4/26/2011
Operation Outdoors - Home and Filming with Kerr


Hello Advanceangler.com viewers! It has been a slammed four months on the road for Rebecca and I. Matter of fact we were only home for seven nights in the first 101 days. Our Operation Outdoors USA soldier program which benefits the nonprofit Lone Survivor Foundation was a monstrous success for us. Traveling to 11 major cities we were able to collect a little over 3000 soldier signatures on our new Phoenix bass boat!

This boat will be donated to the new Lone Survivor ranch in the fall and used weekly as a therapy/healing tool for wounded warriors. If you’re not familiar with the Lone Survivor Foundation it was founded by retired Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell which wrote the New York Times Best Seller “Lone Survivor”. This book is amazing and has inspired Rebecca and I to help pay it forward to help those who have given so much to their country. You can learn more about the Lone Survivor Foundation by visiting their website at lonesurvivorfoundation.org

The last several weeks have had us on the road filming for season 4 of Jarrett Edwards Outdoors and I really feel like this season is going to be the best one yet! We just returned home last night from Lake Havasu which is on fire! We filmed with great buddy and past FLW/US Open winner Justin Kerr. Now Justin is a great guy who does many positive things for the sport. It really surprised me though how quick he had us on the fish…especially since he just arrived from the last FLW tour event back east and hadn’t seen the lake in several weeks.



Fishing was outstanding as Justin put us on several four-pound smallies and a couple largemouth about 6 pounds! I believe we filmed for about 6 hours and had about 24 pounds in our five largest! As I write this we are heading out the door to the Delta and the Columbia River in Washington and truth be told…I can’t wait to start catching them again! I will keep you posted on our season 4 launch in midsummer as we have some very exciting news coming down the line…have I told you how much I love my job???

For now It’s so good to be home…if only for a night. It’s kind of weird not having to sanitize the Hotel room daily. I’m guilty of always looking out the window every hour to check on your rig parked in the dark parking area or worry about what restaurant to eat at etc. Being home is so nice and something I will not take for granted again.

Ahhh… no place like home! Till next time remember to wear your life vest, too many boaters have already lost their precious lives this year in tragic accidents on the water…many who could have been saved. Have a blessed week ahead!

1/14/2011
Operation Outdoors: Jarrett Plan of Attack
How the Program Works



Hello Advancedangler.com readers! On our previous blog I introduced you to our Operation Outdoors USA soldier program and explained how were trying to pay it forward and honor US troops of all generations. Now, by reading below you will be able to find out the facts about the program and how you can nominate your favorite soldier today! Please keep in mind the video submissions do not need to be professional. Shoot one on your camera, cell or flip phone! You will be able to view and vote on your video once it’s uploaded to our site!
Rules Of Engagement…Operation Outdoors USA

Who Can Participate?
Operation Outdoors USA is open to all the men & women who have served our country through many decades. The program is open to all those who are retired, or active duty from all branches of the US Military…Our country has 50 million outdoorsmen and with this campaign we are reconnecting the soldiers back to the joys of fishing and the healing powers that water has to offer.
Activation: Step #1

Beginning in January, we will be towing and displaying our American flag wrapped truck and boat to a variety of shows. The truck and boat combo will be parked inside the shows and our goal is to have all the soldiers who are currently serving, served in the past or family members of those soldiers who gave all, to be able to sign our boat. By signing, we are honoring those who have served and were keeping their commitment to our great country alive. The second reason for signing is to give hope and inspiration to the soldiers and families who will be using this vessel for many years to come.

The American flag wrapped boat ($50,000 Value) that we will be towing around to all of these events will be donated to the Lone Survivor Foundation after all signatures are final (Fall 2011).

The foundation was founded by retired Navy SEAL, Marcus Luttrell, who on June 28, 2005 survived a major Taliban ambush where the other three SEAL team members were KIA. He went on to write a New York Times Best seller “Lone Survivor”. Today Mr. Luttrell is one the nation’s leading motivational speakers. The Lone Survivor Foundation mission is as follows:

Vision:
★ Provide therapeutic and unique opportunities to optimize recovery and healing our American Patriots – Our Wounded Warriors, Their Families, and Surviving Families.

Mission:
The Lone Survivor Foundation will go to extraordinary lengths to:

★ Welcome home, empower and restore American wounded warriors, their families and surviving families &

★ CALL Hometown USA TO ACTION to inspire the American public to pay forward the Pashtun tradition of Lokhay Warkawal

Products:
The Lone Survivor Ranch
★ The heart of the Lone Survivor Foundation will be an all encompassing phased in ranch retreat will support a multitude of outdoor activities, and the practical application of the activities will be built around a rehabilitation and wellness model. The primary intent is to create a safe haven for warriors and their families (including children) to relax and heal. The ranch will be a retreat and rehabilitation complex on a BEAUTIFUL piece of property in TX.

