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LAKE CHARLES, LA – Hook & Barrel Magazine is proud to present the Salty Catch Trout Shoutout held at the Lake Charles, Louisiana Civic Center. The event will be held June 5^th in partnership with the State of Louisiana and sponsored by PENN, plus local top sponsorship by Navarre Auto Group and is expected to host nearly 2,000 people. Adding excitement and community camaraderie to the tournament, a festival style day of entertainment will bring the community together for a great cause. Beginning at 10am, the community is invited to watch anglers from around the region and as far away as Texas, try their luck at winning the first prize pot, a whopping $1,000.00 for the biggest speckled trout as part of an overall cash and prize winnings exceeding $10,000 for other placing fish! Throughout the day, anglers will be bringing their fish in to be weighed. Along with this, vendors will be set-up throughout the Civic Center grounds near the amphitheater where visitors can browse local offerings as well as meet with the Penn team and meet the Editor-in-Chief of Hook & Barrel Magazine, John J. Radzwilla.

The crowning jewel of the event will be a community concert held from 3-5pm. Rising country music star and American Idol winner, Laine Hardy, will headline the main stage and delight fans as well as raise money for hurricane relief. A native of Livingston, Louisiana (pop. 2,000), the 2019 winner of American Idol was six when he picked up his first guitar and later joined his brother playing in local clubs and bars for upwards of six hours a night, inspired by artists ranging from Luke Combs to Elvis Presley to Mark Broussard. After winning American Idol in 2019, Laine focused on songwriting and touring, headlining shows in Denver, Indianapolis, Sacramento, Minneapolis, Lexington and more.  Laine’s 2020 “Ground I Grew Up On” virtual tour, made over 15 online stops to date, with views at 2 million and counting.

Laine’s latest hit song on country music radio nationwide.

Tickets for the event and angler registration go on sale April 15. Event tickets can be purchased on hookandbarrel.com/tickets and anglers can register on saltycatch.com. Read more

Raymarine Axiom owners with Mercury SmartCraft marine engines can now enjoy deeper integration with Mercury Marine VesselView technology

Mercury Marine is broadening access to its powerful VesselView function with the new SmartCraft Connect gateway. The new gateway delivers Mercury Marine’s premier engine-information-display experience to Raymarine Axiom®, Axiom+, Axiom Pro, and Axiom XL users. Simply connect the SmartCraft gateway via NMEA 2000 to access vital performance data and alerts for up to four SmartCraft-compatible Mercury engines.

Mercury VesselView for Axiom is accessed through a new VesselView app on the LightHouse 3 home screen. Raymarine Axiom and Mercury owner can also access VesselView data in the chartplotter, sonar, and radar apps through a slide-out sidebar display. VesselView alerts are available system-wide across every Axiom display in a Raymarine network. Raymarine Axiom owners with SmartCraft compatible engines can download the forthcoming LightHouse 3 OS update – LightHouse 3.14 Fremantle – to take advantage of the new VesselView functionality. Read more

Orlando, FL — TBA Outdoors is excited to announce the Big Bass Bonanza Giveaway from frogg toggs, creator of high quality rainwear, waders, cooling products, footwear and accessories.

The outdoors brand is calling for bass fishing enthusiasts to enter their third annual giveaway, with a prize package valued at $6,500. The giveaway will run from Thursday, April 15 to Thursday, May 27, 2021. This year frogg toggs is also introducing weekly Instagram giveaway opportunities during the 6 week contest period.

One lucky grand prize winner will receive a giveaway bonanza of fishing equipment and accessories featuring great gear from brands like FIREDISC Cookers, Duckett Fishing, Heybo Outdoors, Orca, B&W Trailer Hitches and frogg toggs.

PRIZE INCLUDES:

• frogg toggs gear bundle
• B&W Trailer Hitches gear bundle
• Duckett Fishing Bait bundle
• FIREDISC® Cooker Original 24″ Short and gear bundle
• Heybo Outdoors gear bundle
• Insights Fishing tackle bundle
• Orca 26 Qt Cooler
• Rapala gear bundle
• $500 Simpson’s gift card
• Turtlebox waterproof radio
• Wiley X Sunglasses

“frogg toggs has put together another great prize package this year with some amazing outdoors brands,” says Todd Fuller, President of TBA Outdoors. “We are excited about the Big Bass Bonanza and bringing all of these great brands together for the lucky winners”.

Click Here for your chance to win! Read more

INMAN, S.C. – April 19, 2021 – TrueTimber has teamed up with ProFISHiency to host a giveaway tailored for bass fishermen and women heading out on the water this spring and summer. Three lucky winners will be randomly selected over a three-week period to win a rod and reel combo from ProFISHiency along with a $250 TrueTimber gift card. To enter, fans can ‘swipe’ on the interactive TrueTimber Instagram giveaway story posts for their chance to randomly be selected as a winner for the weekly prize.

