Puttin' our pants back on.

[Captain Fred Archer]

Our "Thank You" bar sale for SFC members ends Thursday night. It was supposed to end yesterday, but Capt Bob tells me he spoke to several members who were ordering stuff or catalogs that said they didn't know about the sale? We haven't done a lot of shouting about it, mainly because that seems to offend a few folk, but others have been happy as hell with our offer. Bob has requested that I post this and extend the cut-off to Thursday night. So be it.

Details available by emailing RNRBOB@COX.NET or calling him at 949 493 6440Party is over Thursday midnight.

I am fully affiliated with this company. I made this offer as a form of thanks to anyone in the entire membership for the fine way that I have been treated here and how special I think this site is. The offer speaks for itself.

[jwalker]

Our "Thank You" bar sale for SFC members ends Thursday night. It was supposed to end yesterday, but Capt Bob tells me he spoke to several members who were ordering stuff or catalogs that said they didn't know about the sale? We haven't done a lot of shouting about it, mainly because that seems to offend a few folk, but others have been happy as hell with our offer. Bob has requested that I post this and extend the cut-off to Thursday night. So be it.

Details available by emailing RNRBOB@COX.NET or calling him at 949 493 6440Party is over Thursday midnight.

I am fully affiliated with this company. I made this offer as a form of thanks to anyone in the entire membership for the fine way that I have been treated here and how special I think this site is. The offer speaks for itself.

Spreader BArrrrrs don't catch fish

Everyone knows that...

Jeezum

[Captain Fred Archer]

Aayup, CodHauler.

Be careful, JohnMonster, or I won't show you the HOUSE ROCKER we've got a'comin soon. An utterly new kind of bar.

Ain't no loggin man, neetha, Yankee!

Ain't you learned to talk Californy yet dudeaayup?

[Pecos]

Anybody care to tell me what's going on here? I've bought spredder bars from both Capt. Archer AND Melton's. While I haven't used Archer's yet, the ones from Melton's sure seem to pull the dolphin off of the weedlines and the kings (ugh) attack them with great relish. Am I the only consumer who has been tricked into pulling bars? If I am ...somebody please save me from myself!

PECOS

[Captain Fred Archer]

Pecos,

Ah, jeez, looks like me and Johnny caused a problem that we didn't intend to. We were just funning with each other and I'm sure that John's comment was made with tongue-in-cheek and aimed at some who do think that bars aren't the fish-catchers that they are. He's been an avid bar user on both coasts and has caught a pile of fish on them.

He an I are good friends. He's a great kid and my buds and I took him under our collective wings when he first moved out west from Boston and helped him any way that we could. We fished a lot together too, and believe me, we caught lots of bar fish.

Then Johnny caught the eye of Tracy Melton and now works full time there. He's a solid addition, too.

We and Melton's are competitors - fierce ones when we get at it, but that's business and as it is with a lot of the old timers (and believe it or not, Tracy is one of those as far as the business is concerned), we keep the business and the personal sides separate. I've know Tracy for at least fifteen years now and consider him a respected peer and a friend throughout that time and I'm pretty sure he feels the same way.

I have been in this business for a long time now. It is a small one and all of the good guys know, respect and help one another. I'm talking the whole tamale here; rod and reel manufacturers, line companies, lure companies, dealers, distributors, many top captains, the whole shootin' match. It is an inner circle that not everyone can get into. A new entry is Poon Man. Chris is making his mark as a straight shooter and good guy and is sliding right onto an inner circle saddle. He and I are actually competitors too, but we are good friends. Others, including some here, will be joining the circle before long, I think. I am certainly not the judge of that sort of thing. There's a bunch of them.

Finally, Johnny and Tracy and I are good friends, but do not get between us when we lock horns! When it's "game time", we beat the crap out of each other until there's a tie or someone wins and the other gives up.

