from your profile page using the Quickie Icons? (who doesn’t love Quickies right?)

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

This Week in Fishing - CHIPTY Interview with FishAddix Founders

So it’s been about 8 months since the last time I put FishAddix Brass on the hot seat and a lot has changed in that 8 months. Fish have been caught, reports have been written, photos taken, friendships forged, and professional fisherman have been caught cheating. Anyway, I wanted to give the creators of FishAddix a chance to “talk” directly to the members. Fortunately, Chipty has such a massive following that it makes it easy for them to reach the masses through the blog.

It’s always fun sitting down with these guys, and I hope you enjoy reading our informative but quirky conversation. Again, I’ll refer to the creators as FAO1 and FAO2 so they aren’t bombarded on the streets by crazed fans throwing their panties at them (yeah ok…. lol).

Chipty: It’s been about 8 months since we’ve sat down together, is there anything that stands out in your mind that you want to mention before we dive into things here?
FAO1: When the hell is Hollywood going to wake up and smell the ****ing roses? They need to make a movie about FishAddix baby!! Or at least let us get onto Dancing with the Stars.. They’ve denied my application 3 times now!

Chipty: I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear you say that you applied to Dancing with the Stars THREE TIMES. And I assume you are referring to the movie that just came out about “Facebook”?
FAO1: That’s right CHIIIPPPPTY [said really snoodie]. How about we skip the pleasantries and get to the interview?

Chipty: My apologies gentlemen coughdouchebagcough. What do you guys like the best about FishAddix right now?
FAO2: We really like the social aspect of it. It sounds weird because it’s a social media site but there’s a competitive type feel to the site where if you and your friends fish the same lake, you want to make sure you get out there and catch those fish in numbers, size, type, and post all your reports so that you can overtake the lunker hunter stats or become the Captain of a spot. This way all your friends have to look at your ugly mug whenever there looking up stats for a lake. So it’s not just a place to brag about your catches but it adds a bit of edge when you’re out there on the lake and it makes you stay out there a little longer, or hit a couple more spots.

Chipty: Wait wait wait.. you guys have friends???
FAO1 & FAO2: ………………[silence]……………………….

Chipty: Ooooookkkkk. Is there anything that the site does that you didn’t really intend, or maybe that you just didn’t plan for?
FAO1: Well I don’t know if we didn’t plan for it but, we’ve come to realize that the site will continue to get stronger, and smarter, and more efficient as more and more people join the site and add content. It’s not something we were directly striving for but it’s certainly been a welcomed side effect.

Chipty: What’s a cool feature that FishAddix has to offer the amateur angler as well as the avid fisherman?
FAO1: Just a cool feature and not like the greatest, most badass thing ever? Um.. I really like the all-time stats. I think it’s cool that anglers have somewhere to record their catches and they can see what they caught in previous years and how many fish they catch per year. It’ll be really interesting in like 10 or 15 years to look back and see what you caught, where, when, how, and even read your old reports. It’s like a little memory bank especially for fishing.

FAO2: Again, going back to the competitive edge of the site.. I like the fact that you can just see how you stack up against other people around the country or around the world. If you think you had a great season or a great day you can compare your catches, or your lunker with people all over. It’s not always fair to compare between states because conditions are different and a lake in New Jersey isn’t going to compare with a lake in California in terms of size of fish but… you know what I mean.

Chipty: Yeah I wouldn’t want to compare a lot of things if I were you.
FAO1: You’re an ass dude….

Chipty: So is there anything in the near future that FishAddix members can look forward to? I mean, other than the next Chipty installment?
FAO2: Well, our newest feature will probably come out before the next Chipty article since you seem to take a trip to Guatemala and back between articles. But the newest feature we are working on is really going to knock your socks off. It’s really going to be the ultimate bragging rights. Kind of an incentive system to keep those lines in the water and those reports coming in. It’ll be a really fun and we can’t wait until it comes out.. but we’ll have to keep you posted on a due date.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s blog. I would like to conduct more interviews in the future – perhaps putting some of the FishAddix members in the hot seat – so if you’d like me to grill one of your favorite members please let me know who and what questions you’d like answered. If you want to be in the hot seat then let me know why you are a good candidate.

Fish On!
CHIPTY

P.S. If you have ideas that you’d like Chipty to write about – please email them in to chipty@fishaddix.com. I hope to hear from you soon.

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Spooky Fishing - Chipty's Halloween Edition

Well hello there are you ghosts, goblins, ghouls, and slutty nurses. Welcome back to Chipty’s world and thanks for reading my special Halloween Edition. Now you must be thinking, how on earth can you relate fishing and Halloween, other than, going fishing on Halloween? Well, yours truly has done it. And let’s be honest.. that’s kind of the reason why I write these things and you guys read them (that was quite a pat on the back – yes, I’m shameless).

The Halloween Edition came as a request, straight from the top, and I’ll be honest, the first thing that came to mind was an 18th installment of the ever frightening – and still classic – Jason movies. Jason returns with a fishing rod? Or, “Oh no, Jason Forgot his Tacklebox.” How about a futuristic one where Jason wires all the lakes on the planet with TNT and kills all aquatic life as we know it, which in turn, sours our water sources and eventually wipes out the planet. Alright, sounds more like a Dr. Evil plot but, in any event, I decided not to go the Jason route. Instead, I put together the Top 10 Reasons why Fishing is Better than Halloween. I hope you guys enjoy, and if you’re feeling saucy, post your favorite reasons why fishing is better than Halloween in the comments section below. Or as always, email them to me (or suggestions, comments, concerns, phone numbers) at Chipty@FishAddix.com.

Top 10 Reasons Why Fishing is Better than Halloween:

10) If a witch (or other strange creature) crosses your path while you’re fishing, you can STAB it and you’ll be the stuff legends are made of.

9) While fishing, treats come in the 3lb variety, instead of individually wrapped.

8) You don’t HAVE TO bring your wife/spouse with you (you can though, ya know, as an option).

7) You get to dress like a tool all year round – instead of just once a year (yeah that means you – in the vest with all sorts of lures attached to it… and that hat… uhhhgggg).

6) If you are fishing, then you’re not at home, so who cares who knocks at the door.

5) You don’t mind seeing the biggons’ (big ones) in fish nets (in fact – you kind of like it).

4) You don’t have to inspect your food when you’re fishing because you didn’t get it from the crack den in the next town that everyone knows about but never mentions.

3) You can still go out and fish when you’re 30 years old and people won’t judge you (or kick you off their porch – not that you’d be fishing on someone’s porch, but you could be).

2) If you say, “lure it,” people don’t think you’re a pedophile.

1) If a sexy nurse/cop/school girl (of age of course) comes and talks to you while you’re fishing, it’s not because they are looking for free candy (although they might be looking for something else – yeah you know what I’m talking about “big guy”……. directions of course).

Well I hope you guys enjoyed the Halloween article. I hope to hear from you guys soon, with comments or suggestions. Thanks for reading.

Fish On!
CHIPTY

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

So What Is IT?!?

It’s like getting the cliff notes on Harry Potter because this chick you like is into it but you’re not about to waste your Saturday reading 700 page novels one after the other like you’re pouring them down a beer bong. It’s like reading Wikipedia when you should probably get your information from a source that doesn’t allow everyone with an internet connection and the ability to type to weigh in on important subject matter. It’s like using a debit/credit card versus writing a check. In short – it’s a mind blowing, life changing, world altering, technological advance that once you start using it – you won’t remember what you did without it.

SO WHAT IS IT?

Under great controversy, FishAddix has launched a revolutionary new fishing tool. A tool born out of the call from FishAddix Members for more of the best fishing information anywhere.

FishAddix Tips

Learning from FishAddix has just gotten a whole lot easier. FishAddix Tips has been born and is ready for use now!
· The Tips tool will allow other members to publish Tips on lakes, lures, or techniques
· These Tips will be searchable inside your fishing reports and then on a larger scale
· They’ll also be searchable by the lakes or bodies of water they are originally associated with
· All the Tips published within the reports for that lake will be filtered out and will be accessible on another page separate from the reports they were posted in but still sorted by lake – these Tips will just sit there, ripe for the picking.

All these Tips sitting right there, awaiting your greedy little paws to grab those knowledge nuggets and devour it along with all its friends :-)

Check out your favorite Place To Fish or Report Now and Post A Tip!


