Angler's Marine's Annual Bass-a-Thon: A (not so) In-Depth Look

Today was the first day of the Annual Bass-a-Thon event in Anaheim. This is a two day, small expo for bass fisherman, which features many special guests such as Kevin Van Dam, and Bill Dance. This year, special guests included four time Classics winner Rick Clunn, AOY and Classics winner Skeet Reese, and even Jimmy Houston. Although there were big stars in the fishing industry at this expo, my main reason of going is to socialize with other anglers like me; you know, those who aren't famous, the ones who just love this amazing sport and fish because it's their passion.

It's a full house today.

The Lunker Punker booth was a great success as usual. A very effective topwater bait.

Skeet Reese gave a seminar today, and will be speaking once again tomorrow.

Yes, my favorite booth, from my favorite company. Curt Arakawa and Tony Lain were there to discuss Jackall lures to those who had questions. I can answer them too haha!

CL8 Swimbaits with their new rats; they were large. I ended up picking up a 6 inch swimbait from them. Now I need a new rod for it. Swimbaits are new to me.

JDM (Japan Domestic Models) lures have been seen more often here in Southern California. Here's an example of a few from Deps.

The Extremely popular Silent Killer and High Sider. Cough up the $70, it's worth it. Wish I had the money.

Evergreen International, another JDM company even had an appearance. Although Evergreen did not have a booth to sell their products, a sponsored professional was out to raffle six Evergreen rods, and two sets of lures (about six lures per set). For those of you who never heard of Evergreen, it is one of the top Japanese companies out there with their rods reaching up to over $800 a piece, even $1000. I've handled one of the rods before, and it's truly a piece of art. I hope I win one!

A close up look at three of their models. Their "Kaleido" model (bottom) is their top of the line series of rods with both spinning and casting rods. These rods can go up to $1000. "Temujin" (middle) is their mid range rods with pricing near $500-$650 USD. Their lower end model (not the lowest model) is the "Tactics" line which sell around $350-$450 USD.

Also up for raffle: TimberFlash (Top) and Royal Flash (Bottom)

Some good friends of mine and their WARBAITS Swimjigs. These guys are well known in the Salt Water Bass Fishing scene, and these lures are proven on calicos as well as fresh water bass.

Triple Trouts, another favorite for California swimbait fishing.

Glad to finally have met the legend. Rick Clunn saw me holding one of the CL8 Swimbaits and really liked what he saw. He just never had the opportunity to walk around the expo. He also told me the reason he agreed to do this expo was to see all the lures we bass fisherman use in California.

Another great fisherman; Skeet Reese.

Jimmy Houston giving a seminar with special guesst Terry "Big Show" Scroggins.

That's it for the photos, I don't think I'll make it back tomorrow but this year was great. Other items popular in the show was obviously the Alabama Rig with versions called "Calabama Rig" and "Miss Alabama Rig".

Until next time!
Tight Lines!

Ariel Biley