Mark Zona is Buried Big Snow – Planes, Trains and Automobiles with KVD

We got smashed with that monster storm that’s hit the rest of the country, that thing was a dandy; one of the top 10 I’ve ever seen.

It brought with it some interesting side notes. My boys, Jakob and Hunter have been off of school for the past day and a half, and Karin is down and out with a stomach flu. Basically, I’ve been Mr. Mom for the past two days, and I’m gonna be honest with you, I’m not good at it; at all.

I’ve recovered from my heartache over the Bears losing in the NFC Championship game. However, unfortunately, I probably owe more money from bets with the Mercury Marine marketing department than I’d care to count.

I’ve got two tickets to the Super Bowl, and if Karin is feeling better, we’ll be there, rooting for the Steelers. I grew up on the south side of Chicago, and there’s no way I’m rooting for the Packers. Where I come from, you’re born with a gene that would not allow that. In fact if my kids ever said they loved the Packers; I’d consider disowning them.

I went through a real life Planes, Trains and Automobiles scenario with Kevin VanDam on our way to and from a Bass Pro Shops appearance in Florida last weekend. What was supposed to be a 12 hour trip, turned out to be more like a three day expedition. Of course, we’re bros, and although I love him like a brother; we were both sick of each other by the time we got home.

What was really cool about it was spending time with Kevin listening to him while we were stranded; it was kind of like my own private seminar. You’d better believe that I grill him with all kinds of questions about why he chooses what lure for given situations when we’re alone.

Anyway, Kevin is still a guy that is in love with his sport. We spent two and a half hours stranded on a plane looking through a Bass Pro Shops catalog – page by page. It’s nice to see that he still gets fired up about fishing, and that new things in a catalog can make him stop and take notice.

The cool thing is that I can share some light line tactics with him that he can actually pick up some tips from occasionally. I mean, while we were sitting there waiting after another missed plane, we talked about a drop shot bait for two hours; what a couple of geeks.

Well, the Bassmaster Classic is getting very close, and I am looking forward to it. For those of us at B.A.S.S. it’s a grinder. This is kind of like our finals week, and it’s really cool to get our Super Bowl in the books as our first tournament.

First of all, it’s getting our most difficult production schedule out of the way right off the bat; which means I can spend the rest of the Elite Series schedule goofing off with Tommy Sanders. Secondly, it really does create a true explosion of interest in the sport.

The Classic really does get people fired up, and it wakes the industry and the fans up from a long winter off. I guarantee you that there will be hundreds of thousands of folks fired up to go home and hook onto their bass boat to go fishing after that tournament.

This Classic could be one of the most interesting one’s yet, and I’ll get into my reasons why in our next chat.

To get more awesome, visit Mark Zona and his Awesome Fishing Show on the web at: www.markzona.com