The beauty of the Tips tool is that you’ll no longer have to wade through pages of dry and idle reports, talking about what color Gatorade the person drank that day, or how the humid air made someone start chaffing. Instead you’ll be able to access the Tips and suggestions for lakes and lures apart from anything else. You’ll feel like Johnny-Five in Short Circuit, reading books and pages a mile a minute. Being able to publish, read, search, and sort Tips will give FishAddix an unadulterated edge over any competition on the web and beyond (yes you Buzz Lightyear).

I’ve continually said that FishAddix is limited only by the minds and imaginations of those who choose to be involved and this brain-child is a true testament to that statement. We really hope you enjoy the new addition – and we’d love to hear your feedback or suggestions for the site.

Enjoy the knowledge… and… Fish On!!!
CHIPTY

Please send comments or suggestions to chipty@fishaddix.com.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

A Three Hour Tour!!

Good evening folks. Or morning, or afternoon, or mid-day… Good (fill in your own damn time of day) folks. Well it’s nearing the end of the fishing season for most of us (except for you crazy ass ice-fishermen), and I thought I should write an ode to the season and what a great year of fishing it has been for so many. How many fish have been caught, and how many beers have been drank, how many stories have been told and how many friendships have been forged…. but I couldn’t think of anything to rhyme it to so instead…. I’ve written an arbitrary jingle to the Gilligan’s Island theme song.

Sorry for pulling at your heart strings with the tease of an ode to fishing stories, and friendships, and all that mumbo jumbo. But we’ll have to save the tear jerkers for another time.

Now although the fishing season is being replaced with raking leaves and making snow angels (you fairies), don’t be afraid to log into FishAddix.com during the offseason on a regular basis to see what’s new and exciting. Be sure to hone your skills during the offseason and share your tips and tricks with the community. Well, I’m sure I’ll be seeing you before the official close of the season so have a good few weeks of fishing and I look forward to hearing from you guys and reading your reports through the “wire.” Enough tom-foolery for now.. enjoy the Gilligan’s Island Ode and I’ll see you next time. (I do suggest listening to the actual theme song a couple times before reading this, It’ll do wonders for your musical timing and rhythm.)

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
A tale of a fateful trip
That started in a college dorm,
Born was a brainchild so hip.

The mate was a mighty business man,
The skipper with tackle and lure.
FishAddix opened its doors that day
For a three hour tour, a three hour tour.

The traffic started picking up,
The domain name was almost lost,
If not for the courage of the website crew
The fishing reports would be lost, the fishing reports would be lost.

The dot-com set ground on the shores of this uncharted world wide web
With Joseph K.
And James too,
The design team, and their pals,
The graphics crew
Chipty and Mary Ann,
Here on FishAddix dot com.

Fish On,
CHIPTY

Monday, September 13, 2010

Jones World Sport Fishing scores the first Offshore Grand Slam of the year in New York!!!

Bluefin Tuna, Skipjack Tuna, and False Albacore

Captain Ken sailed offshore New York on Saturday with three very pumped and bold anglers.
First-time guest, James Valdez; jetty-man, David Shup, and the "Tornado Reni" proved to be an excellent crew when running offshore for the extremely challenging and prized Atlantic Bluefin Tuna.

Lines were in no later than 7am after a 3 hour long-haul covering 55 miles of open ocean.

By the time we got the first bait down on the planer board and set in the troll putting out more lines, the reel on the Avet 30 wide began singing while strapped to a bouncing broom stick was the first indication that we had found are intended target. Quickly, I handed the rod to Jimmy while the rest of the crew bagan clearing lines. The fish didnt seem too big at first, and Jimmy made quick work of getting the fish to the boat but what Jimmy didnt expect was for the fish to make three knuckle-busting and finger blistering runs right at the boat!!!
With teamwork and some sweat, we brought the 45 inch bluefin into the boat!

Dave Shupp of Sportfish Productions was also quick on the draw and had the one-eyed monster out with lens focused directly on the show!

First mate Rob Reni worked the decks like no other and just before we brought our first tuna over the gunnel, he had hooked up with another fish when he dropped that 200g jig right on the head of another hardtail!

It only took a few seconds to realize that we were covered up and a simple look into the crystal clear blue water showed that a feeding frenzy of three species was occurring directly below us! You could easily see the false albacore sprinting through the water in all directions, while the skipjacks were also mixed in at another layer in the water column. And we all knew that the bluefin tunas were sitting below the other two species just cleaning up the mess!

Quite a few other falsies and skippies were caught and Dave Shupp had a run off on two fish that he couldnt even slow down even with his Van Stall which has up to 20lbs of drag.

At one point while Dave was fighting one of these unseen monsters, the line snapped and with my back turned i said, "Oooo-wee, I heard that line snap just like the sound of a .22 caliber rifle!"

Once the drift moved us off the fish, we got back up on the troll we picked up another skipjack and several more false albacore and circled back through the area a few more times trying to drum up another bluefin.

After working several other areas on the drift, troll, and chunking, we decided that we had had enough of the 3-4 foot seas and turned the bow towards shore, plotted our course, and edged the motors up to 15 knots. within an hour the wind let up, and we upped the speed to 20knots. Within another 30 minutes the seas flattened out , we cranked the motors up to 30 knots and luckily made the ride home the most comfortable part of a 14 hour voyage!

Back at the dock, more high-5's were passed around with all four of us to be happily and finally attached to terra-firma!

To all of my crew yesterday, i want to say "Thank you" for being part of another wonderful and successful day enjoying the best New York can offer!

Photos have been uploaded tonight, and a video will be posted tomorrow so check back then for more updates!

Oh yeah, aparently iI just cant get enough and went out this morning "nearshore" and pulled off an Inshore Grand Slam! Will be posting that report tomorrow since my eyes are burning and i am slumped over in the chair even now as i type this!

Again I say! Encore!

Captain Ken Jones
646-280-8511
captken@jonesworldsportfishing.com
www.jonesworldsportfishing.com/category/new-york-fishing-reports

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Rack Up Some Addix Points Without Fishing!

Hey Anglers,

No Points? No Problem! Maybe the weather hasn’t been great around you (we are in hurricane season here in the North East)... or maybe there are too many chores preventing you from hitting your local fishing hole...

Don’t let that stop you from earning some free Addix points and climbing up the ranks!

Here are a few helpful hints on how to increase your rank and level, until the wife lets you out of the house again (and we don’t mean for that trip to the in-laws):

1. Post Places to Fish: 5 points for each pond, lake, river, ocean, or beach you feel like adding... no cap on these points so add your favorite or not so favorite places to fish and rack up some quick and easy points while helping out other anglers...

2. Post a Video: 5 points for each video or Embed a bunch of Videos at 2 points each: Fishermen love watching videos... feed your fellow anglers their visual candies. (The legal department wants us to mention that FishAddix does not condone or approve voyeurism – so let’s keep ‘em clean.)

3. Start A Feeding Frenzy: Rack up points for posting anything that other members decide to comment on... each comment is worth 1 point, 10 comments = 10 points!

4. Dig out those old Pictures: Post pictures and get 1 point each... everyone loves those retro fishing pictures with the overalls, the zebco fishing reels, and those monster sunfish :)

5. Secure yourself some Bonus Points: Each month big time bonus points are awarded to the top anglers. The number 1 bestest most toppest coolest way of locking down those Bonus Points is to be sure to post fishing reports each and every time you go fishing. (10 points per fishing report too!)

There are tons of other ways to get more Addix points too, but we just wanted to highlight some of the quick and dirty ways of making sure your rank and level keep propelling you towards the top.

Tight Lines Everyone!

Joe & James
FishAddix.com

Thursday, August 12, 2010

5 Easy Tips to Attract More Fishermen!

Google is now archiving pages at FishAddix.com multiple times per day! That means that Google is giving the FishAddix website higher priority. That also means that so should YOU!

Don’t forget that one of the best ways to tell more fishermen about your fishing business is to post your fishing reports and pictures on FishAddix.com!

By adding content on FishAddix, even pictures or Youtube videos, will create valuable pages, which are immediately archived by and searchable on Google!

5 Simple steps to improve your online presence:

1. Join FishAddix and connect your Facebook profile, this will automatically repost anything you post on FishAddix to Facebook (so you only need to upload reports or pictures once!) – It’s FREE!

2. Start off slowly by adding a few pictures and videos, using the name of your business for either the title or the tags – get some recognition.

3. Significantly increase the value of your (Google) archived pages by posting your fishing reports on FishAddix. The text in your reports (including your business name and number) are then stored on both FishAddix and Google, increasing your web presence and also the value (current and future value) to your potential customers.

4. Add some additional touches by being sure to log all your catches in reports to show your viewers how many fish your catching (its easy to log ALOT, just use the x2 button in the fishing reports).

