http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1/ Join the discussion about surfcasting, light tackle, saltwater fly and tuna tactics at Edgeangling.com. Also, member blogs, photo galleries and fishing reports. en Thu, 20 Jun 2013 12:29:06 GMT vBulletin 5 http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/images/misc/rss.jpg http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1/ http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1-e448/ Thu, 26 Jan 2012 20:13:21 GMT I know it might sound crazy, but winter is the time I'm able to work on new projects and "catch up" on a lot of software updates and such for the business. This winter is starting to have a really good "feel" to it as well. Lot's of work getting done. Some behind the scenes changes that should start to pay off for our clients.

A quick list of some of the highlights.

- new one page checkout implemented
- lots and lots and lots of sql development
- major update to the forums software
- tablet for the sales floor

there's a lot of work left to be done this winter, but we're definitely off to a good start. The one I'm most excited about is all the sql development that's going on. This development work going on is going to provide the basis for some really exciting features and improvements this year. It will allow us to keep our inventory fresher than ever moving forward, as well as create some exciting new web experiences for our client base.

Stay tuned, lots of good stuff coming. ]]> cchobot http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1-e448/ http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1-e227/ Fri, 04 Jun 2010 04:33:49 GMT Discovery is a huge part of what makes angling fun for me. Learning a new approach, spot or technique can take everything you thought you knew and... Discovery is a huge part of what makes angling fun for me. Learning a new approach, spot or technique can take everything you thought you knew and turn it on it's head.

This evening, Jenks showed me a spot on a local river he'd fished before. As we peered down into the water from a bridge we saw two huge fish. These were probably carp, about 26-28" Long, and moving around in tandem. I can remember a time when I wouldn't have been so interested, but from what I've learned, carp have earned quite a reputation. Couple that with my recent affinity for the show "River Monsters", and I had trouble taking my eyes off them.

Tonight I stopped by one of my favorite online spots, Rich Strolis' blog. I read about his recent success employing "Euro-Nymphing". I was intrigued, and I can't wait to give it a try.

There's a lot to discover when it comes to angling. About a week ago I had my first experience squid jigging. It was awesome. I need to give a special shout out to my teacher Ziggy, and his crew for taking me under his wing and trying to show me the ropes. I jigged next to a man known to me only as "The Squid Master". Watching him I was all too aware of my own ineptitude, and that I had VERY much to learn. Which, in a way made me happy.

Recently, I finally hooked up with my buddy Nate to hit one of his spots. We had a GREAT night and I was able to discover a new location I'd never fished before.

Scottw recently showed me a very subtle tip at a spot I'd fished before. Without giving too much away about the exact nature of the info, I'll just say it's something I'm VERY glad I now know.

The examples are endless.

Working at The Edge I'm surrounded by something much more valuable than the great tackle the store sells. Each day I'm presented with opportunities to discover new things. It's funny how in many instances it's the people you meet along the way that help you learn the most, or at least help you to see just how very much you still have to learn. And having much to learn seems to be one of the very best, if not THE BEST part of all. ]]> cchobot http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1-e227/ http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1-e188/ Fri, 23 Apr 2010 05:20:15 GMT In 4 hours I'll be waking up to meet Jenks for a trip to CT and some trout fishing on the Farmington River. I'm super-excited. This trip has A LOT going for it:

- favorite river ... check
- potential mayfly hatch ... check
- first fishing trip with Jenks ... check
- getting to meet Rich Strolis of catching-shadows ... check
- getting to check out a cool fly shop ... check
- day off work ... check

I can't help but feel tomorrow's trip has a little bit of "dream job" written all over it for me. It's the sort of trip I envisioned going on when I first started working for The Edge what seems like a VERY short 4 years back. Actually, it's the kind of trip I dreamed about taking as a kid when I thought about becoming and entomologist. I still remember when Jenks sat me down and spelled out a few of the future projections... Much like you'd float a dry fly over a feeding trout I remember the floating of a line to the effect of: "... and when we get to this point we all go on a trip for bonefish in the bahamas. "

Hook. Line. Sinker. :D

This has been a good week. There was bad stuff too like my wife getting a horrible stomach bug. But, on the good side, one of the coolest parts was getting to play customer and ordering up some flies for tomorrow's trip. I got home today and there was that all-too-familiar USPS package, only this time it had MY name on it. Tearing into that thing felt GOOOOD... Transferring those flies over to my box, again GOOOOD :D

This blog post doesn't really have too much of a point to it. I'm pretty much just amped up for tomorrow. But also amped up about a lot of cool things going on right now at The Edge. We have some really killer stuff in the works that I know you'll all be excited about, and it's just the start of the season.