“Fishing season is in full swing and we thought this was the perfect time to work with ProFISHiency to give our fans a chance to win some awesome prizes,” said TrueTimber CEO Rusty Sellars. “ProFISHiency offers competition quality rods at a price any fisherman can get behind and that is an idea we are very thrilled to support. We look forward to our three lucky winners having a great setup out on the water.”

Week 1 Prize (4/19/21): Read more

Anglers will discover an extraordinary performance-to-price ratio in new Daiwa spinning reels

Cypress, CA – For anglers searching out their next reel that offers a high level of performance to value, now available, Daiwa’s Laguna LT was built for you. Abbreviated “LT” for “light” and “tough”, the Laguna LT offers everyone from panfish and trout anglers to bass, walleye, and inshore a solution that won’t leave your wallet empty.

In terms of application, the Laguna is available in six sizes – all the way from a pocket-sized 1000 model for panfish and smaller freshwater fish to the LAGUNA LT5000-C, which fits the bill for inshore applications and larger freshwater fish pursuits.

The reels feature a carbon frame, ABS aluminum spool, as well as DIGIGEAR® technology. DIGIGEAR means machined, digitally cut gears that are polished to increase smoothness and gear meshing. Daiwa’s Laguna LT is also considerably more resistant to wear than similarly priced models. Read more

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Michigan’s massive Saginaw Bay will host three regular-season events this June, B.A.S.S. officials announced today. College bass anglers will head north for the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series presented by Bass Pro Shops, which will be held June 16-17. Meanwhile young anglers will get their opportunity to weigh in a giant Saginaw smallmouth during the Mossy Oak Fishing Bassmaster High School Series presented by Academy Sports + Outdoors and Mossy Oak Fishing Junior Series tournaments, both on June 19.

“We’re excited to give young anglers an opportunity to compete on Lake Huron and Saginaw Bay,” said College and High School Series Senior Manager Hank Weldon. “B.A.S.S. is always looking for opportunities to let college and high school anglers compete on a diverse range of water. Many of these teams might be experiencing a northern fishery for the first time, but it also gives teams who can’t travel to events in other parts of the country a chance to qualify for 2021 National Championship tournaments.”

Weldon credits local host Bangor Charter Township along with strong partners from the Michigan B.A.S.S. Nation and Great Lakes Bay Area Convention & Visitors Bureau with bringing these large tournaments — and their boost to the local economy — to Saginaw Bay. Due to overwhelming interest in the series, B.A.S.S. will once more cap the College and High School Series field sizes at 250 boats. Each high school event will also include a field of up to 50 boats for competitors ranging from second to eighth grade as part of the Junior Series.

At more than 1,100 square miles, Saginaw is not only the largest of Lake Huron’s bays but is also the largest freshwater coastal wetland in the United States. While the fishery hosts healthy populations of both largemouth and smallmouth bass, the area has been known traditionally for walleye fishing. Read more

BoatUS Foundation and Berkley Recast & Recycle Contest seeks new ideas, concepts

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – You’ve likely seen the fishing line recycling bins in many marinas and boatyards, but what really happens after that line is collected? Recycling it into new products is labor-intensive, requiring a series of workers to comb through, sort, clean, remove hooks and weights, and separate out encrusted debris from miles of entangled fishing line. There also aren’t any recycling programs for fishing-related materials like soft baits.

The BoatUS Foundation for Boating Safety and Clean Water and Berkley have teamed up with the Recast and Recycle Contest to offer $30,000 in prize money ($15,000 first place, $10,000 second place, and $5,000 third place) for new and innovative ideas that could improve the process, increase the amount of fishing line and soft baits that can be recycled, create new recycled products, or offer a technology breakthrough in the way line is recycled and reused. Read more

Minnetonka, Minnesota – Rain, rain, go away? Nah. Let it rain!

When the sprinkles start, zip into the new Rapala RAIN suit and hit the water without worry of getting wet. Both waterproof and breathable, Rapala RAIN outwear is exceptionally crafted, using premium materials, and is fitted for comfort.

“When your drive to work is a highway of water, you need outerwear you can count on day after day, week after week, year after year,” says Tony Roach, an in-demand fishing guide on Minnesota’s Mille Lacs Lake. “With superior gear, from a legendary name you can trust, you can weather the storm, be it rain, boat spray, wind and – if you’re unlucky enough – even snow.”

Roach is among a cohort of high-profile anglers across the Upper Midwest who will fish comfortably in inclement weather this season outfitted in Rapala RAIN gear, including outdoor-television hosts James Holst, Travis Frank and Kurt Walbeck, from In-Depth Outdoors, Minnesota Bound and Outdoor Bound, respectively. Each is accustomed to hitting the water in unforgiving conditions. Read more