“Trout Pro Shops”

Posted: April 14th, 2009 by Bill Dance

Wow, what a wild and crazy spring.  Who said, “Spring is a great time to fish”?  Spring sucks!!!

A front every 3 days, rising and falling barometric pressures, water temperatures, day and night temps up and down, strong NW – NE winds, murky to muddy water, … rising and falling waters, you name it!  What’s a fish to do?

But, like I’ve said so many times, the best time to go fishing … is any time you can.  Turn the negative into a positive.  Realize you may not get as many strikes as you would if things were more normal.  Just slow down and enjoy yourself.  Remember you’re doing something you love to do even if it does “suck” during this time of year.

Had a fun trip last week with two of my fishing buddies, Jimmy “Giggle Boy” Houston and Johnny Morris.  

We journeyed way up north to Calgary, Alberta, Canada for a Bass Pro Shops grand opening.  The promotion was a major success!  It was jammed packed with customers, … Hunters, Fishermen and Outdoorsmen.

Jimmy and I were shocked to find that only about 10% of 700 people we signed autographs for had ever caught a bass.

The reason we knew this was, first we learned that there are NO lakes in Alberta that harbor bass!  No smallmouth bass, striped bass, rock bass, yellow bass, ANY BASS!  No lakes with bass in them at all!?!?!?

So, as people walked up to say hello, we started asking, “Have you ever caught a bass?”.  The few that said yes, said they had caught them in the states or eastern Canada.  They said the most popular fish around Calgary was trout.

I told Johnny he should rename his store there, “Trout Pro Shops”.  I doubt seriously he’ll do that, so all I can say is bass fishin’ sucks there too!

Until next time, catch one for me.