Next up, some farmington river pics tomorrow. ]]> cchobot http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1-e188/ http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1-e127/ Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:06:36 GMT I know it's not fishing related, but definitely related to the recent changes to the web. We recently were cited in an article having to do with the new reviews software we've implemented.

Check it out:

http://www.practicalecommerce.com/ar...h-Social-Twist ]]> cchobot http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1-e127/ http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1-e109/ Sat, 20 Feb 2010 05:01:51 GMT By now, you've probably come across the new-style navigation we plan to roll out more fully next week (if not take a look here).

One of the really great things about some of the changes we've made in the last few months, is that they'll have a direct effect on our ability to bring increased value to our community members and clients.

Each day we're making changes to systems and/or acquiring insights into our inventory that allow us to better serve your needs. Take for instance the new nav sorting feature. For an example, lets go to the new-style shop-by-category page found here:

http://www.edgeangling.com/Shop-By-Brand.html

If you look on that page, sandwiched below the facets or optins up top but above the products, you'll notice the "Sort Options" row. These are great options you can utilize to change the order of the products listed.

Today let's focust on the "Sale Items" sort option. In the coming weeks, as we add more sales to the website you can find them in no time by clicking this Icon:



When you do, if there are any sale items within the segment of products you're looking at they'll have an easy-to-recognize mark that looks like this:



These are really great deals selected for a number of reasons: maybe a product is being discontinued, or maybe we have quite a few in stock and we've chosen to "sell down" on a given item, maybe it's an item included in one of our "Dailly Deals" or maybe we're just feeling good and decided to spread the love.

Whatever the case, we're ecstatic to finally have the capabilities to extend such programs to our clients. Please enjoy and give us feedback so we can continue to evolve to serve your needs. ]]> cchobot http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1-e109/ http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1-e102/ Thu, 18 Feb 2010 03:22:25 GMT You've probably seen some weird things going on in the forums lately. First off we've got the new members blog forum, that we setup based on the recommendation of one of our members. That was a GREAT idea and has inspired a growing number of members to begin, or in my case keep up with, posting to a blog. We had a little bit of catching up to do to get everyone's blog RSSing into the new member blogs forum. I believe we're caught up now and am really enjoying the posts the membership has been making.

Take for example merch's most recent post, a truly excellent example of what a blog should be. Posting your thoughts, getting things down on paper... or in this case monitor... can help sort things out. That post put into words the fishing information overload I've been feeling ever since I came to work at The Edge. Nice post merch :D

The other cool new feature you may have noticed is the new product reviews forum. Once upon a time we promised more interaction between the forums and the store. Thanks to a GREAT job by Tim The Musky Fisherman who by day masquerades as a computer genious at RateVoice, we now have the capability to have user reviews from the store automatically populate here to the forums. The hope is that members will read the reviews and either:

a) learn things they never knew or
b) get inspired to post reviews on the products themselves

The "bigger idea" is to emulate the "tackleshop experience" online as best as possible. We're big on letting the members drive the direction things go, and fostering an environment where sharing ideas enriches everyone's angling experience.

So, in short, thanks for tuning in, hope you like the new features and keep those ideas coming so we can make this place what you want it to be. ]]> cchobot http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1-e102/ http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1-e98/ Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:52:41 GMT Some of you may have seen the latest forum/email notification service available entitled "The Daily Deal" ... This was originally Toaster's (Taylor's) Idea so a special thanks goes out to him. Special thanks to Tim from RateVoice as well for suggesting a service called Mailchimp that takes care of the automatic emails every day.

If you'd like to receive the daily deal email, simply go here and signup - It's just that easy.

So what will the daily deal consist of? We're going to try hard to make it something good each day. While you may see some clearance items (at lower than ever prices I might add) towards the beginning, it's our hope to feature items that our members/customers will really use.

So how do we pick the daily deal item? Well it's a combination of factors but,

Take for instance today's Black/Neon Orange Zig Zag... Happens to be Scottw's favorite color by the way. We have a bunch of these in stock right now, (probably the amount we'd like to have during the summer months). Couple those few factors together and, there you have it, the daily deal for Tuesday, Feb 16th.