5. Finish up your profile by keeping current! Daily, bi-daily, or weekly fishing reports are a MUST to keep eyeballs on your business. Pictures and videos added in between will help to keep you current and on top of FishAddix Feeds and fishermen’s minds. The more content you add, the more it reposts to other sites (Facebook / Digg / etc.), and the more valuable and searchable your web presence will be.

For more tips or info, just visit FishAddix.com and ask us on the admin profile.

Tight Lines and Good Fishing,

James and Joe
www.FishAddix.com

Sunday, August 8, 2010

This Week in Fishing – 8/6/10

Normally when I sit down to write these articles. It’s pretty difficult to come up with a topic to write about. Since I’m not the technical wizard that most of you think I am, most of my topics can be lumped into the “fishing philosophy” category, if there is such a thing. So this week when I was forwarded an article about a pro fisherman cheating during a competition, I couldn’t help but say a quick thank you, since I knew my weekly blog quota would soon be filled.

If you haven’t heard, Mike Hart was caught cheating in a WON Bass competition on Lake Mead (article attached below). Apparently, he stuffed his fish with lead sinkers to make them heavier and hopefully better his rankings and winnings. Now I’m throwing around the word “stuffed” pretty loosely here, because, according to the attached article, the sinkers weighed two ounces each and a total of 9 sinkers were found (one in each fish). I’ll do the math for you – 1lb and 2 ounces is the whooping total he added to his fish (9 sinkers x 2 oz/sinker = 18 oz/16 oz per pound). Now I’m not saying that this shouldn’t be categorized as gross misconduct followed by swift and decisive action. However, if you Google this topic and peruse some articles and other opinions, people are up in arms like this guy poured molten lead down the throats of his fish and they all ended up weighing in at 45 pounds. They’re acting like he cleaned up the tournament, twisted his mustache during an evil laugh, slept with their women, and made off with their cash. There are even discussions of federal and criminal investigations being conducted… A federal fraud investigation to see if Hart fraudulently crossed state lines with the fish in question… am I dreaming?

This guy has already been banned from basically all fishing tournaments and organizations, he has been humiliated on a national level, his reputation is destroyed, he’ll have to find another way earn a living, and he’ll be lucky if he’s able to buy a fishing rod at Dick’s by the time this is all over. Does he really need to be brought up on criminal and federal charges for 1lb – 2oz? I understand that this could mean he cheated during other tournaments and people could’ve lost money to him unjustly. However, the chances of proving that he’s cheated in the past are incredibly slim because most if not all of the fishing tournaments are catch and release. Plus, if he was regularly cheating or doing it to sow up millions of dollars, don’t you think he would’ve used heavier sinkers? This didn’t even put him in the top 10 for the tournament, it probably didn’t even bump him up a tier. So let’s save some taxpayer dollars, forget about the investigations, and let’s all move on with our lives with the consolation prize that this guy has already royally screwed up his life.

I’m already all fired up about this and I haven’t even gotten into the whole double standard issue. Might I even mention the steroids in baseball catastrophe? A lot of good that federal investigation did! How many players admitted to using, buying, or selling steroids? How many of them were stopped from earning a living, jailed, or even slightly punished? How many of them lied right to the faces of Congress and got nothing!! Got nothing for the federal offense of perjury!!!! The worst punishment most of them got was the threat that they won’t be inducted into the hall of fame. Mike Hart should hope that Bud Selig (MLB commissioner), or the United States Congress is on his sentencing board. Hart can probably get some tips on how to cheat better next time. But I digress…

The point here is that maybe the punishment isn’t fitting the crime. You know, that age old amendment in the Bill of Rights. It’s definitely an offense, and a punishable one – but this guy is ruined. Let’s ease off the wind pipe and not go in for the kill on this one.

If there’s one lesson to be learned here. It’s that – if you’re going to do wrong – do it right! Next time, stuff a McDonald’s double cheeseburger down there, or just put a brick in its mouth. Or if you wanted to get creative – inject all your fish with elephant hormones, turn you’re aerator into a pseudo wind tunnel and tie tiny parachutes onto the tails of the fish. Then put rotating Swiss Army knives at the back of the aerator, powered by a 300 horsepower diesel engine (you want Swiss Army knives because there stainless steel and won’t rust in your newly constructed jet engine-esk, aerating tunnel of death). This way if the fish stop swimming they’ll be instantly filleted. And since they don’t want to die, they’ll just keep swimming and they’ll get stronger and stronger because you injected them with elephant hormones. By the time you go to weigh-in, you’ll be pulling little Schwarzeneggers out of your live well.

That reminds me… add Schwarzenegger to America’s all-time bonehead plays. There’s nothing like electing a former championship body builder (aka – steroid king) to the seat of Governor. Where’s that investigation? How many people did the Terminator defraud in his tenure?

Let’s try to keep our heads about us, learn from this guy’s mistake, and better the system so that this doesn’t happen again. We don’t need to crucify this guy to know what he did was wrong. He’s already been stripped of his livelihood, his manhood, and he’s got a tough enough road ahead wearing that Scarlett A on his chest.

Fish on,
CHIPTY

As always, if you have comments or suggestions, please email them to chipty@fishaddix.com.

Article: http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/blog/19468/cheating+scandal+at+us+open+rocks+bass-fishing+community/).

Friday, July 23, 2010

Life as a FishAddix - Just Got Easier

Hello Addix! We wanted to encourage you to keep fishing and posting those reports. Over the last several months, the fishing reports have become the central hub for creating, viewing, and learning new information. Our team realizes the importance of making these tools easier and more efficient for our members since they represent the bread and butter (and boy, do we like a full stomach). Well… we’ve made the Fishing Report Tools even easier to use… if you can believe it!

Some of the changes we’ve made, to make your life easier, include the ability to duplicate catches faster, edit catches after you’re entered them, and an easier format for attaching photos to your report so that everyone can see your catches – just to name a few. We’ve even changed the format and layout of the reports to make them easier to enjoy (trip Highlights section)! Check out Keith’s Bonanza here!

The FishAddix team is constantly striving to make the site easier to use by reorganizing information and adding options to make life as a FishAddix easier. We hope you are able to enjoy the fruits of our labor and if you have any suggestions, please email them to comments@fishaddix.com. And stay tuned for more updates as our think-tank and development teams continue to churn out and implement new ideas.

Fish on,
James, Joe & CHIPTY

Sunday, July 18, 2010

FishAddix.com – The Up-and-Coming Fishing Based Community Website

As I sit down to write this article, I can literally feel a rush of emotions surging through my body. A similar feeling is experienced when you sense a lunker stalking your lure, or for you non-fisherman, the excitement that’s felt when your team is on the 1 yard line looking to punch it in for a victory.

What I’m talking about, as aptly described in the title of this article, is FishAddix.com – an up-and-coming fishing based community website. I may be throwing around the phrase “up-and-coming,” because the site has been live for over a year. However, if you had a side by side comparison of the site in its infancy and the site as it is today – you wouldn’t recognize them as one in the same. The leaps and bounds taken by the management team can only be compared to the space race of the 1960’s. It’s as if JFK himself challenged the FishAddix staff to make the best possible fishing website in the shortest period of time on a budget that seemed like pennies. One year later, we sit on the verge of a launch, anticipating the catastrophic explosion that will send the website into every house on the planet and make FishAddix.com a household name. If you have made the journey to the website recently, it’s a hard fact to deny. Every day the FishAddix staff takes strides toward making the site a better, more efficient experience… and it shows.

The pride and joy of FishAddix.com would have to be the ever-growing database of fishing locations around the country in combination with its user defined fishing reports. The site has been masterfully engineered to a point where every user entry makes the site better. There is no waiting around for site updates or sending emails to an unattended inbox. The cold hard truth is that – when you create a fishing report – the site gets better. That’s not to say that it doesn’t have its idiosyncrasies or subtle nuances, but everything does. Case in point: Einstein’s hairdo.

Let’s imagine for a moment that you’ve just wrapped up your day fishing – you stroll on home and go to FishAddix.com to create your fishing report. You search the lake by country and state, type in the name and a list of possible entries populates. The lake hasn’t been entered you say? You can take it upon yourself to add your fishing location – Wikipedia style. After entering several categories including the name, location, and fish found at the lake, you click the “Put it on the Map!” button. The site uses your previous entries and automatic synchronization with googlemaps to find the lake. You confirm that it’s the right location and Presto, you’ve created a new location. As an added bonus, this location is automatically linked to your followed locations where you can enter and see if anyone else has posted a fishing report at the same location. Now before you go fishing the next time, you can hop on the site, search for other fishing reports, and get a good handle on what you can expect before you leave the house. It’s like having every fisherman make a personal entry into your marble composition fishing log (come on, you know you have one). Currently in development (or in a queue of items to be developed) is a process that will make these searches even more efficient and user friendly. I can’t tell you about it here because we don’t want to be inundated with emails about the process and it’s currently regarded as a trade secret.

