Going HawleyWood

Cheaters Never Win….!!!!

Tim Hawley — Mon, 14 May 2012 05:00:00 GMT

Have you ever heard the quote, if you ain’t cheating you ain’t trying? If you’re going to bass fish on any tournament level you should prepare yourself for those who may live by this motto. Times are tuff, and if you think for one second it is not happening where you fish think again! If it happens at the highest levels of our sport (just Google B.A.S.S. or FLW and cheating and see what you find) then I can only imagine what is happening on the local level at less “policed” events.

A few weeks ago in my home State of NC, a gentlemen was banned for life from any FLW associated events due to the fact he was accused of filling a largemouth’s gullet with an 11 oz. weight. Is our sport turning into NASCAR where you must circumvent the rules to secure a good finish? Bass fishing has become more and more expensive and for a lot of us it is hard to keep up with the Jone’s. In today’s bass fishing environment you have boats that will run 80, and even 90 mph. You have electronics that will simply show you everything form the cover on the bottom to the fish relating to it. You have rods, reels, and line that are pushing the edge of technology. You have new lure innovations every year that make even the best of techniques at times obsolete. You also have the power of the internet, and gps coordinates to locate bass before you even wet a line. For most anglers like you and I this is a competitive edge that is hard enough to compete against.

Are we ever going get rid of cheating in our sport completely? How many possible new anglers are we losing each year because they do not believe they are getting a fair shake? What should happen when we suspect one of our fellow anglers of breaking the rules? In the case of the accused NC angler he is banned from FLW events for life, is this enough?

Cheaters never win is another quote everyone has heard of. Is this statement true, or just wishful thinking? The accused bass angler in NC has won over $8,000.00 in this tournament series. If what he is accused of is correct, did he cheat before? Our sport is one of the few professional sports where we play for each others money. If you cheat, you are therefore stealing from each and every competitor. It is a shame that our sport constantly bears this black eye. Cheaters never win sounds good in theory….............

Should Bass Fishermen be Considered Athletes?

Tim Hawley — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 05:00:00 GMT

One great thing I love about my family is that we are all sports fanatics. My Grandfather was a successful boxer and later a great high school basketball and football coach.All my uncles were all multiple sport athletes in high school, one of which went on to play football at Syracuse University with the likes of Larry Csonka. My older cousins both went onto a collegiate career with baseball and field hockey respectively. My younger sister was a swimmer for the University of South Carolina and has run the Boston Marathon three times.Then there is myself, the mighty bass fishermen, which leads me to the big question. Should bass fishermen be considered athletes?

Merriam-Webster defines an athlete as a person who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring physical strength, agility, or stamina. Though this definition supports my case that bass fishermen are in fact athletes, this definition is also so broad that just about any human being with any skill can be considered in the same argument.For example. according to the definition, if you go down to the local watering hole and can throw a dart against the wall your an athlete. I do not want to base my argument with something I usually get better at after a couple of Bud Lights.

I always spend the Holiday's with friends and family. The time we spend together is usually centered around a major sporting event of some kind on television. To hear us comment on the game would make most people laugh.At my house you would hear things like, "I would have made that game winning shot", or "I could have made that pass", or "what was that kicker thinking I could have knocked that through with my eyes closed".We all know how easy it is to be an arm chair quarterback and make remarks like these but how many of us could actually go out there and prove it. Could many of us actually throw a fifty yard touchdown pass in a blizzard while 300 lbs. men are charging at you looking to drive you six feet in the ground? Could many of us hit a 100 mph fastball out of the park in the ninth inning with the game tied and 50,000 people snapping camera's? Could many of us drive the lane and dunk a basketball while guys almost seven foot tall think otherwise? Very few of us can actually say that we can do any of these things. That's why there is not much debate that stars like Michael Vick, Alex Rodriguez,and Lebron James are considered athletes.

