Sports: Sites to see -- if boss is not looking

Sites to see -- if boss is not looking

By GREG AUMAN

There's a chance you're reading this online, and there's a chance you're at work. Chances are you're not the only one.

Websense Inc., a company touting itself as a "world leader of employee Internet management software," announced this week that corporate America stands to lose $400-million in productivity because of workers checking on the NCAA basketball tournament online. No word on whether this accounts for the thousands of dedicated staffers not online, simply because they had the sense to call in sick and watch from home.

The company cites research estimating that the average sports fan will spend 1.5 hours per week online between now and the Final Four. The company sees this as a march to madness, of course, and suggests corporations "establish a clearly written Internet access policy that informs employees about appropriate and inappropriate Internet use during work hours."

We'll stop just short of such bracketeering charges and instead establish a clearly written guide to inform you about appropriate sites where you can, er, continue working diligently. Everyone now: Glance out of your cubicle, look left, right, then left again, then proceed to these sites:

finalfour.net: The tournament's official site looks sharp, much like NBC's Olympics site last year, which also was produced by Quokka Sports. The "TotalCast Live" feature offers every stat you can imagine from a game, as a ticker updates every point, foul, rebound, etc. It's better as a complement to TV than by itself -- there's no sense of the excitement or tension involved. Like a few high seeds, the site went down for a spell Thursday afternoon, apparently overwhelmed by high traffic.

basketball.com: This one's inappropriate. Great name, bad site. Its lead college headline Thursday was, "Fuller's contract not renewed at Morgan State."

ganza.com: As in extravaganza -- a 16-year-old NCAA pool that has its own T-shirts. It's too late now, but it costs a buck to enter, and while no cash prize is awarded, the winner has the honor and prestige of owning the Ostertag Plaque. Three people nailed 30 of 32 first-round games last year, so this isn't to be taken lightly.

goduke.com: Everybody's picking the Devils, so we include their official site. Duke spent $50,000 two years ago to install six high-speed Internet access lines in the base of street lamps near Krzyzewskiville, the tent city where students camp out before games. For $11, you can buy the team's poster, with Devils decked out in tuxes with the title "The Big Dance."

oneshiningmoment.com: The unavoidable theme song CBS has trotted out after each of the past 13 championships has its own site. "One of the greatest songs about sport" is available on CD for $10 plus shipping, but why stop there? Hats are just $15. You'll fight back tears as you brush up on the lyrics, especially the chorus, WHICH IS TYPED ALL IN CAPS!

TID-BYTES: NASCAR.com was the Internet's second-most popular sports site in February, recording 4.1-million unique visitors and more than doubling its high. By comparison, NFL.com had 4.56-million in January. ... ESPNradio.com> launched this week, offering live audio broadcasts online of its daily lineup, which includes the Dan Patrick and Tony Kornheiser shows. ... Two things you don't normally put together: Norman Rockwell and eBay. The original oil painting of Rockwell's "The Dugout" is up for auction until Saturday night, with bidding at $175,100 Thursday.

- If you have a question or comment about the Internet or a site to suggest, send an e-mail to staff writer Greg Auman at aumanac1@aol.com.

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ID: + Paper: +

Date: 3/16/01 Page: 14C+

Section: OUTDOORS Byline: ED WALKER+

Headline: Offshore, trolling heats up

Notes: +

Fishing again is on the upswing after last week's bad weather set back spring conditions. Offshore has been good for pelagic species such as king mackerel and sailfish. Inland, if you can find bait, the flats have been outstanding

On a recent return trip from the Middlegrounds, the seas turned rough. Rather than take a beating, we decided to troll. We put out a spreader bar armed with several dozen imitation ballyhoo and trolled it at 6 knots. None of the teaser baits had hooks. At different distances behind the spreader, we dragged the same lures with 8/0 hooks, rigged individually.

Not long after our lines were out, the fish started to strike. First came the bonito. Most struck the lures with hooks, but some crashed the spreader, then dropped back and hit the rigged lures.

We saw a kingfish skyrocket and trim the back half off one of the baits with a hook in it. The next two fish we hooked were lost. Both nearly spooled our 30-pound lever-drag reels before coming off. One of the lures came back with a huge triangle bite mark that I believe was caused by a wahoo. The other remained a mystery. That day, Ed Newton landed a 45-pound wahoo near the Mexican Pride, which is in roughly the same depth we were fishing (100 feet). He also was trolling spreader rigs with teasers.

Last week, Dan Hibben on the Pescadora used the same techniques in the same area and landed eight blackfin tuna and a number of big amberjack. One of the amberjack was teased up with a spreader rig and hooked on a fly rod.

Closer to shore, standard live-baiting and hardware fishing for kings should pick back up. Many of the Clearwater charterboats were limiting out on kings and Spanish mackerel while trolling spoons and plugs before the last cold front.

On the flats, it's all about bait. If you can find the whitebait, you can be king. Snook, redfish, trout and even a few cobia have been happy to pounce on the first scaled sardine to drift through their hideouts. The few reports of bait have been near the Sunshine Skyway bridge and sparse catches on the flats north of the Anclote River.

- Ed Walker charters out of Palm Harbor. Call (727) 944-3474 or e-mail TarponEd@aol.com.