That's just one example of how we may decide the item. There could be lots of different scenarios.

Hope you all enjoy and as always, let your suggestions be known, as you can see your ideas serve as the basis for what we do, even if it does take us a few months to make it happen :) ... Thanks again Taylor ]]> cchobot http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1-e98/ http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1-e97/ Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:08:13 GMT We're moving the Edge Angling member blogs notifications to their own forums today. Special thanks go out to Aubrey, ChefChris, Jenks, Gradie, JakeF and all who have setup blogs and let us RSS the results into the main forum.

With a couple recent requests for info on how to start and maintain a blog here it shows there might be growing interest in the process.

Why maintain a blog, you may ask? Well, granted it is a subtle difference between starting a thread and maintaining a blog, but having your own blog allows you to make a contribution that is unquestionably your own. Over time, dedicated bloggers create a valueable resource they can direct people to as well as benefit from themselves. Capturing your thoughts on a subject at a point in time can make for interesting reading days, weeks, months and years later. Especially as it pertains to angling, your blog posts on lures, approaches, ideas and more can change over time. Watching "how far you've come" or "how things have changed" can be amusing, rewarding and above all interesting, kind of like the picture of my dad in that powder blue suit on my parents wedding day.

If anyone would like help setting up their own blog here, please feel free to give me a call or shoot me a PM or email. ]]> cchobot http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1-e97/ http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1-e41/ Sat, 22 Aug 2009 02:09:53 GMT That sounds like it should be a title to one of chefchris' blog entries. There are actually some interesting (among some other not-so-interesting) projects going on currently at The Edge. For anyone interested in an inside look, here's a few of the highlights:

1. New Checkout Buttons - We've gotta thank Uncle Pat for this one, he hooked us up w/ some new fancy buttons and a progress bar that make the checkout process a lot easier to understand. If you haven't seen it yet I suggest you place an order :D

2. The points system - This will become a lot more visible, and I suspect very popular once everyone begins using it. You basically earn 4% of each purchase as points you can redeem later. It's a pretty "seemless" way we can show our appreciation for your support

3. Online Order Status System - This one is proving to be a little bit of a bear, but I have high hopes once integration is complete everyone will be VERY happy. It'll basically transparently show what's happening with your order (even on the item level) each step of the way. I'm trying to figure out what status sounds better:

"Your order is experiencing a short delay because..." Either:

"Rudy is Currently Rounding Up The Eels That Got Loose In his Car"

or

"Rudy is Currently Huddled in the corner crying due to the influx of Scaled RM Smith Orders" ... :D Seriously we're going to miss that kid once school starts BUT you'll all be happy to know he'll be gracing the sales floor on Fridays and Sundays.

4. Better Search Functionality - coming soon is a test of a system that will really let you easilly "drill-down" into the product catalog quickly and meaningfully... you'll see exciting stuff

5. Improved Reviews Functionality - Basically our current review system on HGH... who knows, maybe this one will actually get used :p. The really cool thing is how this will integrate w/ #4 so you'll be able to "drill down" to Fishing Reels from $150 - $300 with 5 Star Ratings... Can't wait until this is setup

6. More New Products - So let your voices be heard and tell us what we need to pickup. We can get almost anything quickly and are HAPPY to special order.

7. The "New and Hot" category... This is the one we'll move all those "New and Hot" products into... Until they sell out or become "Old". You can find a link to the category on the homepage of the store, so far it's already helped some customers find some hot items that were once buried DEEP in the online store.

... and that's just what's on tap for the IMMEDIATE future.

as you can see it's exciting times at Edge Angling but we're counting on all of you to tell us what we're doing right and ESPECIALLY what we NEED to be doing right to win your business. ]]> cchobot http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1-e41/ http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1-e24/ Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:01:53 GMT If a picture says a thousand words... what's this one say to you?:



I'll tell you some of the words it ought to say are: Don't SKIMP on your lanyards! Ever have a super-tough piece of equipment (read about my love-affair with the Boga Grip Here) well it doesn't matter how tough that gear is if it's held on your person by a crummy lanyard, or ... I hope nobody's doing this ... no lanyard at all. Save yourself the heartache of living the above picture. Pick up a quality lanyard, regularly inspect your lanyards, and even go as far as replacing the ones attached to great/expensive gear at least once a year. You can view some great lanyards here.