The customization seems endless: photos, videos, comments, blogs, hot spots, friends, notifications and trends are all available for your viewing and using pleasure. As if this wasn’t enough, a recently added “Addix Points” system and leader board has been introduced to keep track of all our members. Points are assigned based on your user entries and activity on the site and a leader board is published so you can compare with your friends.

Not interested with keeping up with the Jones’? Well FishAddix conveniently keeps track of all your personal stats too. Have a look at your largest catch, average catch, and species of catches, all sortable by time and location. There’s also a personal information section for all you social butterflies out there.

According to a study in 2006, U.S. anglers alone spent over $40 billion on fishing trips, equipment, licenses, and other items (http://www.nwitimes.com/business/local/article_d142b57c-1b6d-5ae4-b0bf-d55dd5068c44.html). If you contributed to this total, even by the smallest margin, FishAddix.com should be your new home. How many times have you gone to the store and picked up a smorgasbord of tackle that you didn’t set out to buy in the first place. The monetary savings alone of doing some research on the site would be worth signing up. Add to the fact that the site is absolutely free and what you have is a no-brainer. A one-stop-shop for your fishing needs and a place to tell your stories amongst friends, because let’s be honest, the kids and your neighbors are tired of hearing your tall tales. Well guess what… we aren’t!!!

The flow of information on the site is truly staggering. As of this article, the top 25 anglers on the site have already caught almost 1800 fish (which I easily calculated using the nifty leader board I mentioned above), not to mention the bevy of blogs, fishing reports, pictures, and videos to be had. The beauty of the site is its simultaneous simplicity and usefulness. And in the crosshairs, the FishAddix team aims to keep streamlining the results, the input, the shared database of knowledge, and the experience.

The possibilities are endless for the site and we’ve already managed to create a To-Do List that will keep a web page design company busy until the turn of the century. The key is that the men (and women) behind the curtains are people like you and me… fishermen. One could say that it’s a site designed for the people, by the people. Amateur and avid anglers alike can join and find new tips and strategies or just to find a home where your outdoorsmanship is appreciated. The site is over 1500 members strong and the atmosphere is that of a large party boat with all your friends. The active members are so commonplace you’ll think you’ve been fishing alongside them your whole life.

The ultimate goal for the website is world domination. Not the Napoleon kind, but the kind where you can sign into the website, search any lake in the world, and fish it like you’ve been fishing it for years. Only one question remains…. will you be a part of the revolution?

Visit http://www.fishaddix.com/ …… and Get Addicted!!!

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Jame's and Joe's gift to Anglers

Hey Addix,
As promised, we recently added some big time features to help you catch more fish. Check them out!

New Addix Leaderboard
· You can finally prove who is the best fisherman
· Get points for catching fish and posting info
· Rise up the ranks from a New Recruit to a Legendary Angler
· Learn more: Where do you rank? How do you get points?

If you're already high on the Skillz Leaderboards, don't worry, these will remain the same along with your top Experience, Lunker Hunters, Numbers Game experts (yes Josh your still at the top for now!), and Multi-Species anglers.

If you’re not at the top of the leaderboards, don't stress! You can win bonus points just by being at the top of these Skillz Leaderboards for a month. See the whole breakdown on how to get points and start your journey through the ranks now!

Invite A Friend!
Log in and use the "Invite A Friend" link on the bottom bar to invite your friends to Get in on the action. The more friends and people invite to FishAddix the better info and tips you will get

Thank you for all of your support and patience. We are working hard to build the best place for you to feed your addiction!

Happy 4th!
James & Joe

Monday, June 14, 2010

The Great Oil Spill of 2010

As an outdoor enthusiast company and website, FishAddix LLC and FishAddix.com, we thought it would be necessary to weigh in on the Great Oil Spill of Twenty-Ten. The objective of this article is not to ruffle the feathers of the already agitated general public; but rather, to provide some food for thought to those who are tired of reading the same politically laced news fodder. However, since our opinions will be discussed in the article it’s almost certain that those of you who are looking for themes, undertones, and an agenda – will find them.

It is without question that we are living through a significant historic event. The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has already been crowned the worst oil spill in US history. And whether we want to acknowledge it or not, the events that have unfolded and those that are continuing to unfold will be read about by generations to come. Our every move, decision, strategy, and conversation will likely be a new chapter in the history books of tomorrow. What the history books say about this event and how we handled it cannot be fully understood yet as the impacts of the events continue to change every day. And although this chapter in history may be a gloomy one, it seems to be a necessary evil and one that will ultimately be scrutinized and learned from for years to come.

So what does history have to do with the current events in the Gulf? To this we could offer the age old cliché, “Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” And while this is true, it’s not really what we are trying to establish. Instead, we are simply acknowledging this event as a significant historic event based on the notion that major historic events and milestones seem to be measured by how many people’s lives are affected by them. Case in point: the space missions and moon landings, the world wars, and 9/11, just to name a few. We are not trying to compare the oil spill to these events or cheapen the past events; however, all these events are major historic happenings because of the shear amount of people affected.
The number of people affected by the event grows in volume everyday as the area of oil increases throughout the ocean and as it washes on shore. The degrees to which people are affected vary greatly, from the not-so-affected people who had their day at the beach ruined, to the severely affected, almost impaired people like local fisherman and residents whose livelihoods now hang in the balance. It’s fair to say that the locals, residents, and fisherman most certainly got the raw end of the deal as their lives may never be the same. Whether the fact that their lives may never be the same is a good thing or a bad thing remains to be seen. Some would say that they have fallen victim to a man-made disaster, while others would say that these people have been given the opportunity to be on the front line of a global change in the way this world runs. Of course, in war terms, the front line usually suffers great losses and usually what follows is a debate about the philosophy of sacrificing a few to save the majority. And at the risk of repeating ourselves, the degree and magnitude of the sacrifices are still unknown because the Great Oil Spill of 2010 is still in its infancy.

Although the magnitude of sacrifice is unknown, it’s reasonable to state that sacrifices have already been made and will continue to be made by many. What the rest of us do from the outside has the power to ease are intensify those losses. While many people have already responded generously to aid in the relief effort, it pains us to read about the selfish people in the world who seem to care about nothing but themselves. Recently, an article was published on the internet talking about the oil companies profiting from the oil spill because the price of oil jumped up $2 per barrel. This really struck a nerve with our company and we was flabbergasted while reading it. Call us old fashioned but we thought it was absurd to discuss BP’s profitability while efforts should be focused elsewhere. This would be like attending a wake and someone talking about the funeral home or casket maker profiting from the death of others. While the point may be valid, it seems that a lot of people take the liberty of overriding their moral compass nowadays, especially when money is involved.

On the other side of the coin – politics. Now we are not going to cite any documentation on either side of things – because that’s not really the point of the article. However, the spill in the Gulf of Mexico is just another reason on the long list of reasons why this world needs to change how it operates. This is not a plug for completely disbanding oil as a source of fuel or a conspiracy theory about how oil companies rule the world. But recent events certainly call for a play to be made in introducing alternative fuel sources. What those sources are and the timeline for enacting them should be left to the politicians and the highest bidders, but it is undeniable that something needs to be done.

Littered in the news right now is a lot of blaming. People are pointing the finger at the oil companies, politicians are pointing the finger at each other, people are blaming politicians, and the list goes on. But before passing the buck, think about your share in this disaster. Did you know that in a poll conducted in 2008, 67% of people were in favor of offshore drilling for oil, with only 18% opposed and 15% undecided. And now, after this tragedy, people are calling for swift action and penalty for those responsible. It seems hypocritical that people are calling for swift justice now, but before this happened people signed the permission slip for offshore drilling in hopes they would pay less at the pump. It’s very easy to pass the buck and point the finger at someone else, and we are not saying that people shouldn’t be held accountable for their actions, however, before you pass it along, think about your contribution and what you are doing to avoid these situations in the future. Why should we allow drilling one minute and not the next because of an accident? Why should we demand justice from the comfort of our homes instead of taking part in it? And what could you be doing to help?

