Hi Everyone,

Well, this is my first attempt at a blog – or Tog as we call it at TackleTour.com.  When JIP and Cal asked me to do this I was a bit hesitant.  Hesitant because what can someone talk about in a one-way dialogue once or more a week and still keep it interesting?  After thinking it over I committed to participate and then, the epiphany hit me.  Actually, it hit me while talking to a close friend and western stalwart of an angler, Gary Dobyns.

Gary and I were doing an interview last night as we do quite frequently.  I love to talk with Gary because; 1) I don’t have to drag words out of his mouth to fill an article, 2) He’s as intricate as it gets when describing what he wants to convey, and 3) at the end of our “interviews”, the conversation always strays to fishing in general.  It’s these off-the-record talks that I enjoy most mainly because we’re just BSing about our passion, talking about new gear or even talking about some friend of ours (Pete).

Last night’s interview was status-quo.  After phone tag for about 60 minutes we hooked up and got to the job at fingertip.  Interview done, we took our usual tangent talking about Pete, the problems with tournaments today and of course his rod company.  Then, just as we were about to call it a night, the subject of sonars came up.  One thing led to another and the next thing you know we’re trying to outdo each other remembering the old sonars of past.  Units like the Lowrance 1510 series, the Humming Bird Super Sixty and the old Vexilar paper graphs.  Sonars turned into old plastics, which turned into old boats and that eventually turned into old reels, rods and other bass-fishing related items.

That’s when I fell off the proverbial log – if we’re having this much fun talking about the gear of old, wouldn’t people like to remember, through TackleTog, about the gear they used to use in the old days?  Or, what about those who are tackle junkies (Cal)?  Wouldn’t the nouveaux tackle junkies like to see pictures and hear stories of tackle that was the genesis of the gear they use today? Well, I thought they would and since I am the megalomaniac of this space, I decided that’s what I’d write about in this Tog.

So, put on your time-travel helmet, grab that old Ambassadeur 5000D that’s clamped to your Lew’s Speed Stik and take a ride with me.  I can’t promise it’ll always be a smooth ride and from time to time I may stray from the topic at hand and talk about my kids’ soccer adventures but I can guarantee I’ll have plenty of words for you to read.