What a week!  We just got back from ICAST which is one of the largest fishing conventions of the year for industry professionals only.  Companies from all over the world congregate to the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando to see what's new and upcoming in the fishing world.  Since we were headed to Florida, Josh and I took a few extra days and headed to the beach beforehand for some much needed time off.  We only had 48 hours so we had to make the most of it.  To be honest with you, the last several months have been quite exhausting for both of us and all we really wanted to do was chill out.  Not necessarily outside either.  Because lets face it, it's Florida in July and anytime you step outside it's H-O-T no matter where you are.    We had our fun frolicking in the ocean and drinking rum runners by the pool but since our room was on the top floor of a beachfront hotel we were a-ok spending the majority of the time in there.  I posted up my camera on the tripod with a zoom lens attached and watched the dolphins feed during the day and photographed the thunderstorms from our balcony at night. We took naps, got sunburned, drank a little too much, ate a little too much, watched NatGeo and got caught up on life for a minute.  We decided that this will be our ritual every year.  But maybe even try to tack on a few extra days next time.

I’m a terrible person, I know.  Four months ago I told all of you that I was starting over in life and going on this amazing journey and taking you all with me and then I totally ghosted you.  Please accept my sincerest apology.  These have been the craziest/most fun months of my life but it has also been the most difficult.  For the last 17 years there has been structure in my life of a 9-5 job with a paycheck that gets deposited every other Friday.  Not anymore, my friends!  Working for myself has been a huge learning experience of what my new normal looks like.  Aside from running my business, I have also taken on management of Josh Douglas Fishing full time.  There are so many things that go on behind the scenes of a professional fisherman and I’ve been taking each task in stride.   Finally, after all this time do I feel like I can start sorting through everything on my plate and manage it appropriately. 

​How is possible that the end of 2016 is only days away?!?  Holy moly this year went so fast!  Don’t think I’m complaining, because I am ready to take on 2017 like never before.  This next year is going to be a big one for the Douglas’s and I can’t wait to share with you what’s up our sleeve.  But until then, you’ll just have to settle for what we were up to over the holiday weekend. 

You may recall my post from last week when Josh and I were up on Mille Lacs doing some shooting for a video we're working on for the Biovex Padas.  Well, after several long evenings of endless editing I can finally say that we have a finished product!  Whenever I'm making these videos for Josh, I just assume that they will be going on his personal YouTube page at which point he will then share it on various social media sites.  NEVER do I think that what I am working on will just get picked up a major fishing publication.  So when we got the call from Bassmaster that they wanted to run the video exclusively on their site, I can not explain the level of excitement that we got over that!  They ran another one of our videos a few months ago with a great response and to have them pick up this production from "The Widow" is beyond humbling!  I don't think I can give a big enough THANK YOU to the powers that be over there for this amazing exposure.  Hope you guys enjoy it, you can check it out on the BASS site here.

So I'm not entirely sure what's happening with our weather lately, but I'm sure not going to complain about it!  We've been averaging in the 60's for the last few weeks or so and from the looks of it this is where we'll be staying for at least another week.  ​Traditionally, by this time of the year in Minnesota we are prepping for cold weather and snow.  We've broken out our Uggs and puffy winter coats.  We've started bulking up for what's inevitably going to come our way.  What we are NOT doing is fishing on Lake Mille Lacs in 70 degree weather!  Or so one would think.  Enter this past weekend...