Fantasy fishing

I'll admit, I'm really a nerd when it comes to fishing.

The past few winters, I've spent time snuggling up to bass fishing books. The reading always helps me get over the anticipation of spring and the upcoming fishing seasons.

But last year, I discovered Fantasy Fishing by FLW. This changed how I read (at least in 2008) during the winter. I went from understanding bass biology to understanding who Shinichi Fukae and Michael Bennett were, and how a couple of Minnesota anglers could compete with the boys down south.

While 2009 hasn't drawn me in as much as last season, I'm still enjoying reading about fishing. Now, however, I find myself looking forward to the tournaments because I know I can follow live updates via Twitter.

I follow FLW magazine edtior Jason Sealock on Twitter, and the most current FLW tour tournament happens to be on Kentucky and Berkley Lakes. Sealock just happens to live near Kentucky Lake (he often tweets about Kentucky Lake from his personal fishing trips), so he's been very busy since Thursday tweeting live coverage.

Possibly one of the hardest things about following pro fishing, whether it be bass, walleye or crappie, is that TV coverage of these events always comes out long after the tournament is over.

With 200 some boats in these tournaments, it is easy to understand how difficult live coverage could be. But, at least in the bass tournaments, the field is pared down to 10 anglers.

Ten anglers. Seems to me an outdoors network somewhere could cover the first couple hours of the field of 10. But I don't see this happening anytime soon.

Which brings me back to Twitter. I hate to admit that I'm addicted to the posts from Sealock. I hate to admit that I've logged on religiously to Twitter since Thursday just to catch his updates.

But like a baseball game on the radio, I find the Twitter updates to be an excellent alternative to television coverage, and I will probably be following religiously again Sunday.

As I said, I'm a fishing nerd.