Classic Meet Up?

[whitwolf]

I'll give a full report tomorrow after we get home. It has been a blast!

[12poundbass]

4 hours ago, BigSkyBasser said:

Breakfast with everyone was a blast! 

Day 1 I got to sit in the splashwell right next to the stage (pictures to follow.)

Spent a pile of money on new baits and a new reel.

Watched Tommy Biffle square off with Brian Snowden in a flippin contest.

Met Hunter Shryock, Gene Jensen (Flukemaster,) Former Vikimgs defensive end Brian Robison, John Cox, Karl Von Dibble, and Hank Cherry.

Also watched Larry Dahlberg on the bass tank talk about the whopper popper.

@TnRiver46 and I had the strangest convo with a weird dude from the Livingston booth about the Keith Poche/Ish conflict and a lot of other drama

Also was absolutely smitten by this cutie who worked for the TVA biology team at their fish tank and had a long conversation with her about fish (had I lived here I would have had to have asked for her number.)

Not to mention I've had the best fishing guide in TN for the whole trip! Also, @kbeeb374 came down from New York and put on a jig flipping clinic yesterday.

 

 

 

Looks like with the exception of Dave Mercer you had the best seat in the house.

4 hours ago, BigSkyBasser said:

Breakfast with everyone was a blast! 

Day 1 I got to sit in the splashwell right next to the stage (pictures to follow.)

Spent a pile of money on new baits and a new reel.

Watched Tommy Biffle square off with Brian Snowden in a flippin contest.

Met Hunter Shryock, Gene Jensen (Flukemaster,) Former Vikimgs defensive end Brian Robison, John Cox, Karl Von Dibble, and Hank Cherry.

Also watched Larry Dahlberg on the bass tank talk about the whopper popper.

@TnRiver46 and I had the strangest convo with a weird dude from the Livingston booth about the Keith Poche/Ish conflict and a lot of other drama

Also was absolutely smitten by this cutie who worked for the TVA biology team at their fish tank and had a long conversation with her about fish (had I lived here I would have had to have asked for her number.)

Not to mention I've had the best fishing guide in TN for the whole trip! Also, @kbeeb374 came down from New York and put on a jig flipping clinic yesterday.

 

 

 

Looks like with the exception of Dave Mercer you had the best seat in the house.

[Airbornebass]

5 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

I met @Glenn and his wife, @volzfan59, airborne bass, and some others at breakfast. All super folks! I only bought some Berkeley dredger 17.5, @BigSkyBasser got some jerkbaits. We met the flukemaster, Hank cherry, Hunter shryock, Karl from karls tackle/MTB, and a few others. We watched the pros headed back to weigh in from my boat and when wheeler went by his boat was making a strange noise. Sure enough on the way back to the ramp, there it is on the bank with no one in sight. Then we went back to the launch to pick up @kbeeb374 for some striper fishing that didn't pan out, he got two nice largemouth though! And @BigSkyBasser got a nice smallmouth. I think I got the standard non keeper dink yesterday. Here's some pics, even saw a goose nesting 50 feet up a cliff 

 

It was great meeting you and everyone at breakfast.  I was glad I drove over.

[HeyCoach]

Hank Parker was a sincerely, genuinely nice person that we talked to Saturday. 

 

 

[Glenn]

Had a blast meeting everyone at the Classic!!  Y'all are way better in person! LOL!!

 

I met a ton of BR fans, rubbed elbows with the best in the sport, and saw a lot of really cool products hitting the market.  Couldn't have asked for a better time!

 

Thank you all!!

[HeyCoach]

6 minutes ago, Glenn said:

Had a blast meeting everyone at the Classic!!  Y'all are way better in person! LOL!!

 

I met a ton of BR fans, rubbed elbows with the best in the sport, and saw a lot of really cool products hitting the market.  Couldn't have asked for a better time!

 

Thank you all!!

@Bobby Uhrig was on a roll cracking jokes about you Saturday morning to me. 

 

Sorry I didn’t swing back by Bobby, time ran out on us before I could come back. I still want a pack or two of those stand-up shakey heads y’all were showing off in the fish tank. Do you have a store website?

[Oregon Native]

Show and last day weigh in were amazing.  Spent three long days there with many friends and saw old friends I hadn't seen in many years.  Was awesome.....

Walked from weigh in area to show three days in a row and back and got some good exercise to be sure.  People were amazing at show....everyone was having a good time...never saw any rudeness and talked to people out of the blue about fishing and show and things just flowed.  Heard many records were met for on attendance I believe too.