It almost feels like people are just jumping on the politically correct bandwagon and suggesting the solution that is trending that week instead of accepting their responsibility. The public does not seem to mind being excluded from the roles of judge and jury. In fact, they seem content with not being part of the system at all and would rather watch from a distance like a reality show. How about accepting the responsibility and stopping other people from doing our bidding. Start by carpooling or riding a bike to work. Wear a sweater instead of jacking up the heat. Everyone always thinks that they can’t bring about change, or that they aren’t a contributing factor. But if we the consumer took a stance and acted as the catalyst for change instead of waiting for one, great things could happen.

Paraphrasing Thomas Jefferson, a rebellion is needed every 20 years to bring about change and to eradicate complacency among the people and those in charge. “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." To be clear, we are not suggesting that everyone exercise their second amendment right to bear arms, but rather, we are trying to show that a significant event (the oil spill) needs to take place in order to bring about change. And instead of crying over spilled milk and blaming everyone else for the problems, accept your share of the responsibility and do something about this problem that future generations can be proud of. And although it may be time for a change, please do not fall victim to the illusion that all the world’s problems will be saved using alternative fuels. It’s important to remember that there will be problems and consequences that accompany all avenues we chose to explore. However, what’s most important, is that we continue to explore, instead of sitting idly by.

Joe & James
The FishAddix Team

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Top Ten People You Don’t Want to Fish Next To

Welcome back kids. Before I delve into this week’s topic I’d just like to say (well actually type) a few words about the incredible oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. In order to keep out of the political bull that is surrounding this mess, all I want to say is that as fishermen (as well as people), I think we can all recognize how much something like this blows on so many levels. And I really just wanted to say what a tragedy it has become for a lot of people including fishermen, locals, residents, and tons of others. I know my blogs are usually on the lighter side but I thought it would be inconceivable not to mention something like this in a fishing blog. But now… on with the show!!!

This week’s blog is about the people you hate to fish with or near. Everyone has a story about someone who has ruined their fishing trip just by being… well…. alive. So this blog was inspired by all of those people out there that you just wish you could punt into the lakes as soon as they stroll up next you and open their mouth.

As always – suggestions about topics are welcomed and please don’t be shy. The worst thing that could happen is you make an awful suggestion and I’ll post your name, member photo, and email address along with the terrible suggestion in my next blog for everyone to read and humiliate you. Nah I’m just kidding, I wouldn’t post your member photo – that’s way too much work. (Just kidding – all suggestions and suggestors will remain completely anonymous.)

In an attempt to spice things up a bit (and helping to get my list of 10), I’ve thrown in a few characters (which will be obvious when you come across them) that you’d probably never run into on the lake – but I thought they would be worth mentioning. So, in no particular order, the following list represents Chipty’s List of the Top Ten People You Don’t Want to Fish Next To:

Hitler – So I started it off with a bang to get a quick laugh. In any event, this is a guy you wouldn’t want to run into anywhere. No explanation needed!

Overzealous Zach – Yessssssssss! Screams this overenthusiastic fisherman who couldn’t be more smitten with the tiny turd of a fish he’s reeled in after 12 hours of fishing in the sweltering heat. I’m all for optimism, but how is this guy’s glass half full when my half evaporated 10 hours ago?

Donald Downer – Cousin or perhaps father to Debbie Downer (with a name like Debbie Downer they have to be from the Incestual South). This is one member of the Downer Family Tree you don’t want to run into. This guy is just miserable no matter what the conditions are like, and no matter how many fish he’s caught. He could boat a fish that makes your daily lunker look like something out of a fish tank and he still finds something to bitch and moan about.

Abraham Lincoln – Let’s be real here for a second. We’re all fisherman, and more or less cut from the same cloth. As the years wear on, the numbers get bigger (just like how many “fish” we’ve had and the size of our…… rods). But with Honest Abe at your side everyone will know how few fish you’ve landed, how busted they really were, and how unequipped you were to handle them.

Big Brother Volunteer – Now I have nothing against the big brother/big sister concept and I think it’s wonderful that people volunteer their time for these activities. That is until, they come strolling down towards my end of the lake and plop down within arms reach. I don’t know how many times I’ve told myself not to hit a man that’s probably serving court ordered volunteer time.

The Newlyweds – I’m not sure if any of you have had the unfortunate pleasure of watching this terrible reality TV show. But imagine, just for a moment, that a couple such as this plops down next to you while you’re fishing. With chit chat that would bore even a mildly intelligent 3rd grader – you’re probably going to want to pick up your shit and get out of there.

Canoeing Charlie and Kayaking Kelly – Now this duo may fit into the Newlyweds category but I’ve made them their own category because it’s not that it’s a guy and a girl – it’s what they’re doing. I used to fish at a pretty recreational lake, and again, I have nothing against the outdoors and people enjoying it. However, when this dynamic duo comes paddling their way across the lake, seemingly B-Lining it right for me, there’s really nothing to do but bomb them with lures. And if they’re quick enough to dodge your casts (you probably suck at casting if this is the case – they’re in canoes for Pete’s Sake) then I suggest throwing anything you can find at them that can replaced for under $3.

And last but not least, the oil conglomerates BP or Exxon Valdez – Because there’s nothing you want to do less than fish next to an oil covered baby seal. I’m sorry, I just couldn’t help myself.

Well, that’s my list and I’m sticking to it! Did anybody else notice there were only 8 characters on my top 10 list? Well those last 3 are open for discussion amongst you, the members. I’d like to hear what you have to say on the subject. And remember, send in your topics to info@fishaddix.com, with the subject line “Attn: Chipty.” And by the way, I’m still waiting for my fan mail and love letters to start pouring in, so splurge for that $0.00 virtual stamp and click the send button.

Until next time…

Fish On,

CHIPTY

Friday, May 14, 2010

This Week in Fishing – The Top Ten Worst Things You Could Do while Fishing

Welcome one, welcome all to my latest blogarooski. How was the entrance? Overdone? Ah, it’s just my style. This week I wanted to keep the blog on the lighter side and talk about mortality rates amongst fisherman. Nah, I’m just kidding. But this week’s blog is kind of an ode to the stupidity of fisherman and a bit of the Murphy’s Law that seems to follow us wherever we decide to deploy our poles. Thanks to the FishAddix member, who will remain anonymous, for suggesting the topic. Reminder: if you have a topic you would like the talented CHIPTY to explore, you can send your ideas to (info@fishaddix.com) with the subject line, “ATTN: CHIPTY”. You can also send fan mail and love letters to the same address.

The Top Ten Worst Things You Could Do while Fishing:

To give you a little insight into the crazy mind that is CHIPTY, I’ve ranked the following predicaments based on a few categories:
• Most damage – monetary and physical damage,
• Humorous – because yeah, I’m kind of sick like that, and
• Personal Experience – there’s not much someone can say when you’ve dealt with one of these issues first hand. It always seems like its the worst when it’s happened to you.

So keep that in mind when you’re perusing through the list. And without further ado – read on!

10) The Coveted Tree Cast: Everybody has been through this one. Or at least been witness to it. You’re standing on the bank reeling in your latest failed attempt and you see a splash. You reel up and realize that the splash you saw is just out of reach under the overhanging weeping willow tree. You put on your Evel Knievel hat and cast that puppy out. But before you’re line is done unspooling from you reel, you realize, you’re not going to get a chance at that fish. And you’re going to spend the next 15 minutes trying to get your lure, or live bait, (that poor helpless shiner) back from the branches you’ve just caught.

9) Fishing Injuries: There is a vast array of fishing injuries one could sustain while working the waters we all love. From dislocating your rotator cuff because you were in a casting competition with your friends – to twisting an ankle because you fell off the upper ledge of your boat during a hook set. They are more bizarre and seemingly contrived from the Heavens above then the range of sports related injuries we hear about on TV. I’d better leave this one to the experts. What’s your worst fishing injury?

8) Get in My Way Will Ya: We have all had those moments on the lake where nothing seems to be going our way. The 4lb you’ve been trying to catch finally took your lure but snapped your line on some submerged trees. Or no matter how many times you’ve past your favorite fishing hole, those damn kids are still there skipping rocks. The ups and downs of fishing can certainly lead to a little panty bunching and I’m sure we can all admit to getting a little hot headed at times. The problem with getting hot headed on a crowded lake is that you’re just looking for someone to take your anger out on. And you’re in luck. The Benny with the shiny 17-foot bass tracker is testing your limits and coming awfully close to where you’re fishing. “Bombs away,” you shout in your head as you hook up a heavy, dual trebled lure and cast that bad boy onto his boat. Hopefully he’s not having an equally bad day, or you could be in for a good old fashioned fishing brawl.

