It all started back in the early 1990's when Tim Durham, A.k.a. "Sinker" signed up for an Earthlink account. They were offering 6MB's of free web-space for your own personal web-site. The very site he built was with their tools and was about his Harley Davidson motorcycles. It wasn't long and it changed to fishing Lake George, New York where he lived and worked.

This was Sinker's first hardcore experience with freshwater fishing. He had been freshwater fishing many times before but he was getting serious this time and found small mouth bass to be his species of choice.

Tim Durham's relocation back to California switched his focus back to saltwater fishing until he started hooking up on huge Catfish. At this point the site again changed and was dedicated to cat fishing.

Then one day he went out for an all day fishing trip. It started with a 28 pound catfish followed by a double digit large mouth bass. Oh but the day wasn't over as he had plans to hit the Pacific Ocean as well. What a day everything was going right as he nailed legal Leopard Sharks, Shovelnose Guitarfish, Bat Rays, Calico Bass, Perch and Halibut.

It was at this point that the Get Bent with Sinker web-site was created and covered both fresh and saltwater fishing. 

Get Bent With Sinker Era

Well first off let's explain "Sinker", it was and is customary for folks to use handles or knick names on these fishing boards and Tim Durham used SINKER. He wanted it to be fishing related, after all it was to be a fishing site, he searched his life and knew his swimming skills were not very good and while in the military, although always successfully completing drown proofing classes and test he was often told he Sank Like A Rock, hence SINKER.

Tim Durham, A.k.a. "Sinker" went ahead and obtained the web address of SoCalSinker.com and started the development of the site. Scott Reyes developed all of the original artwork for the site, these logos and or variations of them are still used today.

The SoCalSinker.com site grew quickly and ended up having its own small following. Tim was able to provide monthly reports for the Ventura Pier in Southern California for Ken Jones who is regarded as California's premier Pier Fisherman and his site pierfishing.com. Tim would also develop monthly review Photo Jams showing the fish caught put to music.

The photo gallery grew extremely large as did the photo jam library and the site was soon in excess of 500 Megs in size and growing expensive.

Sinker Removes Himself

Message boards were added to the site and quickly became a haven for some of the local fishermen. Members would use it to get together and stretch a line together and have some fun. It was very apparent that the site was no longer a personal fishing web site but rather one for fishermen to come and share their experiences. As a result Tim Durham felt the need to remove himself from the personal side of things and changed the logos to no longer show Get Bent WITH SINKER but rather just GET BENT. Get Bent along with Tight Lines, Bent Rods and Screaming Reels had become catch phrases of the site.

It was in 2003 when Joey Horvath, A.k.a. "Joey805" joined the site. Tim and Joey soon met at Ventura Pier as a fluke as it was not planned. Introductions were made and that was it for awhile. Not long after Joey805 started to become very active in the site and on the message boards. With Joey working in the computer field and Tim being in management it became clear that Joey with his superior computer skills be the logical choice to become the site's webmaster.

About this same time another local gentleman Mike Thompson, A.k.a. "Flipper" came along and offered his skills as a Graphic Artist to rework the logos for the new site along with working up new Music Montages that are big hit of the site today. Mike keeps the site looking good with its graphics and seasonal look.

Sinkers Moving, What About SoCalSinker.com?

Well the news came down that Tim Durham and family would be relocating from California to Florida. He knew that living in Florida the present site SoCalSinker.com just wouldn't be an appropriate URL, name wise anyway. Tim had a few options, he could just shut the site down and move on but fishing along with the site is something he enjoyed and he knew it was not a true option. He could shut it down and open a site for Florida - this was a very valid option and one he seriously considered until he realized how many fiends he had made and how many people were accessing the site and starting their own get togethers, so this option soon became unthinkable. About the only option left was to open the site up, cover more than just California. Input was sought and gathered from members of the site and things progressed with Tim, Joey and Mike working together to build a new site.

And Then Came Get Bent Sportfishing

Many polls and questions were asked on the SoCalSinker.com message boards about how we should go about opening and running the new site, what to call the new site and many other things. The URL GETnBENT.com was obtained but never really materialized as we changed the name to GetBentSportfishing.com. Tim, Joey and Mike set to work to build the new site all over from the ground up. Joey brought the new site into line with the modern day web-sites with his skills and the help of Mike's artistic works. Joey spent countless hours on the site building it, changing it, revamping it and other things. Mike continued working on Graphics for the site. Tim worked on content and while doing so we put together a group of moderators for this new site.

Tim and the new GetBentSportfishing.com had the GREAT fortune of receiving copyright releases/approvals to use information from Glen Gustavson A.k.a. "Songslinger", Pete Wolf A.k.a. "LeapinBass" (along with info from his web-sites), Arvin A.k.a. "pEsCaDoR" and a number of others to get the site going with some outstanding top of the line information.

GetBentSpotfishing.com Comes On-Line and Goes Active

A long time in coming and not yet complete the GetBentSportfishng.com site went active on Wednesday, March 3, 2004 at 7:40PM EST. The site was not yet complete or truly ready to be turned on but was done so as the realization was made that the site would never really be complete as it will always be growing and getting better.

As this is being written this the site is still not complete as it is still presently missing the Tackle Section but is in the works and coming soon. In reality, this site will never be complete as it will always be growing and adding new information.

And so we have GetBentSportfishing.com to enjoy, a Fishing Web-Site for Fishermen and Women to come together and share a few laughs and information with one another.

I hope you enjoy the site and that you become a member of the Get Bent brotherhood.