Tonight will be the second episode of Ike Live! from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET. Our new Classic champion, Randy Howell, will be a phone guest beginning at 10:00 p.m. ET. He’ll take your questions via phone, e-mail, Twitter and instant messaging at MikeIaconelli.com.
We’re really excited about him being a part of the show because it’ll allow all of his fans, and really all the fans of professional bass fishing, to get answers to their questions direct from the man himself.
The reason I’m announcing this today is so some of you can get your questions ready. What we’d like to do is not concentrate so much what bait he threw and why but rather on other things like his career, his life outside of fishing, his mental preparation and maybe a little about how he lives his personal life.
I know the bait thing is important but it’s been covered a dozen times in other places on this site. You can get all the details about that there.
I’m also going to pay a debt I owe Becky during the show. We’ve hardly said anything to anyone but I agreed to shave my beard if I didn’t win the Classic. I’m not sure exactly how that happened, but it did. Now I have to pay up. That’s the bad thing about deals like that. Sometimes you lose.
She’s making me do that on the show tonight — live. Our producer found a professional barber who’s going to use a straight razor and give me an old-fashioned shave.
Other than that, about all we’ve been doing up here is trying to survive the winter. It’s snowing again today. It’s done so much of that this winter that it doesn’t even seem strange anymore. It’s like facing ice, snow and cold winds is normal. I know we live in New Jersey but this is ridiculous. It’s time for spring as far as I’m concerned.
Later this week we’ll be celebrating Becky’s birthday. I’ll be fishing Seminole on the actual date so we’re going to do it early this time. That’s always a fun thing.
Now that I’ve mentioned Seminole, let me say that I’m really excited about fishing there later this month. Lake Seminole was the site of my second professional win back in 2002. That tournament was held in February. I’m not sure my win will help me figure them out in the middle of March 12 years later but it’ll sure help my mental attitude, and that won’t hurt me one bit.
It’s been said a thousand times but it’s still true. The best lure you have in your boat is your mental attitude and the belief that you can catch them. I can personally attest to that. Start believing you can catch them right now. I guarantee you that 2014 will be one of the best years of your life as far as your bass fishing is concerned.
Next time we’re going to talk about picking colors for tough fishing conditions, especially highly pressured waters like most of us fish on the weekends.
Mike Iaconelli’s column appears weekly on Bassmaster.com. You can also find him on Facebook and Twitter or visit his website, MikeIaconelli.com.
