The new is up!! DP's on a roll....and we're glad to see he didn't have seek refuge (asylum??) in the OBX Forum after that "thing" with the boaters a couple days ago We'd miss him in the DelMarVa forum...but it was nice of derf to offer asylum in case it was needed!

Happy Thursday to all of you...Friday's right around the corner...and then...well, you know the rest. This weekend there's going to be a pretty fair bunch of SOL'ers heading to the Somerset, NJ show...check SurfTalk for details. I'm not sure when Dubs and I are headed up, but it'll most likely be some time on Saturday afternoon. I'd really like to get a little fishing in this weekend...I'm starting to lose my (fragile) grip on reality being without fish stank on my hands in over a month now! Paul Naj and I were just discussing this last week....last year at this time, we had just given up fishing by about a week! It's not like we suffered through late December and the first half of January trying too eek out a few fish either, it was some of the most solid fishing of the entire year. This season, the later part anyway, was a complete and utter failure when compared to last season. No further comment, I'm still somewhat broken hearted by the late season no show from my striped friends :-(

Where are my manners?!? Since this whole move thing, we have added a couple hundred new members to SurfTalk and I would like to take a moment to welcome them all here. So...Welcome to all the new folks!!! If there's anything you need help with or just plain wanna say hi, shoot me an e-mail. I hope you find whatever it is you're looking for...whether it be a specific question or a desire to become part of the community. Don't forget to "look around" while you're here, there's hundreds of pages with many different features, make yourselves at home and don't hesitate to holler if ya get stuck!

OK, the server things are going very well...now I need a little help. If anyone runs into the dread 404 Error - Page not found....please click on the email link in that message and let us know...it's the only way to get things at 100%. All I need to know is what link you clicked that bought up the message, the rest I'll take care of here. I've tried to be extremely thorough...but there's bound to be some links somewhere that escaped me...them bastages! ;-) Also, if one of the "features" is giving you grief or not behaving the way you'd expect, shoot me an email and we'll get right on it!

One of the new things I've been promising and just last night got wrapped up the way I like it is a new e-SurfAuction format! It's a major step towards integration with SurfTalk...check it out, it's very nice. I'll be putting a few more very interesting boxes of lures/flies/materials/etc up there very soon so everyone can get a peak at the new format. People keep reminding me that I would get MUCH more money for the stuff I auction off here on eBay..yes, I know that. ;-) Almost 100% of the auction items here are sold at a loss to me...but I've been doing it trying to draw interest to the auction. I feel it's a better format for selling things than the Buy/Sell board as you can set a lower limit for which you'll sell the item without setting a cap on what's the most you'll take for it. In other words if I want $25 for item A, I'll make my minimum $25....but that won't stop it for selling at $40 or $50! It depends only on the level of interest of the bidders. Anyway, more items heading to the auction soon...keep yer eyes peeled!

Also, coming up in the next 24-48hours: The long awaited Lamiglas Rods/Blanks pages....the long awaited Hooligan's page....and here's somethin' you didn't even know was coming...it was gonna be a surprise....The Weekend Warrior by John Budish will become our first weekly column here!! Many of you know John, he's good people and an interesting writer, it's an honor to have him offer to write his column for us! Thanks John...looking forward to seeing some fresh Weekend Warrior stuff! Also, after another meeting with Eric, it's official, he will be SOL's custom rod builder. He's local to me, has loads of experience, wraps a beautiful, well thought out, functionally sound, and built to last custom rod. One of the main reason's Eric was chosen is that he's done work for me and I have been thrilled...and he will be able to turn rods out in a very reasonable 2 weeks! The details and pricing information is written up already...one more get together with Eric and I will put the pages/info on the site and we'll get the ball rolling! I sincerely hope that Forum Leader and friend Al Goldberg doesn't take offense to my not considering him for this task...I doubt he would take offense, he knows how much I respect him and his spectacular artwork and craftsmanship in building rods. His work is in such demand that he's often booked up solid for months...which is a great thing if you're Al...not a great thing for a spontaneous custom rod purchase. His customers are not generally the spontaneous type, having Mr. Goldberg build you a custom rod is as much an honor as it is a purchase, his work is like no other's and as such is in an entirely different price range. No offense intended Al, ya know I love ya! ;-)

SurfChat's been really busy lately as well and it breaks my heart to not be able to hang there with the crew....but I'm going to make certain that I get to spend a few nights a week chattin' with everybody in there....that's a whole lotta fun! Some of the guys had a chance to meet Mike Laptew up at the Ft. Washington outdoors show this past weekend...sadly, I wasn't among them. I was told Mike's show was excellent, I will indeed have to see it this winter! And congratulations to BobPop and Ed Jaworowski on the amazing (yet well deserved) success of their new book "Pop Fleyes"! The responses have been nothing short of outstanding from anyone that I've heard comment on the book....now I just need to put aside a bunch of hours and devour this future classic for myself ;-)

Sincerely,

Tim Surgent