7) No Gas in the Motor: This one never seems to happen to you as you’re setting sail to get your day under way. Nah, the fishing Deities decide when this one happens. And it’s usually just far enough from shore that you can’t yell for help, and not quite far enough that you’ve made it to your favorite spot. And of course, you lent your extra paddle to your kid who broke his in a freak kayaking incident. You thought, it’s no big deal, how many times have I actually needed the paddles anyway.

6) Bathroom Anyone: For those of you who know me, and those of whom I haven’t had the pleasure, believe me, I wanted to put this one higher on the list. Perhaps as high as number two (oh yeah – pun intended!). So when I say, I’m speaking from experience here, this has definitely happened to me a time or two (more puns – I just can’t help myself). Never, and I mean never, forget to take that pregame trip to the men’s room before going on a fishing trip. And I’m not talking about the nature you can relieve by using the edge of the boat as your urinal. Alas, nature isn’t always calling when you want it to, and if you leave the men’s room broken-hearted, remember, pack your lunch in paper!

5) Did You Unhook the Boat: This one is painful to experience because you’re probably going to be putting a new hitch and/or bumper on your car, depending on how fast you went down the boat ramp, but thoroughly hilarious to watch. The gray area, if you will, is when you’re sitting on the boat while your fishing buddy backs it down the boat ramp. If you manage to stay in the boat, after he slams on the brakes, you won’t know whether to laugh or cry. Laugh my friends, laugh, because everyone else is.

4) Where are My Keys: Can’t find your keys? As much as you want to think that you’re not that stupid, you are. Of course you shouldn’t have put your keys in your shirt pocket while you went fishing. And of course, as if by the grace of God, you probably lost them while you bent down to lip the lunker of the day.

3) Now Where is that Plug: We all have a lot of things on our mind, and I’m sure that fishing is one way all FishAddix try to forget the realities and responsibilities of everyday life. But when you’re doing that final once over, make sure you remember to put the plug in the back of the boat. Not doing so can ultimately lead to the disaster that is number two on our countdown, if you don’t realize it soon enough, or if that archaic bilge pump your Uncle gave you 3 years ago doesn’t live up to all the, “they don’t make ‘em like they used to” hype.

2) Going Down with the Ship: Just like us, boats have an expiration date too. And like the guy choking on a handful of popcorn during your favorite movie, they tend to punch out at the most inconvenient of times. Of course, you can extend your boat’s sea-worthiness by taking good care of it. But like everyone who owns a boat knows, if you did all the work it needed, you probably wouldn’t have a house and little Suzy certainly wouldn’t have a college fund. The only question you have to ask yourself is: When that baby goes down, are you going to pull a Leonardo DiCaprio and go down with the ship? Or are you going to say, “To hell with the women and children, I’m jumping ship.”

1) The Human Hook Set: And the number one worst thing to do while you are fishing is – hook a friend. I’m torn on whether I’d rather be on the giving or receiving end of this situation (did the almighty CHIPTY just leave the door wide open for tons of bedroom jokes), because I’m not sure if I’d want to drive my friend to the ER, while he’s bleeding all over my car, and explain to the nurses that I’m the one that sunk those treble hooks a half inch deep into the back of his neck, or, if I’d rather be the one pointing and screaming as the nurse pumps more morphine into me. Because you know for one, he’s keeping that lure as a trophy, two, you’re going to have to foot the medical bills and several rounds at the pub afterward, and three, he’s got the ultimate pickup line for the rest of his life while you’re cast into the dungeons of solitary confinement because you made one bad cast. Either way, not a good situation to be in, and depending on the type of hook and how strong your cast is, I think this one has the most potential for damage and will make a hilarious story down the road (after that wound closes up of course).

So these were my worst crimes committed while fishing, what are some bad things that have happened to you over the years?

And how would you have ranked the situations mentioned above?

Stay tuned for next week’s blog, where CHIPTY elaborates on a topic he hasn’t thought of yet! All ideas welcome.

Fish on,

CHIPTY

Thursday, May 13, 2010

FishAddix May 2010 Newsletter

Hi Fellow FishAddix!

We just wanted to stop by and give you a quick update on the community's progress. In case you haven't visited lately, the community is crushing the fish right now! Since January there have been over 500 fishing reports!

In January we started keeping track of all the member's achievements, lunkers and catches. This is an ongoing program we are running with the goal of eventually logging BILLIONS of fish catches across the world and sharing the related information and tips with anglers worldwide. Do you even remember how many fish you caught so far this year? Add your catches to your fishing reports and don't bother trying to remember, we'll do it for you!

So far this year we've already logged 1,539 catches... make sure all of yours are accounted for! If you want to see the latest member catches, just pop by the community home page, the latest catches stream live right across the center of the page!

By the way, there are now 4,169 places to fish up and running, is your favorite body of water being reported yet??

Don't forget about the free t-shirt contest we are running as well! Click here to get your free FishAddix shirt.

For those of you that miss him, CHIPTY will be back in action very soon! Send your favorite topics for him to ponder on and he will humorously entertain you with his wandering thoughts very soon!

Thanks,
James & Joe
info@fishaddix.com

Follow us on Twitter – twitter.com/FishAddix
Become a fan on Facebook – facebook.com/FishAddixFans

Saturday, April 24, 2010

That Fishing Feeling

First, let me apologize for my recent absenteeism. Believe it or not, blogging is not my professional career and I do in fact have a day job - a day job that sometimes becomes a night job and wreaks havoc on my personal life. In my defense, I did write an April Fool’s Day Blog (admittedly, it was about a week late) but it was wildly suppressed by FishAddix Top Brass due to sensitive material. And judging by the limited number of views and comments, I’m guessing not many of you read it. I kind of felt like how Trey Parker and Matt Stone feel right now, with extremist groups stifling my creativity. LoL.

Anywhoo, I was perusing through some of the fishing reports and found some inspiration in one of the reports and thus, my topic is, “That Fishing Feeling.” It’s that feeling you get when you’re fishing, you’re out on the water just you and nature, and it’s just terribly difficult to describe to a person who doesn’t enjoy fishing. In fact, there have been many a time when my sexual orientation has been called into question while I was trying to explain this “feeling” to a non-fisherman type. But that’s neither here nor there.

There’s really nothing like being out on the water with a pole in your hand (fishing pole, sickos) and it’s just you versus the fish. Whether it’s warm or cold, sunny or cloudy, the old cliché holds true - a bad day fishing, beats a good day at work. Unless you’re a professional fisherman I guess. They should really make some amendments to that cliché. But then people probably wouldn’t use it. Anyway, I find that the most exciting thing about fishing is definitely the anticipation of a strike. The thrill of something stalking your lure or circling your bait cannot really be compared to anything. But of course, I’m going to take a stab at it anyway. I would consider it analogous to a playoff baseball game where one team is up against elimination and it all rides on one inning. There’s a couple guys on base and the closer is wearing and every pitch seems like an eternity. Or for you football fans, it’s like when your team is making a game winning drive down the field with less than two minutes left on the clock. Or perhaps the best analogy, it’s like the anticipation my readers feel while waiting for my next blog. Yes I wrote that entire blurb just for that punchline. Sue me.

Since the fishing feeling is so hard to describe – I’m not going to try to describe it anymore. Instead, I’ve written a little tune for your enjoyment. It should be sung to the sound of the Righteous Brothers, “That Loving Feeling.”

You never close your eyes anymore because you have no eye lids.
And there’s no fight left in you, because it’s post spawn and you’ve already had your kids.
I’m trying hard not to show it, (baby).
But baby, baby, everyone knows it…

I’ve got that fishin’ feeling,
Whoa, that fishin’ feeling,
I don’t wanna lose that fishin’ feeling,
But it spit my hook… my hook… my hook… wooooh.

Now there’s no welcome look in your eyes when I reach down to lip you.
You shoulda never eaten that lure, it’s from Cabella’s and its brand new.
It makes me just feel like jumping, (baby).
Those people on shore are starting at me fist pumping.

I’ve got that fishin’ feeling,
Whoa, that fishin’ feeling,
I don’t wanna lose that fishin’ feeling,
But it spit my hook… my hook… my hook… wooooh.

Baby, baby, I get down on my knees for you.
I’ll pick you up, and measure you against my shoe.

If I could only catch your mother, yeah.
Or maybe even your big brother.

I had a bite…. over there… now that guy just cast in my way.
I’ll hip check him… in the water… cuz I can’t… let that fish get away.

Baby (baby), baby (baby),
I beg of you please...please,
I need you to bite (I need you to bite), I need you to bite (I need you to bite),
So bite my damn lure(So bite my damn lure), So bite my damn lure (So bite my damn lure).

