Back in the 1990s my brother bought me a t-shirt from Stroud’s Restaurant in Kansas City which read in large letters, “We choke our own chickens!” I thought it was pretty funny until some woman in the airport took offense. That shirt has been lost to the ravages of time, but if you want something similar you can get the one seen above from Skinner Baits.

As far as I can tell, there’s no segment of the fishing world that embraces angling-specific tattoos as readliy as the hard core swimbaiters. It stands to reason, because they’re the closest analog we have to the world of skateboarding, and the overlap with punk rock, heavy metal and hiphop cultures is apparent.

On my drive to the 2020 Bassmaster Classic, my first stop in the state of Alabama was not at a gas station. It was not at Dreamland for ribs. It was not at Talladega. Instead, I very purposefully made a beeline directly from my Virginia home to Scottsboro Tackle in the town of that same name.