Last Thanksgiving as usual I had friends and family over to celebrate the holiday. I had intentionally left a FLW Tour event on the television when I started to hear a grumble or two to turn the station to the pre-game event for the upcoming football game. I refused to turn the channel and told everyone there was only about twenty minutes left. What I heard in that last twenty minutes was amazing. I heard comments from"that's nothing I can catch more fish than that" to "I don't see what the big deal is, catching fish is easy".

Is catching bass really easy? Is getting up four days in a row and fishing all day in 100 degree weather under tournament conditions easy? Is throwing a jig 25 feet up under a dock all day easy? Is throwing a deep diving crankbait 1,000 times in a day easy? Is wrestling a 7 lbs. largemouth out of a bush easy? Is driving 70 mph in thirty degree weather for 60 miles in ruff water easy? Is topping the field of not one, or ten, or fifty, or one hundred but one hundred and sixty other competitors easy? The answer is simple.....ABSOLUTELY NOT! The sheer mental toughness and discipline required to bass fish competitively would crack most people.

It's always easy to be a back seat driving, arm chair quarterbacking critic of what it is I love to do. The moral of the story is that if it were easy, everyone would do it but they can't. So, are we bass fisherman considered athletes? Well, that's not for me to decide. All I can do is chuck and wind, catch as many bass as I can, and let the chips fall where they may!

Tap into the POWER of the "NET" to Catch More Bass!

Tim Hawley — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 06:00:00 GMT

As I continue to broaden my horizons and fish new bodies of largemouth bass infested waters across the United States I have realized the power of the "NET" to help me catch more bass more often. The net that I am referring to is not the net that helps you land tournament lunkers, the net I am talking about is the World Wide Web better know as the internet.

I have seen people literally kicking and screaming as they try to get up to speed with 21st century technology. Once they realize and see for themselves the power of this technology as it applies to their trade, they end up wondering how they ever did without it. Many bass fishing tournaments that are held across the country are on some of the largest reservoirs and lakes in their respected states. If you are going to a new lake that has hundreds upon hundreds of miles of shoreline, finding the productive water and proper lure selection to catch a tournament winning bag can be a daunting task and honestly down right overwhelming to some. I remember watching years ago a professional bass fishing show on T.V. that showed bass pros such as Rick Clunn actually renting a helicopter to fly over a body of water in order to just get the lay of the land. Professional bass fishermen will always do what ever it takes it seems to gain a competitive edge on the competition. Well the good news is, once you realize the power of the net you will not have to consider renting a helicopter like Rick Clunn used to.

If you want information about bass fishing, lakes, water levels, water temperatures, current flow, popular lures, bass fishing techniques, bass tournament winning strategies, satellite maps, topo maps, weather or what ever, it is only a click away! While searching for information on the internet I recommend using google as your search engine. Google is the largest and most popular search engine on the web today. More times than not when I type in Google the information I am looking to search for, Google is excellent at bringing back more relevant listings than their competition.

On my home lake of High Rock Lake, North Carolina I never leave home to hit the water without first checking two websites I discovered years ago while searching for information on the internet. One website gives me current lake levels, water temps, weather, water clarity, and current flow. The second website has numerous articles of all the local tournaments and the results held on the lake. This information gets me up to speed very quickly about what the bass are doing and gets me pointed in the right direction especially if I have not been on High Rock for an extended period of time.

This year I have several tournaments on bodies of water that I have never fished before. The first tournament is about three months away and I have already started doing my homework. By the time I leave North Carolina, I will have a great game plan and local information that I would not have been able to gain any other way without using the power of the "NET".

