John Murray – Packing Up Fun with T.J.

2010 is coming to an end, and that means we are getting closer to Amy’s last day of work. The whole thought is exciting and a little scary at the same time. I’ve never gone on tour with family like this, but knowing how good I feel when they’re around me gives me a lot of hope for the season.

I’m still prepping for the year, and because I sold my boat so long ago, my shop looks like a mess. I’ve spent quite a bit of time trying to reduce the amount of tackle I’ll carry this year. I’m sure that it probably needed to happen anyway; I had a lot of stuff, but that’s not the main reason.

Amy’s already told me that I’m not allowed to have any tackle in the motor home on tour; it all has to be in the truck. Part of the reason is because of trying to keep clutter down in the coach, but also because of T.J. He has a tendency to get into my tackle and play with plastic worms. Then, once he gets in there, I’ll find them in areas of the house I didn’t know a lure could go. I found a soft plastic crawdad in my bed the other day.

I think it’s a lot of fun to watch him play with them. He’s got hundreds of toys around here, and he’ll leave all of them alone to play with a Roboworm or a soft plastic crawdad. Actually, I can watch him play for hours and I enjoy every minute of it, but he’ll turn around sometimes and have a bait or two sticking out of his mouth, and that cracks me up.

The good news about my tackle storage situation is that I’m running the new Mercury Verado 250 Pro Four Stroke on my Ranger Z521 this year; which saves me space in the truck. I normally have to carry eight cases of oil in the bed of my truck when I leave Phoenix for the year, and I won’t have to this year.

That extra space is going to make it easier to load the truck. Plus, I really loved the Verado the last time I ran one, which was 2006. The electronic steering and shifting was really smooth and the motor was quiet and powerful. I hear they’ve made this one even better.

I am anxiously awaiting my shipment of Powell Endurance rods, the new series that my rod sponsor put out this year. It’s been a while since I had a whole new set of rods, and can’t wait to get them. I’m also waiting on a full set of Ardent reels, I’ve been playing with the XS1000 casting reels and the S2500 spinning reels will be awesome on the new Endurance rods.

My boat’s almost here and I can’t wait to get started. Like I said last time, Amy, T.J. and I are all in, ready to go.

Visit John Murray’s Website at www.johnmurrayfishing.com