Saturday morning at 5:00 a.m. the rooster started crowing (alarm clock) and the weekend was upon us. After we finished loading all the demonstration tools we were off to Missoula MT to give a seminar at Bretz RV and Marine for their customer appreciation day. After working a bomber week this isn’t exactly a day off, but we are really starting to enjoy sharing our success on the water with others. In fact, I am really starting to overcome my fear of public speaking…heck, it’s fun!! I can still remember my first public speaking class in college and being so anxious I almost filled my shorts!! I was honestly so nervous it looked like I had just come out from hibernating in a sweat lodge by the amount of perspiration rolling down my forehead. Anyways, as we approached Missoula everything was going well until dad yelled in a panicked voice, “Oh SH*#!!, I forgot the rods for the presentation!!” Knowing it was a simple mistake; we swallowed our pride and headed straight for Wal-Mart. We were going to come off as real pro’s demonstrating with a bright green 19.99 rod/reel combo.

Presenting at Bretz RV and Marine in Missoula MT!!

With fifteen minutes to go before show time every seat in the house was filled and eyes were eager!! With five minutes to go before show time there was a crowd out the door trying to get a standing spot in the room…talk about making a guy feel special. I’m going to go ahead and say this was our best seminar to date. Not only the awesome crowd and atmosphere, but dad and I really felt at home…even when we had to break the news about the demo rod Having an absolute blast, after an hour and a half we had to stop early for the next speaker to have his time. We were overwhelmed with the positive response and one very unique gentleman came up and said, “Young man, you sure have a nice set of hair. I see your dad does not, I’m betting that was your doing.” After having a great laugh together he said, “I have been coming here for years and that was the best seminar I have seen.” Dad and I truly felt humbled by his kind words and from the others that praised us.

Switching gears, we had to get our butts back home for the Walleye Unlimited banquet in Helena that started in a short few hours and we had a booth to set up! But with empty stomachs, before we left we made a wild dash to Five Guys Burgers and Fries and pigged out…DELICIOUS!! Getting back to Helena with an hour to spare it was straight to the gas station for a nasty HI-REV coffee to bring us back to life. We got our booth up and running and the Glass Minnows looked as gorgeous as ever!

There were only two things left to do:

1.) Run home and get the BEAUTIFUL “Parrot” themed rod dad master-crafted for the live auction.

2.) HAVE A BEER!!

The parrot rod master crafted by dad

Exhausted, but reminiscing on how productive and fun a weekend it had already been we met with all our friends at the banquet. It was a fun night and the Kit’s Tackle rod was the highlight of the evening. The live auction went wild and the “Parrot” rod went for $900 raising a big chunk of change for a great cause!! To get kids into the magical world of fishing!! Talk about a good way to end the night…dang!!

This brings the total Kit’s Tackle has raised for Walleyes Unlimited of MT in 2013 to $1950!!

Cheers to “Jiggin’ the Dream” in 2013!!