And bring back that fishin' feeling,
Whoa, that fishin' feeling
Give me that fishin' feeling,
'Cause it's gone...gone...gone,
and I can't go on,
noooo...

Bring back me back to that fishin' feeling,
Whoa, that fishin' feeling
Bring back my fishin' feeling,
'Cause it's gone...gone... gone…

Just like my hopes and my dreams….

I hoped you enjoyed the tune. It’ll really help if you read it along with listening to the song in the background or listen to the song first so you can get the tune in your head, but I do realize that’s a bit of work. So to help out, here’s a link to the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVrDQQIiweE .

What did you think of this week’s blog? Can you describe your fishin’ feeling?
Leve your comments here: http://www.fishaddix.com/blog/601-89.htm

Fish On!
CHIPTY (Scrambled acronym for – Cool Penname I Haven’t Thought of Yet)
www.FishAddix.com

Sunday, April 11, 2010

FishAddix Fish on Amidst Site Scandal – Weekly Blog 4/8/10

The topic of today’s blog has been hard to swallow for the whole FishAddix Team. However, CHIPTY has deemed it necessary to discuss the issues at hand with the site members in the name of full disclosure. After all, FishAddix.com was a site designed for and used by you, the members (although the FishAddix team does partake as well)…

Earlier this week, on 4/1/10, a scandal broke out surrounding FishAddix.com. Across the nation, do-gooder members of various addiction anonymous (AA) groups have taken aim at FishAddix, its founders, and team members. The addiction groups caught wind of the website sometime in the past few weeks during its recent rise in popularity. The groups have joined together and have filed two lawsuits against the founders of FishAddix.com and those who work for the site (including myself). All in all, about 7 people were named. The groups have filed a Class Action Lawsuit (when a bunch of people get together and sue for the common “good”) and a civil lawsuit seeking even more monetary reparations. In their lawsuits they cite the used of the word “addix” having caused emotion distress for the majority of their members and that, addictions are not to be taken lightly or used in capitalistic type ventures (i.e. starting a website that will eventually turn a profit).

In my opinion, this is just a way for these groups (most of which are not non-profit organizations) to get money from FishAddix, despite the fact that the site has just recently reached the 1,000 member mark. Lawsuits of this magnitude could ultimately spell destruction for the website as a clause in the lawsuit says that if the AA groups are successful, the site has to either: 1) rid the site and all content of the word “addix” or 2) disband the domain name completely. In reality, there’s no way to rid the site of all “addix” related words and therefore we’d be forced to shut down operations here and/or open a new domain and basically start all over.

Having been so aggravated at these egregious claims, yours truly, has done a little internet research to see if there is some type of legal precedent for this type of case. And wouldn’t you know it, several years back a similar situation occurred in Topeka, Kansas of all places, where national AA groups squashed an up and coming online poker website for using language similar to ours in their site name. The courts ruled in favor of the AA groups and the founders of the website were ordered to disband the website completely (they didn’t have the option of changing the name) and they were also ordered to pay a fine of $1.3 million to the AA groups. And since search engine type websites like yahoo and google had to remove all cached pages of the website and all its content – the founders were inundated with bills from mega-companies telling them they had to pay for the time spent removing cached pages. Not having the funds for $1.3M, let alone all the other bills, the founders and the whole team were forced to declare bankruptcy after all their assets were liquidated (including their houses, cars, etc) and the money was split between all the beneficiaries. This effectively left the young entrepreneurs homeless and without employment. In a VH1 special documentary released in 2003 – 8 of the 12 team members were still homeless, surviving only because of the local soup kitchen. Two of the members went to work for the AA groups in order to save their homes and families. And the final two members had moved to San Francisco to work for Rice-A-Roni as food tasters.

If there is good news in a situation like this it’s that the judge ruled in favor of the AA groups largely because of the well documented correlation between gambling and addition. And no such correlation has been drawn between fishing and addiction (although some of us do have one or two too many while they are on the boat – but those people will remain nameless).
I also found out that before the AA groups filed the lawsuit, they retained several high profile research institutions to investigate whether or not people can be addicted to fishing. Beakman from the early morning show Beakman’s World is apparently heading the project.

The good news is that site will remain up and running and fully intact during the trial for now, business should be conducted as usual. I will keep the users up to date with the trial proceedings. And hey, maybe if we’re lucky we can get some FishAddix members on our jury.

Thanks for reading my special April Fool’s Week blog. I hope you enjoyed it.

Until next week,

CHIPTY

Disclamier: If you haven’t figured it out yet – this blog is a complete fabrication and no events, details, people, etc. discussed during this blog were based on actual historical events, people, or happenings.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

CHIPTY puts the creators of FishAddix in the Hot-Seat

Welcome back Addix! This week I wanted to change things up a bit and I decided that I was going to sit down with the creators of FishAddix and get their feelings on the website and try to see where things are headed in the future. To protect their identities – I have used FAO1 and FAO2 as their names (FishAddix Owner #1 and #2). I really enjoyed the interview process even though it was not conducted face to face (due to scheduling conflicts). I hope you guys enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed doing the interview.

Chipty: What’s it like owning your own fishing website?

FAO1: You have no idea how many chicks we get just by telling them we own our own cyberspace fishing website. It’s really its own pickup line.

Chipty: Really, that’s kind of hard to believe…

FAO2: That’s because it’s a blatant lie. Yeah, we’d probably be able to pick up more guys than girls anyway (laughter). In all honesty, the site has come into it’s own over the last year and we’re really happy with what we’ve got so far and where we are heading in the future. We are constantly rolling out new things to try and make the site better for fisherman.

Chipty: Haha – that sounds more like it. And I’ll make sure to mention in the blog that you made yourself crack up with your own joke. So who came up with the idea for the website?

FAO2: Well that’s kind of a sticking point between the two of us. And we’ve decided – behind closed doors – that for the purposes of interviews and press releases and such – that we came up with the idea together while we were fishing one morning.

Chipty: Well I’m sure my readers will be angered by that answer – but we’ll move on in the interest of your feelings. What is your favorite thing about FishAddix?

FAO2: We don’t really have a favorite item or application on FishAddix. But we like how dynamic the site is.

Chipty: Keeping with the vague answers I see… I can’t take that one back to my readers so – what do you mean by dynamic?

FAO1: Well for one – the site was designed so that the more information that is entered into the site, on an individual level as well as a community level – the more accurate and more useful the site becomes to everyone. The more people that get involved with the site and post reports and create lakes, the more accurate the site becomes and the statistics start to reveal fishing patterns by themselves.

Chipty: What do you mean, “the stats start to reveal fishing patterns by themselves?”

FAO1: Well, the original idea for the site was that someone, anyone, like you and me, could log onto FishAddix and read reports of lakes in the area. And even if you’ve never fished that lake, you could go there and know some things that have worked for other people under similar conditions. And with the new fishing report structure that was rolled out earlier this year, in conjunction with the ability to follow lakes, reading reports and finding successful techniques has never been easier. And as more people join the ranks of the FishAddix members, and the more people add reports and lakes – everyone will benefit.

Chipty: Alright, well to avoid this blog sounding like a huge advertisement – what other hobbies and interests to you have?

FAO1: I don’t know, what do you want me to say that I like long walks on the beach and baking in my flower covered apron?

Chipty: Only if that’s what you really enjoy – I AM trying to conduct a legitimate interview here.

FAO1: No that’s not what I do in my spare time. Well maybe the baking part is true (laughter). Sorry. I’m a guy. I like the usual guy things – fishing, sports like baseball and football and basketball occasionally, and of course having a beer or 12 with my friends.

Chipty: You said you are always rolling out new things for the site. What’s the next on the list that FishAddix members should look for?

FAO2: Well, we have something really big cooking – but it probably won’t be rolled out for a few months. But the whole FishAddix team is on board that it could be the biggest new thing to hit FishAddix and we really think the members are going to love it.

Chipty: What’s the ultimate goal for you guys as the owners and operators of FishAddix?

FAO1: The goal is to become THE website for anything and everything fishing related. If you want to take a trip to a new lake with some friends – we want to be able to provide previous reports for that lake, bait and tackle shops that are nearby, guide services in the area, and anything you could need or want to know during your trip. And not just for fishing trips, but we’re going to have product reviews and technical advice for fisherman. The options really endless and we keep coming up with great ideas that are going to make our website a one-stop-shopping super site for fishing.

Chipty: Anything you want to say to my readers?

FAO2: Ummm, Chipty is the sweetest blogger name we’ve ever heard of.