I know what you're thinking: Chris is trying to sell lanyards here :D. That's true, but better an $8 lanyard than an expensive piece of equipment. ;) ]]> cchobot http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1-e24/ http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1-e23/ Sun, 28 Jun 2009 21:41:01 GMT I love my boga grip. It's as simple as that. I think it's important you absolutely "Love" your gear. Working at The Edge I get a first hand look at the huge selection of gear that exists in the marketplace. If you have a piece of gear you don't absolutely "love", take heart! there's probably something else out there that can and will take it's place and work better. As such, I find myself "upgrading" pieces of gear I'm not "in-love" with. So while I'll be upgrading that el-cheapo lanyard that recently almost cost me my pisces pliers (which I love by the way), there are other pieces of equipment that I don't see going anywhere any time soon. Take for example, my beloved boga:

This is what they look like new:


This is what mine looks like with no maintenance whatsoever after about a year:



and therein is the beauty of the boga. It's built to lip & weigh fish, and withstand the extreme saltwater environment. It doesn't make bold claims of being a bluefish subduer (which it is) or a personal protection device (which it could be), it simply does it's job and doesn't break down. Beautiful. One of my favorite pieces of equipment. ]]> cchobot http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1-e23/ http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1-e20/ Sat, 27 Jun 2009 01:48:01 GMT At the top of the forums there's a great drop down titled "Quick Links" ... When you click on it you'll find a "Today's Posts" link... It's a GREAT way to get a look at all the new action on the forums... ]]> cchobot http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1-e20/ http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1-e14/ Fri, 12 Jun 2009 04:23:46 GMT Here's a link to a thread I posted about using the new photopost software... Take a few minutes and get to know how to use it. It will help you post richer, picture-filled posts.

Using Photopost ]]> cchobot http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1-e14/ http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1-e13/ Thu, 11 Jun 2009 20:17:11 GMT So this is the first post since I posted about the swine flu. What's new with the website? Here goes:

We've got the beginnings of progress being made for the first time in awhile. Not that the recent site change wasn't a lot of "work" but we all view it as primarily a sort of "lateral" move. Now I can see the beginnings of progress... New products are lining up (check out the GotStryper plastics) new content pieces are also in the mix (see Bill Murphy tie a E-Z Body Sand Eel).

We hope a steady stream of new items will continue to populate the website.

What else is new? Well, there's Pat. Pat's been coming in and posting auctions for us, there's some great deals on there right now.

Other than that I'm waiting on the release of an update to a miva module that should allow me to go WILD w/ RSS feeds and integrate LOTS of great forums threads into the online store experience. So when someone clicks on "Lamiglas" for instance they'll read all about boogie's experience... hmm, maybe I should rethink exactly HOW I implement that one :D ]]> cchobot http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1-e13/ http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1-e4/ Sat, 23 May 2009 04:20:45 GMT Anyone else had it yet? I really believe I'm recovering from a bout right now. Let's see:

fever, which is usually high, but unlike seasonal flu, is sometimes absent

check

cough

check

runny nose or stuffy nose

check and now check

sore throat

check

body aches

check

headache

check

chills

major check

fatigue or tiredness, which can be extreme

CHECK

diarrhea and vomiting, sometimes, but more commonly seen than with seasonal flu

thankfully NO ... at least not yet

anyone else been sick lately? ]]> cchobot http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1-e4/ http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1-e3/ Wed, 20 May 2009 19:09:47 GMT Trying to get photopost installed and integrated... Can't wait for it to be available to everyone, but for now you can check it out here:

http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/photopost/index.php ]]> cchobot http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1-e3/ http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1-e2/ Tue, 19 May 2009 18:13:41 GMT Well the forums were down a little longer than I had hoped today but we did get some things done: 1) Transferred Domain to... Well the forums were down a little longer than I had hoped today but we did get some things done:

1) Transferred Domain to www.EdgeAngling.com/Forums/

This is a new Domain we'll soon be using to host our products, forums, content, etc.

2) Updated to VB version 3.8.2

Software is now Up-To-Date

3) Added VBlog Functionality

How cool is this, you can have your own integrated blog, probably a good idea for company reps, customers, captains, plug builders, fly tyers, ... well pretty much for EVERYBODY

4) Added Photopost Functionality

Finally an easier way to organize and post all of our sweet fishing pictures.

If anyone needs help using or understanding any of the new features shoot me a PM, I'm still learning them myself so please, be patient :D ]]> cchobot http://www.edgeangling.com/forums/blogs/u1-e2/