Strike Gold During the Winter Draw Downs

Tim Hawley — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 06:00:00 GMT

Imagine how excited you would be as a prospector looking for gold after a force of nature wiped away all the top soil and sediment leaving only shiny nuggets of gold laying on top of the bed rock. As a bass fishing fanatic, I get just as excited during the winter months as many reservoirs and lakes draw down their water to the lowest levels of the year. While most anglers are sitting inside watching post season football or college hoops, I set out to strike gold looking for hidden pieces of structure and cover bass may utilize the following year.
.
When I venture out looking for hidden gems like the stumps shown above during low water conditions,I make sure that I always bring plenty of paper and a good camera along.Many times in the past when I have located great structure during the winter draw downs, I have eagerly returned in the spring to see if any bass are relating to the area. To my disappointment, it has been very difficult to locate what I had discovered months earlier.A lot of the cover and structure found during the winter draw down is out of the water making it difficult to get good gps coordinates. I now take several pictures at multiple angles and write down every detail from bottom composition to proximity to channels, drop offs etc.I want to make sure I do not leave a single detail out.More than likely it will be several months or longer before I return to fish these areas. When the water rises 10 feet or more the lake will take on a whole different look and feel. By having pictures and fantastic notes, finding the structure again is not nearly as difficult.

Growing up in an athletic family I was told more than once that if I wasn't practicing or doing something to get better, then my competition was. I believe bass fishing is no different. The other day I got a call from a friend of mine who told me he was out fishing and that he had trouble navigating this particular lake because the water level was down over seven feet. The next day I was on the water camera and notebook in hand. I was able to take pictures and notes of almost twenty new places on that particular body of water that had great structure. Stumps like the ones found on secondary points above just scream five pounder next year!

During the winter months when water levels draw down to the lowest point of the year it is going to be cold, windy, and some days just down right miserable on the water. When most weekend anglers are at home drinking hot chocolate and coffee you'll find me searching for hidden nuggets of gold on the lake bottom. Hopefully this winter you can strike gold on your home waters and cash-in come tourney time next season!

Introduction to Tim Hawley Blog

Tim Hawley — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 06:00:00 GMT

Welcome to “Hawleywood”! My name is Tim Hawley a proud member of the Cashion Rods Pro-Staff team of anglers and I have a question for you? Have you ever dreamed of becoming a professional bass fisherman? If you have, you and I have a lot in common. I have been dreaming of what it would be like to fish full time for so long now it has become the main thing in my life that truly motivates me and gets my competitive juices flowing. There are so many hurdles to overcome to achieve this dream that when most fishermen begin to attempt this fateful journey they will fail and fall short very quickly.

Every Christmas since I was 16 or 17 years old I have been asking Santa Claus for a brand new fully rigged tournament bass boat. Still to this day the jolly big guy has yet to park one under my tree. My point is, there are always hurdles whether it is financial, maybe knowledge, or time factors to name just a few. For some like myself I don’t see these challenges as hurdles merely a speed bump and a possibility for good things to come. I believe everything happens for a reason and if you work hard enough you can create your own luck. I truly believe that one day soon I will be able to realize my dream and do what I love to earn a great paycheck. The road thus far has been full of surprises both good and some not so good. One thing is for sure though, I have learned a lot about this sport and industry and I want to share it with you! Am I a know it all……HECK no, I use all the brains I have and borrow the rest from others.

If you get a chance please read my bio on Cashion Rods website. In short, I have tried to catch anything that swims ever since I can remember. I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth and everything I have tried to do in the sport of fishing has come from personal sacrifice and perseverance. The purpose of this blog is to allow you to follow me along my personal journey as I pursue my lifelong dream. Will I make it, only time will tell but it will not be from a lack of effort and a give up attitude has no place in the Hawley household. When I take someone fishing with me for the day, there is only one thing that makes me happier than sticking a six pounder underneath a dock. It is seeing the smile on my guests face when they stick a seven pounder. With these blog entries we will be discussing different bass fishing tips and tricks, highlighting the latest trends, tips to secure sponsors, and life on tour and much more. For some reason I don’t achieve my personal goals maybe you will learn something from my journey that will allow you to shoot for the stars. Just like the people I take fishing, nothing would make me happier.