I had an interesting experience last week. I helped Gerald Swindle take some guys fishing for one of his sponsors, Diet Mountain Dew. The trip was done in cooperation with David Miller from Buffalo Rock.
Here’s the way it went down…
Mountain Dew has a program where the top salesmen and women from several of their divisions here in Alabama and the surrounding area get to enter a drawing to go fishing on Lake Guntersville. It’s a pretty cool deal. If I understand things right, there were over 150 entries for the drawing.
This is the second year for it. Last time they only had 43 entries. That’s a good increase which tells me it’s a popular deal. I’m proud of that because I’ve been involved both years. I’m not saying I’m the reason it’s popular, but I would like to think I’ve helped in some small way.
There were six winners. They get to stay one night at a local place called the Dream Ranch, and it’s just that — a dream. I’m sure they had 2-inch thick steaks and all the trimmings they could handle. The Dream Ranch doesn’t know how to do anything that isn’t first class.
They’re involved in both hunting and fishing trips. On the hunting side they do deer, ducks and quail. They even have trophy buck semen available for a breeding program, if you’re into that sort of thing. Their fishing trips are on Lake Guntersville. If you don’t want a guide, that’s OK. You can just get a room for the night.
It’s a place you might want to check out if you’re coming to the Guntersville area. There’s no place you’ll be treated any better. I want to congratulate Diet Mountain Dew and Buffalo Rock, too. After all, they picked the place.
There were four pros who took out the winning salespeople for a day on the water. They were Gerald Swindle, Alex Davis, Derick Remitz and me. I had two of them in my boat. We caught fish and I’m glad about that, but that’s only a part of the story.
One of my guys, Brad Cotney, had never caught a fish before, never. But, his son is eaten up with bass fishing. His dad seemed pretty excited when he started catching them so maybe there’ll be something going on. It’s always good for a young angler to have someone who not only supports him but also knows something about what he does.
If we’re honest, we have to admit that not everyone sees the point in trying to catch a fish just so you can turn it loose. Anything that any of us can do to help grow our sport and make people like fishing is worthwhile. I think we did that with this trip.
My job was to help with the fishing. I’m not sponsored by Diet Mountain Dew or Mountain Dew although I love the stuff and drink it all day.
Everyone involved — companies and people — should get credit for helping to keep our sport going. Without sponsors and supporters we’d have nothing. Please keep that in mind when you make purchases. Use a fishing sponsor when you can.