★ The ranch will have an on-site gym complete with coaches, trainers, and all support needed for a fully guided, individualized and targeted physical recovery. There will be a strong counseling aspect interwoven into all activities which will include team building, martial arts, shooting, hunting, archery, obstacle courses, equestrian therapy, pet therapy, bowling, rock climbing, art therapy, journaling, fishing, yoga, and spa services, to name a few. The clinical staff will all have training in pain management, because that is an issue that affects almost all of our wounded warriors, and therefore their families

Step #2
For each person who signs our rig, I will give them (Veteran, Soldier, family member) a card with instructions to go to www.JarrettEdwardsOutdoors.TV and click on the Operation Outdoors USA tab to nominate their favorite soldier through an uploaded simple video submission to our website. Criteria for those who will submit video nominations will be to choose their favorite soldier and what he or she is doing or has done to give back to their community in positive ways. Soldiers cannot nominate themselves and video submissions will have a maximum time limit of three minutes. Any video over the three minute mark will be deleted. For folks who do not have access to video recording equipment but still want to participate in our program can nominate their favorite soldier through a 600 word maximum essay complete with photos. Video and essay nominations have a fall deadline of October 15, 2011. On November 1st the top six videos/essays chosen by the American public will be awarded an opportunity for a Lake Powell House Boating vacation for them and their families.

The Retreat: Plan of attack
The top six video/essay winners and their families will receive the opportunity to join us on the trip to Lake Powell in Page, AZ. (May 2012) They will be able to sleep and play on luxury houseboats, have meals prepared by private chefs and go fishing with ESPN Bassmaster Elite Series pros plus more. While the soldier is out fishing, his family will have the opportunities to Jet Ski, hike, swim, etc. The possibilities are endless at Lake Powell which is the world’s most scenic lake and also #1 House boating destination. Jarrett Edwards Outdoors will also film an hour long episode to cover all of the great stories that America has voted in. For more information on Lake Powell please visit Lakepowell.com

2011 Appearances for Operation Outdoors USA Boat Signings:
Come meet Jarrett & sign the Lone Survivor Boat!!!
-January 6-9 International Sportsmen Exposition – Denver Colorado
-January 20-23 International Sportsmen Exposition – Sacramento California
-February 24-27 International Sportsmen Exposition – Phoenix Arizona
-March 17-20 International Sportsmen Exposition – Salt Lake City Utah
(Above ISE shows – active Military personnel receive free admission into shows! With proper Military ID)

-March 9-13 Fred Hall Boat Show – Long Beach California
-March 24-27 Fred Hall Boat Show – Del Mar California

Thanks for participating!

www.jarrettedwardsoutdoors.com

1/6/2011
Operation Outdoors: Giving Back
Thanks to the Soldiers

According to a recent case study that I purchased it states that 71% of today’s active duty soldiers consider themselves sportsman and anglers. For several years now my wife Rebecca and I decided that it was time to do something special about honoring the troops. With that being said we created the largest ever give back to the troops within the outdoors with a program called Operation Outdoors USA.

June 28th, 2005 is a day I will never forget. At age 25 I was sitting in a Cancer ward with an IV pumping chemo into my chest port wondering what I would do different in life if the lord granted me a 2nd chance to live. After all I have been blessed with a successful career in the ESPN Bassmaster circle…although living a dream was great, it simply was no longer fulfilling to me. The pre cancer me, was all about trying to advance in tournament rankings and gather larger financial endorsements, none of the above helped me when I felt like I was dying. As minutes turned to hours in the chemo room I remember looking up to the TV. It was the national news playing; however it was the ticker on bottom of the screen that got my attention. It stated that 4 US Navy SEALs were missing in action – presumed dead. This woke me up inside and gave me additional motivation. I might be sick…but at least I have a chance to live I remembered thinking.

Fast forward to 4 years later I gave up competitive fishing to start our National fishing show “Jarrett Edwards Outdoors”. While traveling to a sponsor function my wife purchased a book for me to read on the long plane ride. The book was Lone Survivor by Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell. About a quarter of the way through the book it hit me that Mr. Luttrell was one of the 4 US Navy SEALs presumed dead that I had seen on TV. He was the lone survivor and his amazing book and actions motivated me to reconsider what I’m doing with my 2nd chance at life.

My wife Rebecca and I decided to create the Operation Outdoors USA soldier program to help give back to those who have sacrificed so much for their country. For generations, every minute of every hour of every day US military personnel have kept us safe as a country, many hundreds of thousands giving their life to do so. To help give back we have created Operation Outdoors USA as a simple way to help honor and show appreciation for those many men and women who continue to pay it forward. Every day, there are those humble veterans within every city and state who choose to give back in their own unique ways – we want to find them and have you the viewer vote on your favorite stories.

