I have to start by saying that being a professional bass angler and fishing the Bassmaster Elite Series is an unexpected pleasure. Until recently, I didn’t think about it. It wasn’t on my radar.
Like my brother I grew up consumed by baseball. I loved it, but in our area of the state it was something more than a game. It was a way of life. We were good – we won the state championship my senior year of high school – but we practiced all the time. In most years we had no more than two weeks of downtime.
I was fortunate enough to earn an academic scholarship to Birmingham-Southern College in my senior year. I went there to study engineering. Jordan was still in high school and fishing more and more. I knew I didn’t want to play baseball in college. Although I love the game from the bottom of my heart, I was tired of it dominating my life. I wanted to do other things.
After a couple of years Jordan graduated high school and went off to Auburn. He fished on their college team. I thought that was pretty cool so I tried to start a team at Birmingham-Southern. The school is small, with students from everywhere. Anglers were hard to find, and almost no one had a boat. It didn’t work out.
The more I watched Auburn, the more I wanted to be a part of their program. I made some inquiries. They have a generous transfer of credits program that helped academically. Between that and the fishing team it wasn’t long before I transferred.
I’d fished off and on before so I had some experience. Jordan and I fished local tournaments together sometimes, and I went at other times when I could work it into my schedule. I’m also a hard worker so I was able to learn things quickly when I put my mind to it. But that didn’t put me into his league as an angler.
He was also able to take his boat to school and fish after class. I couldn’t do that because I was always practicing baseball. He also has a natural talent that helps him make good decisions on the water. He does it almost without thinking. It’s a kind of sense that tells him where to fish and what lure to use. He was born to bass fish.
I don’t have that. It’s more about grinding it out with me. That’s OK, though, because I have a strong work ethic that carries me through things. It comes from my parents.
There’s no one around who works harder than my dad. He sacrificed a lot of his fun for us. I’ll be forever grateful for that, and for my mother, too. She raised us with just the right combination of love and discipline. I’ve heard that men marry women like their mothers. If that’s true, I’ll be in good shape when the time comes.
Things went well at Auburn. I joined the team. Jordan and I both won the College National Championship and qualified for a Classic. Eventually, we earned a berth in the Elite Series, and I’m here to tell you that’s a different world.
We’ll talk about that in more detail in future columns, but I want say right up front that I didn’t fully appreciate the importance of every cast and every fish until I saw things unfold last year. Just catch one or two more bass here and there, or make a couple of extra Friday night cuts, and your whole season looks different.
I found out real quick that there’s a big difference between fishing for fun and fishing for a living.