I’ve been meaning to start this blog for a while now but time has a way of getting away from you when you’re charging to get ready for tournament season on a new boat.

This year brought me a golden opportunity. Every once in a while the stars line up just right and things just roll your way. Thanks to Corey Myer whosepassion for fishing iscool as hell, and a team of guys who not only know how to get it done, but are hungry for it, we are off to a pretty good start.

I can’t lie, when Steve came around with Badger I was jealous as hell, what a beauty, a pure fishing machine, designed by the best heads in the business.When Corey first asked me to run his prior boat, the 60’ Hatteras, I was stoked. When he bought the new Bandit I was dumbfounded, what a dream come true.

We started our season in August, the marlin season was still pretty young but the fish were biting a little, we meant to shake the boat down and see how it trolled. We ended the weekend with four jig strikes, two marlin, and baited five swordfish for no bites. We were stoked with the performance of the boat. The first day, we caught bait, left Newport at 7:00 a.m. ran to Clemente fished till 4:00 then ran to San Diego to pick up Rich at 6:00 p.m.

The rest of the season was a blur, between building rods, building lures, learning the boat, putting a team together, and fishing the Catalina circuit, my head was spinning, but thanks to Corey’s patience and confidence, Anthony’s expertise in team dynamics and angling ability, Eric’s unbridled energy, Rich’s trolling expertise, and Pat’s, great eyes and hugebladder (inside joke), we managed to finish our season with 26 local marlin in fifteen days of fishing,hauled the boat, loaded up and were off to Cabo in a week.

Kevin joined us in Cabo, man, talk about going to school. This guy has caught seventeen granders and countless other monster fish, I’m hoping somehow that maybe through osmosis, being around him will make me a better fisherman, just the stories are worth the price of admission. If any of you ever go to Kona, you have to fish with this guy, he is a good person, and a killer fisherman.

Even though we got off to a slow start, we had a good strategy that managed to get us two big blacks at the right time, with slow fishing, we feel pretty good.

So here we sit watching the rain fall, waiting for hurricane Rick, and hoping to get one more shot. Anthony is back on Badger, we miss him, but he is where he needs to be. We thank him for the help, and wish all the boys on Bad Company the best of luck.

Tommy Neikirk