Alright, alright… you got me. I made up that last answer. Haha. Hope you enjoyed this week’s blog. I would like to conduct more interviews in the future – perhaps putting some of the FishAddix members in the hot seat – so if you’d like me to grill one of your favorite members please let me know who and what questions you’d like answered. If you want to be in the hot seat then let me know why you are a good candidate.

See you next time,

CHIPTY

P.S. If you have ideas that you’d like Chipty to write about – please email them in to fishaddix@gmail.com or fishaddix@yahoo.com ATTN: Chipty. Thanks and I look forward to hearing your ideas.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Lure Chucking vs. Bait Fishing

First off I just want to say thanks for all the readers and especially all the posts on last week’s blog. It’s really enjoyable for me to read what fellow FishAddix have to say and I’m glad I’m not alone in the etiquette department. Perhaps we should just Shaq-beat offenders until there aren’t any offenders left. Whaddya think?

For this week I decided to bring it down a notch since last week’s article struck a chord with many of you. And as we near the start of the fishing season here in NJ I’ve decided this week to talk about fishing preference. For the purposes of this article I’ve decided only to tackle live bait and lures although I know some of you like the hybrid approach of trolling around using out-riggers. Now this is an age old argument right up there with the infamous, blonde versus brunette debate, with trolling with out-riggers being analogous to redheads - it’s nice to do every once in a while but it’s just not your bread and butter.

My personal preference depends on my mode of transportation around the lake. What I mean is, will I be hoofing through the bush taking on the wilderness Bear Grylls style with only my Rambo knife for protection (NJ fishing is dangerous, like fishing from the trenches – but that’s a topic for another article), or, will I have access to a boat and or canoe.

If I’m walking the lake and fishing from shore, odds are I’m going to make one hike around the lake to find my favorite spot and then I’m going to set up camp with a couple poles, a bucket of live bait, a few beverages (of the adult variety), a pack of sun flower seeds, and my Coleman Max camping chair. And the most activity I will engage in during my 7-8 hour day, is finding Mother Nature’s pole holders in the form of fallen branches, and then of course the occasional trip to relieve the adult beverages from my system. I like this type of fishing mainly because it’s relaxing. Once you pick out your spot there’s not much else to do but bait your hook, cast out the poles, and sit back and take in the outdoors in all its glory. Fishing from shore with friends only sweetens the deal. There is really no substitute for watching your friend bait their hook, flip the bailor, and launch a helpless shiner into the same tree that you are using to block those vicious UV Rays. I may immediately take that back – it’s a close race between watching them launch it into the trees and then them trying to get their setup back in one piece. Of course you can still cast into the trees from a boat but you usually just clip the edge of a bush and it’s not a full-fledged tree cast. Plus you can just row over to the bush and unhook your bait – with no pleasure derived from the painful experience of ripping your line through the trees.

Now if by the grace of God I have access to a boat (obviously I am not the skipper of this sea vessel – and I’m probably tagging along with the owner) then I like to use one pole for live bait and the other for lures. For me, this is the most enjoyable when I’m on a boat because I have the live bait out there, so I’m almost guaranteed to catch something eventually, but I can also mess around with various lures and perfect my casting as I try to get into more and more difficult spots. Plus, if I get bored of throwing the lures I can just kick back, enjoy a brewski or perhaps a sandwich (yeah I’ll bring the old Italian sub aboard), and watch my bobber.

I’ve also found that fishing with others is almost always more enjoyable when you are camping out on shore. This definitely depends on your company but the hooligans that I fish with really come out of their shell when we’re all lining the shore. My reasoning is this – if you are camped out on shore with live bait – there’s not much else to do except past the time by talking. I’ve had many an interesting conversation while I was hawking my bobber from shore and I’ve realized that you just don’t get the same forced interaction when you are lure fishing. Whether you’re on a boat or walking the lake with lures – there’s always something to do when you’re lure fishing. Keep this in mind when you bring your kids fishing – give them a bobber to look at and they’re going to drive you crazy – but give them a rubber worm to cast and recast and let them wreak havoc while staying occupied and out of your way. Now I hope no PTA members are reading because they might be misunderstanding my techniques for child neglect. Have no fear – no kids here. But I digress.

In any event, whether you are fishing with lures or you’re using home grown baby shiners – the way you fish is up to you and you only. And despite any off-color remarks from you’re more purist-minded fishing buddies – I say, keep on keeping on and do what makes you happy. If I could rip fish out of the water with lures the way I rip them out with live bait, I might be singing a different tune. But to me, I fish because I’m trying to relax and get away from the stress and responsibilities of being a semi-productive member of society. And I’m not eager to go fishing and stress out because I’m not using the right color lure or because the lure I’m using isn’t the right weight and doesn’t provide the action it was designed for. If I want a Cheeseburger, I’m gonna go to McDonald’s, and if I want to catch fish, I’m going to use live bait – because I don’t fix what ain’t broken (how’s that for sounding cliché?).

So tell me what you think. Do you use live bait or lures, and why?

Thanks for reading,

CHIPTY
(Scrambled acronym for – Cool Penname I Haven’t Thought of Yet)

www.FishAddix.com

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

This Week in Fishing – 3/8/10

This week I want to talk about a topic that strikes close to home with me – fishing etiquette. I don’t know if I am just a big stickler when it comes to fishing etiquette and etiquette in general, or that the experiences I’ve had have just been so egregious that most people would agree. Considering the fact that my “experiences” were perpetrated in part by fellow fishermen and or outdoorsmen – I’m inclined to agree that some people are just oblivious and ya just can’t do anything about it.

We’ll start off simple. If you’re going on an outdoor adventure I think it’s reasonable to assume that most people you’ll encounter should have general knowledge of how to behave while in and around other people enjoying the very same outdoors. For instance, when you go bowling, you don’t have to be a professional bowler to know that if the person next to you is about to bowl you wait for them to finish up before you take your turn. I suppose there are usually a few, less than intelligent people at a bowling alley that are there for the booze and could care less if you’ve just thrown 4 strikes in a row and are looking for number 5. But that’s the type of people you are going to run into at a bowling alley and you go in with your eyes open, knowing there’s going to be a few drunkies. When you’re out on the lake you’re not expecting that someone come strolling through the woods, and pull up only feet from you to drain the dragon. Not only is it bad social practice to pee near others, everyone knows you should pee at least 150 feet from a water source.

Let me paint you a little picture. You and a couple of friends head out to the lake. It’s a beautiful day in early spring and people are starting to shed their winter coats and get out on the lake. Guys are wearing their beaters to try and get that first of the year sunburn. And girls are breaking out the skirts (and the majority of those out on a lake have no business being in skirts). In any event, you find your favorite spot on the lake. This particular spot necks down to about 30 yards across before opening back up into a shallow pond covered in lily pads - so many lily pads that one could not navigate a small boat or canoe through the pads and the vast majority of it is barely knee deep. It would be fair to say that you and your friends are fishing at the mouth of a dead end and the lily pads can be seen clearly from the “main road.” You guys are the lazy type of fisherman and bring a bucket of live bait, chairs, and sunflower seeds and set up camp. Then, hour after hour, boaters, canoers, and young couples on paddleboats come aggravatingly close to you in an attempt to navigate the lily pad dead end. These people get right in front of you, so close that they can, and will ask you to take their picture as they hand you their digital camera without even straining to lean out of the boat. Once they realize they can’t get anywhere they pull the ole 180 right across your line and bobber. You watch as your poor shiner gets caught up in the ferry-like paddle wheel. Laughter soon turns to tears as your drag starts squealing and you realize that you’re losing all of your line and you didn’t stop at the bait shop to pick up more because you had an entire spool. The oblivious couple keep on cruising, unaware that they’ve prematurely ended your day, and only narrowly escaped you diving into the water to physically remove the pimply duo from their paddle boat. Alright, so maybe I embellished a little bit, but it’s only because I’m trying to make a point (and because well… it’s kind of my style).

Admittedly, I haven’t really discussed any solutions to fixing this problem that seems to be plaguing my favorite lakes. Shy of casting a case of bullet weights at them, I can’t really seem to come up with any solutions other than ridiculous ones that could never be implemented. So this week’s question to the readers is a two-parter: 1) what’s your best story involving fishing etiquette (or lack thereof), 2) and do you have any solutions for ending this unfortunate behavior? Until then – I’ll be petitioning the state to allow me to carry scud missiles and hand grenades while fishing in order to systematically remove these absent minded people from society. But since they denied my application to mount a turret on my car, I doubt I’ll have carte-blanche over the local lakes any time soon.

Until next time,

CHIPTY