Tunaman is Roger Nelson from Corona, Ca. As can be discerned from my nickname, I'm an avid saltwater angler. A few years ago a friend launched my interest in black bass fishing, which has now budded into a strong passion. Shortly after being introduced to freshwater bass fishing, I bought my first bass boat, a Bass Tracker PT175, from Anglers Marine and headed out as often as possible to lakes such as Casitas, Castaic, Piru, Cachuma, Pyramid, Skinner, Perris, Silverwood, and as far away as Folsom and Oroville. I used the Tracker for about 10 months, then decided that I was fully commited to the sport and wanted to expand into tournament bass fishing.

In May of 2006 I traded the Tracker in for my '06 Ranger Z-20 ZDC. I was on the water more than 50 days the first year, and highly recommend the Z-20 for anyone considering a tournament bass boat. I've participated in team tournaments (WON BASS, 100% BASS), WON Pro/Am tournaments (including the US Open twice) and the California Bass Federation Region 7 tournament trail.

My first tournament competition was April 29, 2006, where Mike Holley and I fished the WON Southern California Regional tournament at Lake Cachuma, where we were fortunate to finish in 4th place. In 2007, I partnered with Roger Pluff and fished a few WON Inland Empire Regional events, and the inaugural 100% BASS Southern California and Diamond Valley regions. While we didn't have any strong finishes, we fished hard and ended up qualifying for the Tournament of Champions which was held at New Melones reservior, just outside of Angels Camp California. We arrived the day before the tournament, had never seen the lake nor did we have any prefishing, and ended up finishing in 75th place (out of 125 teams).

My first year fishing the US Open, I was fortunate to draw three great Pro's - Dennis Kolendar, James Nelson and the superstar Aaron Martens, and ended up finishing in 7th place. My second year participating in the US Open, I again was fortunate to draw three excellent Pro's, including the awesome Roy Hawk, first-time pro Brett Oldham, and heavily-seasoned veteran Dick Watson. After the first day, Roy and I were in the top 10 and on the last day Dick worked really hard to get me into the top 20 so I could get a check. Good karma resulted, as he ended up catching the day's biggest fish (and a $1000 bonus) and helped me to end up in 19th place overall.

For the 2008 tournament season, I've opted to focus on getting back-seat time in the WON Pro/Am and CBF Region 7 tournament trails, with high expectations of expanding my angling skills and experience.

Along with freshwater fishing, I still get out on the saltwater each year, typically during tuna season. I've taken one long-range trip per year for the last several, from 4 - 7 days in duration, as well as supplementing those with day or day-and-a-half trips when the tuna are within range. In June 2007 I hopped aboard the American Angler for a 5-day trip, and the fishing was excellent for albacore, bluefin tuna and big Cedros Island yellowtail. I'm awaiting information from below to decide what trip and timeframe I want to book for this year, but so far it looks like 2008 should be a great one on the salt.

In addition to my fishing addictions, I'm also addicted to bowling. I am currently bowling 4-5 leagues a week, and compete in the occassional tournament. On March 10th 2008 I was finally able to achieve the feat of bowling a perfect 300 game, and I can honestly say that is the biggest monkey I've ever had to shed.

I enjoy the occassional game of golf, and am really heavily into photography. I've now acquired Canon 1DS MKII and two Canon 1D MKII digital camera bodies, along with several Canon "L-glass" lenses, and am acting photographer for the Top Stick tournament trail.

I also enjoy playing music, and have a Korg Triton, a Kurzweil SP76 and a Yamaha DX-7 keyboard. I hope to hook up with some musicians this summer and get back to gigging.

I've been working for Kaiser Permanente for 10 years, and am currently a member of the server security services team.

My lovely wife Mona is my soul-mate, and we've been married for nearly 12 years. She is currently pursuing her Radiological Technician degree in the medical field.

We have two cats - Shadow and Ranger.