4/20/2011
Fred Roumbanis - Highs and Laughs
Elite 12 at Toledo Bend, Blow up Dolls at Pickwick

I’m at the PAA All Star event at Ray Hubbard Lake in Texas, and I just left my best event of the season so far at Toledo Bend. I’m really happy to have finished fifth at the last tournament. Having had a rough couple of seasons over the past two years; to make an Elite 12 cut, and be on that stage on the final day is a really good feeling.

I had a lot of fun catching them at The Bend; I found some fish on a little ridge and I caught them on a 5-inch Optimum BLT swimbait and a one-ounce green pumpkin Pepper Jigs Football Jig with an Optimum Double Diamond and a double tailed grub as a trailer. I was speed swimming the jig and to keep it in contact, I had to throw it on 15-pound-test P-Line Fluorocarbon. I tossed it on my iRod Magic Stick and an Ardent XS1000 reel.

I broke a couple of fish off in the standing timber because I was using lighter line than what I wanted to, but I couldn’t get the bait down to get bites if I didn’t go lighter; so there’s always a give and take.

I finished 34th at Pickwick before that, and I was really happy to scrape by with a check and the points for a decent finish. Of course I always want to do better but sometimes that’s just the way things work out.

I’m sitting 7th in the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year points, and I’m happy with the position, but I want to climb even higher and have a chance to contend for the Angler of the Year title.

Something happened at Pickwick that I really need to talk about. We had to get off the water early on Tuesday’s practice day because of the severe storms that hit the area. I was pushing it to get a little more practice in when Julie called and asked if I was getting off the water. Just as I was hanging up with her I heard the wind pick up and the trees cracking and rain and hail coming.

I strapped everything down, put on my mask and took off out of the backwater area I was in onto the main lake. The wind was building big rollers on the water and my Triton was bucking the waves through the hail and I was getting soaked and riding the waves like a roller coaster.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw something flashing near the shore and when I looked closer between waves and I saw a pair of hands waving. When I got a really good look I saw that there was a head that was bobbing up and down too.

By then, I was just about past the area, so I gunned my Mercury and turned the boat around to head back. I swamped the boat, and took a bunch of water over the side, but it didn’t matter; I wanted to see if I could help. The closer I got, the more frantic the hands were waving and they were pale and puffy, so it appeared they’d been in the water a while.

I started to get really sick to my stomach thinking I’d found another dead person on the water like I had in Detroit a few years ago. I felt like I was going to throw up, and as carefully as I could; I got closer to them. As I stood up to see what I could do, I found out that it wasn’t a person after all; instead, it was an inflatable adult blow up toy.

It was raining too hard to take a picture because I didn’t want to ruin my phone, but I showed my Marshal on the first day of the tournament, and by then it was pretty funny.

Anyway, I’ll talk to you guys again soon.

Visit Fred on the Web www.swimbaitfred.com

3/16/2011
Fred Roumbanis - Elite Series Underway
Good Start and Good News

I started the Elite Series season in with a 29th place, and while I wanted it to be better, I’m certainly happy with a solid start.

I spent most of my week with an iRod Bub’s Punching Rod or my iRod Magic Stick in my hands; I was Flippin’ and pitchin’ and throwing a frog. I had some huge blow ups on a frog but none of them took it down so that I could catch them.

I mainly flipped with an El Grande Lures tube and a Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver on the Punching Rod with an Ardent F500 Flippin’ reel and 65-pound-test P-Line Braid with a tungsten weight and a 4/0 Gamakatsu Heavy Cover Flippin’ Hook. Most of my weight came on those two rigs.

I did have one heartbreaking moment on Saturday. I pulled into an area and saw an eight to nine pounder sitting on a bed with a little male. I flipped my El Grande tube in there and out of nowhere came a four pounder; which I caught.

After putting that one in my livewell, I went to work on the big one again. On my fourth flip into the nest she got really aggressive and spun around my lure. Then I felt my line jump; so I set the hook. As soon as I did she went sideways on me; I knew I’d foul hooked her, but it was worse.

When I got her up to the boat, I had actually wrapped my line around her like a lasso, and tied a knot around her pectoral fin. I had no idea how I did that, but when I let her go, she swam off, and didn’t come back.

As for the St. John’s River, it’s been like watching one of those wildlife shows on TV. I’ve seen everything from manatees, to rays, too many alligators to count and a bunch of biting gnats. Good thing I have the Buff that Power Pole gave to me, because that keeps them off of my skin.

One of the manatees got me all wet though. I was trolling through an area minding my own business when one of them came up and splashed me with its big paddle tail. I guess I scared him, but I really didn’t mean to.

Anyway, I’m excited about the start, and really pumped up to go fishing. In case you haven’t heard by now, Jackson is going to have a little brother or sister in a few months. Julie and I found out in January, and we’re both really excited about it.

I’m also happy to hear that all of our friends at ima Japan are okay following the earthquake and tsunami. I feel terrible for all of the families that lost people and property to that tragedy, but my friends and sponsor at ima are okay, and we were really grateful to hear that news.