Reminds me of when I was a kid. My best friend and I were both pretty good football players. I wound up a tight end at Pittsburgh. He wound up a defensive tackle on my side at of all places, hated rival Penn State. Tony's dad had died when Tony was just a kid. We were so close that he and his mom and brother and sister used to do the holiday dinners and all of that together with my family. We were like brothers...until the kick offs. Then we tried to kill each other! I hit him with the hardest crackback blocks (legal at the time) I could muster and that big mother (270#, which was a horse back in those days - my playing weight was 235) hit me with some forearm shivers that almost took my head off. It was war!

Then, after the game we'd go back to the dorm at whichever school we were playing at, and call home and talk to all the folks about what a great game it was.

Well, that's the way it is in the fishing tackle game that a lot of us play. Bitter rivals/good friends. If the mutual respect is there, it can be both ways.

I can't speak for those "other" bars, but I'll tell you this, you're gonna catch a lot of fish with ours and they are going to be a pleasure to fish with, Pecos.

Now, if we could only get rid of that Boston accent of Johnny's, more people will be able to understand what he's talking about without having to have a translator along with them...must have been something else down there in the Carolina's! Aayup!

[HUMMERDUDE]

Fred,

I would of but some but your friend Bob never showed up at the docks! " Dana Point " We waited for 2 1/2 hours at the luanch ramp and not even a phone call! That was a bummer we lost time of not being on the water!

I'll stick with Meltons!

[Pecos]

Capt. A
Thanks for expaining how this thread started out. Those of us blessed by the THE LORD ALMIGHTY to be 100% TEXANS sometimes get confused with the interdealings of yankees. Except for beans and bulldogs, to tell you the truth, I never gave "Boston" much thought. Where is it anyway?

I'm sure glad these bars are the real deal. I was afraid for a minute there that all of those fish I caught on the bars I got from Meltons were just flukes so to speak. Nobody pulls them much on the Texas coast yet. I ordered some on a whim to pull through broken up weed to try to find dolpfin. At times the saragassum wouldn't raft up but just stay all scattered so that you couldn't drag anything with a hook in it without loading up salad every 100 yards or so. When we dragged the bars, we just watched until the mahi came bounding out all excited.Then we'd throw out a handful of chum and it was on.

When I could troll in a normal fashion I just used them as teasers and ran a bait off another rod behind the bar. Never thought of tying the hook off the darned bar! At any rate, I anxiously await the ones I ordered from ya'll AND your how to book. Tell your partner to hurry up with the shipment. Mas rapido jefe...por favor!!!

PECOS

[TheBigI]

Pecos I fish up her in Jersey and always pull 2 bars when tuna fishing. Anytime we catch fish we always get atleast one or the only one on the Green Machine spreader bar. Lots of charter boats including the renowned Canyon Runner pull even more than two with great success. However, I've never pulled Captain Archers, but have heard good things about them.

[tom s]

who you callin old timer?Tom(your big5 pal)

[R'nR Bob]

Hummerdude/Mongo?. Reading your post really makes me out to be the bad guy here. Not so. The boat owner (your fishing partener) and I spoke the afternoon of the day before your trip. He wanted a couple of our new Daisy Bars and explained he was planning on leaving out of Dana at 4am the following day. I offered to meet with him and hand deliever at 4am. Good stuff and all are happy. Later a phone call from the boat owner says the trip is off, that somebody bailed. I offered to ride along and demonstrate. Ok, alls good again. Boat owner explains he would be tired (working some kind of swing shift) and the trip would not be a 4am start but that it would be before or after traffic (workday rush stuff here in so cal). No problem. Another call says he has a new partner to fish with and they would be before or after traffic. No problem, just give me a call about an hour away from the launch ramp and I'll meet up with you guys and deliever the Daisy Bars. OK, following all this? 7 am rolls around and no phone call. I'm off to deliever some packages to be shipped and back at the phone at 9:15 am. Two messages, one at 7:15 saying your an hour away and another at 9 am saying you are and have been in the water for awhile. I try the cell number and get a no service message.
What I am trying to say to all here is this, I tried to do what most would not even consider and it did not work out. Tried to go above and beyond and for my efforts I get slammed. Thanks Mongo/Hummerdude for absolutly nothing.
Hey, I'm not perfect, but I do try.