Raleigh Fishing Show

2008 Bassmaster Classic Champion Alton Jones pictured with my sons Clay and Nate at the fishing show in Raleigh. Alton won last years classic deep jig fishing - Booyah jigs; his enthusiastic smile and obvious professionalism is obviously sponsor worthy as he couldn't have been any nicer to my boys taking time to talk to them and pose for this picture.

Dean Rojas demonstrates his knot for tying Kermit, his trademark frog pattern on the Elite Series. Dean's seminar was interesting - surprised to learn that the best hours for frog fishing are between 10 am and 2 pm, when the sun is up and casting shadows. Dean also discussed how to approach fishing the frog in both open water and cover, as well as color choice and techniques, Dean's launched the popularity of frog fishing to an extreme level.

Dean's box of Spro frogs in a wide array of colors - Dean says that his favorite patterns include the black, black/white, and natural colors like greens, green/yellow, and browns.

FLW tour pro and NC native Jeffrey Thomas worked the Skeet's Rods booth. Jeffrey maintains the popular website Carolina Outdoors, fishes the FLW, and is sponsored by Pedigree dog food. Jeffrey provided live feeds on his web page as part the event.

Harris Lake, January 4 2009

My club tournament fishing partner, Jamie, and I went fishing for the first time in 09 yesterday, caught one fish, a dandy probably 5 lbs. The Shakey Head has proven to the most effective bait in my arsenal, saved me from a skunk yesterday. Overcast skies, no wind, water temperature 54 degrees. We tried main lake structure in anywhere from 15 to 30 feet of water for the most part and this was all we could locate and catch. Marked some shad.

Kentucky Lake Sunrise

Bass fishing stake beds in the early hours of morning I witnessed this spectacular sunrise on Kentucky Lake in 2006.

Brown Trout

Cumberland River Trophy Brown Trout - June 2000

Strange when you start to look older in photos that were taken not so long ago.

Jordan Lake Largemouth

Here is a 5.11 largemouth that ate a watermelon red shakey head back in May of 2008.

Lighthouses

A Bohemian Lighthouse - Nassua, Bahamas 2006

Bodie Lighthouse - NC, 2008

Nagshead Sunrise, July 4th, 2008

Picture from Glacier National Park

This picture is from Glacier National Park, the original 35 mm image was scanned. Kristin and I went to Glacier, I believe in like the 97' time frame and have some fond memories of the park. I have a picture somewhere of Kristin catching two trout at once, I'll look for it.

Here's a trail cam video from Bodkin's farm.

Deer season has been a bust so far. Passed on a doe and a four pointer during bow season, saw a nice, wide 8 pointer the last day of bow season - let a small buck and a tiny doe walk during muzzle loader. Went to Disneyworld and to Kentucky and missed the first two weekends of rifle season, the third weekend I fished a bass tournament. My boater Jamie won with a 6.49 largemouth. Today was the first time I've been able to rifle hunt and I let two small does walk.

Here's a picture of the buck I killed opening day of last year - that's all I got to show right now and it's not really much.

Disneyworld

My favorite shot from Disneyworld, November 2008.

Born With Two First Names

My grandfather , Byron Usher Bruce, went by Bruce his whole life. I remember adults at the drug store, the post office, and the ice cream parlor calling him Bruce, and grandma even called him Usher when she was trying to get her point across.

Playing football coach Faust would scream, "Fire off the ball Bruce," from his three point stance before colliding into me with no equipment, Coach Faust is a tough guy.

No on calls a guy named Chris 'Chris' when his last name is Bruce. Bruce just comes naturally. No more apologies are in order from people who call me Bruce.