PITTSGROVE TOWNSHIP, N.J. – After years and years dreaming, Mike Iaconelli finally built his rig/tackle facility. Ike calls it ‘the barn,’ and its time-saving tackle tricks take the cake.
Despite turning 44 in June and fishing professionally for more than two decades, Iaconelli has never had a space devoted solely for his truck, boat and tackle, but he’s been thinking about what features he’d like to have since he was a kid.
“Every year, I would think of little things,” he said, “if I ever got a chance to build a space, wouldn’t it be cool to have this.
“Up until we built this barn, I’ve always had my boat outside, covered up, and then put my tackle wherever I could put it. I never had my own space. This makes it so easy; everything is at your fingertips.”
Maybe the most convenient feature is a drive-through garage, eliminating any end-of-a-long-trip or late-night fancy maneuvering, even backing up for that matter. Other organization features include rod lockers right next to reel shelves, a line-spooling station, a massive pegboard to hang tackle, a wall of storage shelves, a workbench plus more.
“It’s all about time management,” Ike said. “I’d love to do the math. I’d like to add up, in the course of a year, all the minutes I’ve saved by using this system.
“I’ve like gained an extra couple days to a week of fishing … that I’m not spending digging, or frustrated, or having to order stuff, or on the phone with Becky. If I can get to it, it might mean 20 more casts in the course of a day, or an extra hour. It’s just time. Saving time.”
Check out the gallery of Ike’s barn, an elite Elite man cave.
THAT’S NOT A KEEPER
“Don’t pull!”
That’s what the Bavarian skinny-dipper hollered to the fisherman who hooked him in the penis. (I’m playing this one straight. Make your own jokes.)
The naked swimmer, who wished to remain anonymous, felt a sharp sensation and looked up from his crawl stroke to see a fisherman. Once on shore, the angler cut the line and the hooked man then bicycled home, drove his car to the emergency room and was successfully disconnected, with instructions not to swim or shower for a week.
The angler at Augsburg’s Kaisersee, a popular bathing spot for the naked, had little sympathy for the hooked swimmer: “He told me it’s not an official swimming lake and that it’s his right to fish here, and there are signs up to prove it … From now on, I’ll swim a bit further into the middle.”
The report in thelocal.de did not give details on the angler’s – aahhhh, just … can’t … stop … myself. The angler was rumored to have reeled in a Fire Tail worm in Peachy Flesh, and it didn’t start that way but became Wacky Rigged.
NIXON GETS OVERHAUL
Larry Nixon, who won two AOY titles and a Bassmaster Classic, was in high spirits despite just having his chest cracked open as surgery to put in a stent turned into a quadruple bypass.
His humor jumped out in a Facebook video, where he updated the fishing world that he was home, still alive and planning to fish next year after his quick tune-up at the garage.
“This is one of them little things,” he said. “I had to have four new pistons and a new valve, and I should be good for another 100,000.”
Nixon, who showed the huge scar on his chest, said his doctor called him lucky because his condition was called the “widow-maker.” While Nixon healed up and headed home in record time, don’t make him laugh. That and coughing hurt.
We’re all certainly glad he’s on the mend.
CAN’T KEEP A GOOD LEGEND DOWN
And now there’s confirmation that if a bass fishing legend misses qualifying for the Elites, there’s a way he can stay on the circuit.
“Bass fishing doesn’t yet have a ‘seniors tour,’ so we decided it would be good for the sport to provide a way for legends to remain active in the Elite Series,” B.A.S.S. CEO Bruce Akin said in announcing the move.
Here’s the full story on the legend invitations. But wait just a minute, what does “yet have a seniors tour” actually mean – you’re thinking about one? There’s one in the works? Woohoo!!
Wouldn’t that be about the coolest thing since air conditioning? Imagine the laughs if Roland Martin and Jimmy Houston had a half-day battle against Bill Dance and Jerry McKinnis. We could call it Legends LIVE. It’d be legendary, ah-ha.
Of course, there’d probably be a lot of cheating going on, or attempts at cheating, but then who would care about the actual fishing match anyway, except them of course. Just getting those four to sit down and share stories would be treasure enough.
Everybody had a pretty fun time the last time B.A.S.S. brought together a bunch of legends to fish an event. That was in 2011 at the All-Star event. Check out the legends on the water and at their weigh-in.
HARTLEY MOVING TO CONROE
Charlie Hartley was pretty much serious when he said to the Ike Live audience that he’s going to set up shop on Texas’ Lake Conroe.
“I’m going to move down to Conroe. Worked pretty good last time on Hartwell,” he said.
Hartley was talking about next year’s Classic on Conroe because he qualified for it last week in the Open on the James River. His only other Classic was in 2008, when he apparently camped at Hartwell and even led after Day 1.