James Niggemeyer – Time to Prepare Experimenting for Success

It’s the week after Christmas, and we had a funny story to share.

My mom out did herself and bought my daughter Abigail a great big kitchen. The box said it was a toy, but I bet if we plumbed it and wired it, we could cook with it. As you can imagine, the other thing the box said was “Assembly Required;” boy did it ever.

We had it about a third of the way to completion when I looked around the corner and my son was crouched under the side table between the couches sneaking a peek at what we were doing. I said Daniel, what are you doing? And Sandy turned around to see him trying to hide even more.

Sandy told him that he was lucky that it wasn’t his present because it would have been taken away. He just said, “But, I couldn’t sleep Mommy,” and went back to trying to see what we were up to. He keeps it interesting around here, that’s for sure.

Well, the offseason for me is a time for fine tuning things; I use the time to do some experimenting with rod, reel and line for the perfect combination for a given technique I’ll use for the upcoming tournament season. I also use this time to go over maps of lakes we’ll visit in the Opens and the Elites.

I use this time to get more familiar with my sponsors new products. One of them has been Strike King’s new Tour Grade Tungsten weights, and I like them a lot. I’ve never been one for insert free tungsten weights; I have always added inserts, which can be a time consuming task that can actually reduce sensitivity.

These have changed my opinion on that topic. There’s something about the manufacturing and polishing process won’t fray or break my line. I’ve played with them for several weeks now, and have been very impressed; in 2011 I will be insert free!

I’ve been trying some new rod models from St Croix, and finding how they balance with my Ardent Reels, and I’m getting really comfortable with Sunline’s new FX2 Braid; that stuff is right. It’s different than Super PE, which I will continue to use in other applications. It was designed for flipping and frogging and I am really happy with it.

I also use this time to go through tackle and get it ready for loading into my Bass Cat when it gets here. I change out crankbait hooks, putting on new Daichii trebles, and bulk up my X-Point hook selections as well. I’m a bit of a tinkerer, so it takes a little while to get it ready.

The other thing I’ve done this past week was get a crash course on my new SHO 250 Pro Four Stroke from my Yamaha teammate Takahiro Omori. T.O. has been giving me the inside scoop on maintenance, prop I’ll need and the advantages of everything from on the water performance to storage benefits because won’t have to carry cases of outboard oil anymore.

I’m really excited about getting my boat and getting it set up. Until next week – Happy New Year.

To learn more about James, visit his website at: www.jamesniggemeyer.com