Keep praying for Japan as that country tries to start recovering from the tragedy.

www.swimbaitfred.com

2/8/2011
Fred Roumbanis - A Good Start
Big Fish at Okeechobee

Well, I finished the FLW Tour Open on Lake Okeechobee in 7th place. The finish is a great start to the 2011 fishing year, and I’m really happy about starting this way. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that the finish was kind of a letdown though after being in 4th place on day one and 2nd place on day two.

I caught my two big bags on Thursday and Friday sightfishing. Five of my fish the first two days were eight pound or bigger, and my 34-pound bag on the second day included a $500 bonus fish. My 9-pound, 8-ouncer was the daily big bass, and it got me a bonus; that was cool.

I used a couple of tubes all week. The first one was a giant Tora Tube on a jighead that I used to fire up the big females. Once I got her mad, I’d switch to my iRod Magic Stick that had a Green Pumpkin Chartreuse Swirl El Grande Lures tube on a 4/0 Gamakatsu EWG hook.

I really wanted to catch them on the El Grande Tube because it was a higher percentage lure for landing them, but the big fish bit the Tora Tube, and I had to hook her with that. I was using 20-pound P-Line Fluorocarbon in that clear water and I was worried about setting the hook too hard and breaking the fluorocarbon, but it all worked out.

The wind came up and some locals fishing live bait really impacted my area on Saturday, and I didn’t adjust fast enough. I could have just gone fishing and caught some pretty good bags, but I was fishing for the win, and thought I needed to sight fish to do that, so I kept at it.

I saw a manatee on the water during the tournament; which was cool. It was laying under my boat munching on hydrilla, and there was a giant herd of alligators in the area. I don’t know if alligators eat manatee, but I would have been a little scared if I was that animal.

We took Jackson to the canals searching for alligators the day after the tournament, and we found two of them. The weather change made the temperature colder, so there weren’t many of them out. I’m sure they were somewhere trying to warm up.

It was a good week, and a good start to the tournament season.

visit Roumbanis on the web at www.swimbaitfred.com

1/29/2011
Fred Roumbanis - Okeechobee
Florida for the Boom Boom Family!

We left early yesterday morning for Okeechobee and the FLW Tour Open.

I wanted to leave a little earlier, but I was working the Oklahoma City boat show for Nichols’ Marine and Triton. The show was good, Nichols’ has like four different shops all over Oklahoma, and they do a great job. I got back from the show late Thursday and we left really early yesterday for the Big O.

This is our first long trip in the new Ford pickup, and I’m really happy with it. We’re fully loaded and I’m getting almost 17 miles per gallon towing the boat; that’s a good deal for the budget.

I had to borrow a boat for the tournament, mine wasn’t quite ready, but it’s in process, so it’s getting closer.

I want to say a special thank you to Master Sergeant from the Air National Guard Jody Haralson for letting me use his boat for Okeechobee. He’s a soldier, and he and his sponsor at Copher’s Boat Center in Fort Smith Ark. made sure the boat was ready for me to use; I can’t thank them enough.

We made it into Florida last night, and we’re burning up the miles to make it down there today. Jackson keeps talking about seeing Charlie Hartley. He loves Charlie; well we all do.

He was telling me the story of his ten pounder he caught at the Southern Open on Lake Toho last week; his excitement for the sport of fishing is totally infectious. He reminds me all the time what it means to love what we do, because when you’re around Charlie, you just can’t help but be positive, he really makes you smile.

Julie and his wife Tracey have become really good friends, and they’re always one of Jackson’s favorites to see. That may be because they spoil him so much. When we saw Charlie and Tracey at the BASS ZONE .com Fish and Chips tournament at Grand Lake in October, they gave him a big bag of candy; Jackson loved it.

I got in an order of iRods in from Matt Newman before we left, and I’m all ready to go now. He sent me some of my 7’5” Fred’s Magic Sticks, which is my do everything rod. He also sent me some of his Punching Rods and I know that I’ll have both tied up for Okeechobee. Six rods, that’s all I want on the deck during this tournament, Magic Sticks and Punch Rods; then I’ll be in my element.

www.swimbaitfred.com

1/13/2011
Fred Roumbanis - Cold!
Jackson the Firefighter with a Friend?

Things have been quiet around our house lately. The weather’s been cold and I can’t fish much, which is okay right now. I’ve been working out at the gym pretty hard.

We’re still on the lookout for a title sponsor for the season, we’re a little behind schedule on it, but that’s the way things go in this business. But, we’re using the time to our advantage.

The busy season is ahead of us, so we’re trying to spend as much family time together as we can. We did try to go fishing as a family the other day. We took the time to go to a heated dock on a lake near us to go fishing for crappie.

We got down there and the heaters weren’t working, so it was cold in the dock, plus it was really hard to get a 1/32-ounce through an inch of ice on top of the lake; we lasted about 10 minutes.



