ICAST Prep

This page has been way too quiet, which I don't like. Days have been filled with catch-up efforts on magazine work from so many days on the road this summer, and I just haven't found my way here to post updates. Not a good excuse, especially right now, as I get word about so much cool fishing stuff coming out next year, but still the way the week has gone.

This weekend I transition from catch-up mode to get-ready-again mode because on Monday I'll be driving to Florida for the ICAST show in Orlando. If you look at many fishing websites, you probably see the name ICAST quite a bit. It's the fishing industry's primary trade show and the place where much of the new stuff for the following model year gets revealed to tackle distributors and retailers, and to the outdoors media. Lures, rods, reels, fishing kayaks, clothes, electronics, lines, rigs... You name it, it's there. You've likely seen quite a few peeks at stuff already.

I go to ICAST both to learn about and report on the new stuff and to catch up with folks from the industry, including other writers, editors and various folks who represent fishing tackle manufacturers. For me, it's three days of walking a big show floor, looking at stuff, taking photos, asking questions and talking fishing. This year, I'll also be doing a lot of on-the-spot writing because I'll be reporting about new fishing line and rod introductions for FLW's website and magazine, along with other stuff I'll report here, on the Jeff Samsel Fishing facebook page, on Twitter and on Instagram.

So priorities today are gathering notes, clearing camera cards, charging batteries, packing and generally doing stuff at home that's good to take care of before returning to the road. I suppose I'd better get to it.

Watch here for updates on cool new stuff!

More Reports from Jeff Samsel Fishing

If you're reading this, I'm guessing you have at least some interest fishing how-to, destination stories, tournament news or other maybe my family fishing adventures. With that in mind, I wanted to remind you of a couple of other places where I regularly share photos and fishing information.

While I try to get a fresh blog posted pretty much every day, that's about as much as I can manage, except on rare occasions when I'm making quick blog posts from the field. Usually, if I want to share more timely updates on the water, from tournaments I'm following myself or of other stuff like that, I post short notes or photos on the jeffsamselfishing facebook community page.  I also share a modest number of impressive fish photos, fishing news stories and other things that strike my interest from the fishing pages I follow. I try not to post so much that I flood anyone's feed, but I hope I add enough to keep things interesting. I'd invite you to give that page a look and like it if you indeed like what you find.

I also put some short notes on Twitter, @jeffsamsel, that you might not find on the blog or facebook page, and I retweet stuff from tournament organizations, fishing pros and more. I'm admittedly more sporadic with Tweets and my notes also include a blend of my fondness for Braves baseball and a few other personal interests.  But you can always follow to see if you like what you get and then unfollow. I won't take it personally!

Finally, I'll soon be contributing regularly to FINS'nTALES, mostly with bass how-to from a pro perspective, but also with other species. I haven't started writing those yet, but I'd invite you to watch the site.

My apologies to friends who already follow these other pages and to anyone who was looking for more about fish. However, with my fall fishing travels now underway, it seemed like a good time to let you know where to find more from Jeff Samsel Fishing and to explain how those places differ.

Oh, I almost forgot: If you prefer looking and listening over reading, don't miss the YouTube channel that my son Nathaniel operates for me. We'll be adding some great new how-to content in the next couple of weeks.

Have Blog, Will Travel

Recent week have been nice for me because I have been at home since mid-December. As much as I enjoy the places I visit and fishing I do and as critical as travels are to my work of gathering fish stories, it's been nice staying home with my family. Plus, it has given me the opportunity to catch up on fish stories and to work on some other projects, like getting the Jeff Samsel Fishing facebook page up and running. If you haven't liked that page, I'd sure appreciate you doing so, and if you're interested in fishing reports, big fish photos, industry news and such, I'm hopeful that you'll find plenty to like.

I hit the road again in about two weeks and will be traveling to Tulsa for the Bassmaster Classic. I also plan to do a little fishing (crappie and bass, I think) before and after the event. I'll be chronicling travels and covering the Classic and the its associated outdoors show on my blog, on the facebook page, and with Tweets (@jeffsamsel) so I hope you'll watch my pages!

FLW Tweets

If you want to keep up with the action at the Forrest Wood Cup and can't be there in person, just follow @FLWFishing on Twitter. Along with doing a great job of tweeting on the water reports and side stories from the Cup, FLW retweets stuff from all the competitors and others who are close to the action, so a single follow provides a great stream of photos and information. Of course, if tweets aren't enough for you, there's also live video coverage -- including live weigh-ins every afternoon --  on the FLW Fishing website.

Twitter Test

I was mostly curious whether I could figure out how to add a Twitter follow button to a blog post. If it works, I suppose the next step will be to add it to the home page. Wherever the button lands, I hope you'll use it and follow me on Twitter!


Follow @jeffsamsel


I hope to have cool reports in the next few days, by the way, but I may not have access, so we'll see.

@jeffsamsel on Twitter

Be sure to follow me on Twitter. That's @jeffsamsel. Can I make -- or even break -- a baker's dozen followers before the calendar page turns?!

Tweet Nothings

The truth is that I don't really get Twitter. I'm there, though, so if anyone wants to follow, I'm @jeffsamsel, and I'll try to tweet something worth reading from time to time.

Nathaniel, @NathanielSamsel, will probably be more interesting to follow. He's the one with the CD coming out. I just write fish stories.