We are excited to publicly acknowledge and reward those who have given back to their country and neighboring communities. Operation Outdoors USA is solely funded by my wife and I who choose to lead by example to want to give back in our small, humble way. We have saved for this program for a few years now and are excited for what the future brings!

We are middle class citizens who simply want to do our part. We do NOT profit in any way shape or form from our program, we encourage those who want to give to help donate their time and finances to the Lone Survivor Foundation. lonesurvivorfoundation.org

Lastly I would like to thank all of our long time sponsors for supporting us so we can help support others. For 11 years now Rebecca and I have made our living from our endorsements and have been blessed to represent our fine partners who see and believe in our media company as well as our US Military.

Now this is the part where you help, do you happen to know of any soldier (active or retired) who goes above and beyond in your community? If so please read next week to learn how to nominate them and give them a chance to win a trip of a lifetime! Together, one step at a time we CAN make a difference!

www.jarrettedwardsoutdoors.com

12/29/2010
Operation Outdoors: Meet Jarrett


Hello Advanced Angler followers! My name is Jarrett Edwards, I’m 31 years old and the fishing industry is all I have ever known. My obsession with the competitive side of the business began while I was in high school in Del Norte Colorado. Now imagine living at 8000 feet elevation and having to travel one hour over one of the world’s most deadly passes (Wolf Creek, 12,000 ft) just to try and catch a bass. Well that was my life during high school, every day after school traveling over Wolf Creek Pass to Echo Canyon reservoir. Fortunately for me I was lucky to have caught and landed the Colorado state record for largemouth Bass. Even though I knew the fish lived there I was certainly surprised when I caught it. It was a bitter sweet moment because it was the first fish I ever caught on a Carolina rig!

After school I moved to beautiful Lake Powell, where I began guiding for stripers and bass. This was a lot of fun and work as I began cutting my teeth on some of the most finicky fish in the west. It was at this point when I realized that light line (Meaning 4 pound test) certainly will get the average angler more bites. I quickly fell in love with the lake, after all I really don’t know of anyone who doesn’t like Lake Powell. Today Powell is the second largest manmade lake (2nd to Mead) and is 186 miles long with 96 amazing side canyons. The lake is humongous as it has nearly 2000 miles of shorelines and in my humble opinion is America’s most scenic lake (Basically Grand Canyon with water in it). I came to Powell for the first time for a Bassmaster event in 1999. If I’m correct I never had a keeper bite in all three days of competition, this made me furious yet gave me the hunger to move to this magical place and try and figure things out! Throughout guiding I would continue fishing the Bassmaster western opens trying to earn a spot on the back then Top 150 tour. As luck would have it in 2003 I was fortunate to have the opportunity to fish against some of the world’s Elite anglers, and I have to tell you it was every bit as hard as I thought it was going to be!

In 2005, at age 25 I remember feeling a lump above my left collarbone while in official practice for the Lake Norman Bassmaster tour event. I remember one Friday I was standing in line picking up my check at the BASS trailer and the next Friday I was getting a port installed in my chest for Cancer – crazy times coming for sure. Over the next several months we began strong chemo and radiation to treat the 3 egg size tumors in my throat and a large fist and a half size tumor in the center of my chest. I have to tell you that I was very blessed on many levels to survive the disease. First off having an amazing wife, family and sponsors were blessings in disguise. One might look and ask why sponsors were mentioned with family etc. The reason is that we have always made our complete living off of our partnerships. I was very concerned that when many of our partners found out I was sick that they were going to drop me…thankfully they stuck with us. Our partnerships in many ways are like a large family and I wouldn’t have it any other way!


Coming out of cancer made me stronger in many ways. My faith in the lord was at an all time high as well as my focus on my career ahead of us. Heading into the inaugural season of the Bassmaster Elite we were excited about things to come, however something was missing…My motivation.

I decided it was time for a change in life. Cancer really woke me up and made me realize that you have one chance at life and one better make the most of it! I had always wanted to produce a national fishing show that was dedicated to the west coast angler so in 2008 we launched Jarrett Edwards Outdoors National TV. The show has taken off above our expectations for being a pretty new show (entering season 4). My motivation for the show was basically the lack of western fishing shows; it appears that most shows are shot from Texas to Florida. I wanted to change this to give the west coast viewer a first class HD production shot with aerial and underwater dive shots on his or her home water. Although that portion was a home run it was surprising to hear from the many anglers who enjoy the show east of the Mississippi. Many of those anglers have emailed in saying that they appreciate the fresh techniques. What an honor to hear those comments.

We are also very excited to announce the largest ever give back to the troops within the outdoors with our new soldier program “Operation Outdoors USA”. However I’m out of room for this blog so please check out the next one!

Jarrett
www.jarrettedwardsoutdoors.tv