One of the really cool things we did recently was take Jackson over to the Kiefer Fire Department where a friend of mine, Kellen Davis is a Volunteer Fire Fighter there. Kellen let Jackson climb and all over their fire engine; he blew the horn and played all over that rig. He’s spent the last few days running around putting out imaginary fires all over the house; it’s really cool.

Now that I think about it, Kellen is one of the really good guys out there. I met him when I found out about his company that sells tungsten weights. He’s got a side business called Percussion Tungsten Weights, and he really works hard at everything he does.

He volunteered to play Santa all over the place at Christmas time, and even volunteers to help fix stuff around people’s houses when they need it. It was snowing the other day and we had a problem with one of our fences; he rushed over to help us fix it; he just a really good guy.



Well, I guess I’ll get back to working on tackle; I just got a box of super secret stuff from the guys at Pepper Jigs. I can’t wait to see what’s in there, they’ll make just about anything I ask them to, that’s really cool.

www.swimbaitfred.com

1/6/2011
Fred Roumbanis - Big Smallmouth
Big Bronzeback and New Lures

I’m sitting here on the floor of my garage organizing my new order El Grande soft plastics baits. At the same time I’m using the time to organize all of my other tackle too.

Jackson is running around “helping” me, and he’s actually done a pretty good job with some of my Plano boxes, but for the most part, my garage looks like a tornado went off. I’ve got boxes and bags of plastic everywhere and I’m not sure how long it’s going to take me to get it all together, but it’s starting to look better.

The longest part of the process is organizing the plastics. I put enough of the baits in a Plano box to last for a day, and store the rest of them in the bags that El Grande ships them in. It works out pretty well, but I’m always trying to think of new ways to store them.

I fished a local jackpot tournament on Sunday over at Grand Lake and finished 3rd; it was a lot fun. We caught them mainly on Ima Shaker crankbaits, but a few other things mixed in. I got to play with my iRod Gabe’s Rip Rap Special for a dedicated amount of time, and I’m completely happy with the rod; they handled the Shaker and the fish perfectly.



I went fishing yesterday too, and jacked a bunch of smallmouth on an Ima Flit 100 jerkbait. I love fishing for smallmouth, and when I can catch more than a dozen of them over three pounds, it’s even more fun. One of those fish was a solid five pounder that ate a Ghost Minnow Flit 100; that fish was awesome, and a bunch of fun to catch.

Well, I’d better get back to the organizing before it gets too out of hand. I want it all to be ready when my boat gets here.

www.swimbaitfred.com

12/29/2010
Fred Roumbanis - Boom Boom's Corner
Catching Up

Julie and I have been scrambling for most of the offseason.

Along with the ever present business of working with current sponsors and looking to partner with new ones, I’ve been finalizing my schedule for 2011, and I’ve got quite a few tournaments that I’m fishing. I’m confirmed in the Elite Series, the four FLW Tour Opens and the B.A.S.S. Northern Opens. I’m also probably going to fish the PAA Series, but haven’t quite made up my mind yet.

That gives me 12 events that the first prize is $100,000 and several other tournaments that I can earn quality paychecks. The goal for the year is to make 10 of those tournaments result in $10,000 paydays. I want to make the Classic again, which will cap what I hope is a great year.

In preparation for the year, we bought a new truck at Bob Hurley Ford in Tulsa. It’s a black F250 Super Duty with black Rockstar wheels and a custom grill which they only made 16 of for the year. The truck is awesome, and it’s even got Jackson’s little movie theater in the back for our road trips. The guys at Bob Hurley took really good care of us, and I appreciate it.

My new Triton 21HP and I’m running the new Mercury Verado 250 Pro Four Stroke on it. The boat is somewhere in the production process, and I’m looking forward to getting it and getting started. I’ve also been going through my tackle, and getting it ready.

One of the biggest things was ordering my Gamakatsu hooks for the year. I’ve got a bunch of new baits from El Grande lures that I needed to outfit with hooks. This is also the time I change out hooks on my Hardbaits, so I put new Gamakatsu trebles on my ima Roumba’s and other baits. I’ve also been stocking up on P-Line and getting my Ardent reels ready too. They’ll all be outfitted on my new set of iRods, so the offseason has been busy.

I have a theory for this year; I had my best season in 2007, and now that I’ve got a 2011 truck and a boat, I figure their going to bring me good luck. Seeing as how seven and eleven are lucky numbers in gambling, I’ll ride those numbers to a successful year.

Christmas was nice and relaxing, for the most part. We had Christmas morning here at our house, then went to Julie’s mom and dad’s for the rest of the day. Most of our excitement can when Santa came to our house a little early. He knocked on the front door on Thursday and walked in the house; Jackson was amazed that Santa came to visit him at home.

We had a funny Jackson moment a few days ago. He came in early one morning and jumped on my head while Julie and I were sleeping. I didn’t quite know what to say, so I just said, hey there. He looked at me and said, “that was a funny move on your part dad.” We all started laughing.

There’s never a dull moment around here.

Visit Roumbanis' Website at: www.swimbaitfred.com