[snake95]

10 hours ago, Glenn said:

Had a blast meeting everyone at the Classic!! 

Saw you at the bar Saturday afternoon, tried to make it over to talk, but had a whole entourage of kids that I couldn't break away from. 

My second classic in a row with my 10 year old - this time brought two more Dads and three more boys.  Thanks to your forums for getting me back into it 4 years ago, and teaching the kids what I'm learning.

Will actually meet you next year!

[Glenn]

12 hours ago, Oregon Native said:

Heard many records were met for on attendance I believe too.

Those "records" are HIGHLY questionable.  They count you every time you enter a door. So when you went from one building to the other, you were counted twice.  So everyone was counted at least twice. If you were there all 3 days, and went into each building only once, you were counted 6 times.  Even higher if you entered several times, left for lunch and came back, went out for a smoke break, or to see the outdoor exhibits, etc. 

 

I think Keri and I were counted at least 20 times each day.  I once heard the gal hit the clicker 4x when we walked in without anyone near us.

 

Oh! And then you were counted again when you went to the weigh-in.  If you went to the show and the weigh-in all three days?  You're officially 9 people.

 

So those "record" numbers are, ummm..., record clicks instead.  Kinda like how people used to measure "hits" on websites.  Meaningless numbers, and grossly exaggerated.

 

I'd say Birmingham a few years ago had higher attendance.

 

12 hours ago, snake95 said:

Will actually meet you next year!

Looking forward to it!

[JT Bagwell]

Glenn,

I was thinking that exact same thing about the "record attendance" today.

Since our hotel was right across the street, Luke and I went to our room a few

times per day to drop off all of his loot.

 

Hell we were probably counted 28 times trying to locate you by the Dick's Sporting Goods booth in the other building.  LOL  (little inside joke courtesy of Glenn forgetting where he was)

 

My biggest regret was that I didn't keep Luke out of school and just come home Monday instead of 6am Sunday. We rushed around a lot and I missed seeing several people that I really wanted to get together with.

 

[kykayak]

Made it to my first BMC. I was able to meet a lot of the faces of our sport at the expo. Some of the encounters were a disappointment. While others were about as good if not better than i expected. The three below (Hank Parker, Gerald Swindle, and Jordan Lee) were as nice and as genuine as it gets. 

Very cool event. Spent a lot of $$. Hope to attend another very soon. 

[JT Bagwell]

16 minutes ago, kykayak said:

Made it to my first BMC. I was able to meet a lot of the faces of our sport at the expo. Some of the encounters were a disappointment. While others were about as good if not better than i expected. The three below (Hank Parker, Gerald Swindle, and Jordan Lee) were as nice and as genuine as it gets. 

Very cool event. Spent a lot of $$. Hope to attend another very soon. 

My kid (he's 12) was really excited to meet the pros and get them all to sign his new Bassmaster hat (he just bought his own membership). Nearly all of the guys were really friendly to him. Several of them even gave him free hats, baits, shirts, etc.

 

Even though he made sure to stand back if they were talking to someone and say please, a few gave him this look that kind of rubbed me the wrong way, like why are you bothering me kid. There was one old school tv angler that gave him a big excuse about how he had to get to a booth and was late so he couldn't sign his hat. In the time he spent giving the excuse, he could have signed hats for 5 kids but mine was the only one there. So Luke awkwardly walked away without the autograph.

 

My bud Hank Parker was great to Luke. He was getting moved from the Berkley booth to the Toyota booth and he saw Luke standing there. So he took him by the arm and said come on buddy we are going this way and took Luke with him. The coolest thing about that, is Hank turned Pro the year I was born and was my fishing hero as a kid. Since then I have spent several hours with him and to see him treat my kid like that is really special to me.

[Oregon Native]

Your probably right on the numbers .... I would also imagine that this wasn't the first classic where there were counts done though either.  Believing everything we hear or read too is up for grabs too.

Thanks...back to reality

 

[crankbait2009]

kinda curious what angler(s) wouldn't stop for signings, for whatever their reason.

[Glenn]

59 minutes ago, crankbait2009 said:

kinda curious what angler(s) wouldn't stop for signings, for whatever their reason.

Let's not go down that path guys.  They have strict schedules for booth appearances they must adhere to.  As much as they want to stay for their fans, they can't meet their contractual obligations if they do.

 

It's a tough spot to be in.  Hank Parker is a seasoned pro, and has more experience at trade shows than most of them. So he's learned a few ways to gracefully exit quickly when he needs to go to another appearance.

 

[crankbait2009]

Didn't think of that part.  My apologies