Inside the Tournament Trail
Free time in the fall
By Tim TuckerIt sounds a little like a homework assignment, "How I Spent My Fall Vacation."
With the CITGO BASSMASTER Tour events scheduled in the spring, many of the nation's best bass pros are enjoying a rare luxury — an autumn season free of tournaments.
Sure, some of the Tour pros are competing in the CITGO BASSMASTER Open presented by Busch Beer events (most are not) which now take place from August through early November. But they can only fish a single, three-tournament Open division. And that leaves them plenty of free time.
Several are utilizing that time both to work for their sponsors and become familiar with the two California tournament waters that await them in the spring. Some, like VanDam and Shaw Grigsby, are busy getting their television commitments out of the way before the hectic springtime campaign.
Other pros have been undertaking some interesting projects far removed from fishing.
Reigning B.A.S.S. Angler-of-the-Year Davy Hite has a new title — coach. "I'm having the time of my life coaching my son's football team. I'm just eating it up. Just kind of reliving my childhood. Going back and seeing the smiles on the kids' faces when they run the football or when they make a good tackle. It's just awesome to be able to enjoy the experience with my son."
Hite's son, Parker, is 11.
"I wouldn't have the time to spend with him that I do now if it wasn't for the new tournament setup."
Two-time CITGO BASS Masters Classic champion George Cochran, one of the country's most avid waterfowlers, is busy building a new hunting cabin in Stuttgart, Ark., for waterfowl season. He tore down his 28-year-old cabin and is replacing it with a 1,200-square-foot structure that will include a large den/kitchen, two bedrooms and a glassed-in front porch. "It's right next to a slough with 36,000 acres of woods around it," said Cochran, who spends more than 30 days hunting each season.
"I do a lot of duck and deer hunting there. Some of the other pros hunt with me (including), Larry Nixon, Mark Davis, Rob Kilby and a bunch of the Arkansans."
Many of the pros are spending more time in the woods this fall. Ohio pro Joe Thomas recently traveled to British Columbia to stalk mountain goats. "It's the hardest thing I've ever done," he said. "I hunted nine days with my bow over some of the toughest terrain you can imagine. I botched the biggest monster, a Boone and Crockett goat, at 6 yards after 6 1/2 hours of climbing and stalking the most vertical, scary stuff I've ever climbed in my life.
"We ended up on this real narrow ridge — it was 1,500 feet straight down if I stepped two steps over — where the goat decided to bed down 17 yards from me, facing me. After lying there, freezing for about 40 minutes, I crawled on the edge of that drop, as spooky as it was, and got within 6 yards of the goat. But my arrow clipped the top of a rock and missed him."
Thomas ended up taking a nice goat on the final day of his hunt, with a rifle.
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO … Two-time Classic champion Bobby Murray runs a thriving tackle rep business that counts PRADCO Outdoor Brands among its client. The Arkansas pro retired after winning his second Classic title in 1978.
"I channeled my competitive fires into this business," Murray said recently. "I enjoyed fishing tournaments, but I don't miss them. I've enjoyed building our business."
BEFORE HE WAS A BASS PRO Five years ago, Tennessee pro David Walker, a three time Classic qualifier, was working as a full-time machinist in a Kentucky factory where he earned $9 an hour.
"Just about everyone in there was missing a finger," he quipped.
DID YOU KNOW? David Fritts, winner of more than $800,000 on the CITGO BASSMASTER Tournament Trail, once tried to cash a $100,000 tournament check at his local bank.
"It's true. I tried to cash it at my little bank in Lexington (N.C.), but they said they couldn't cash it," he laughed.
"I was at a branch and … they said I'd have to take it down to the main office. I just wanted to see what $100,000 felt like to carry around. But I never got to find out."
THEY SAID IT "It will be an incredible challenge. Right now, I don't know exactly what our plans are to make it happen, but I'm confident we will. We'll be doing an event and then getting it ready to go on the air next Saturday while we're actually in the middle of doing another event. But one thing about it, our group kind of thrives on that. It's a real rush to have that happening. It sounds like a nightmare, but most of our gang of people just really get into something like that." — TV boss Jerry McKinnis, discussing plans for televising Tour coverage on The BASSMASTERS a week following each event.
Tim Tucker's Pro Angling Insider: I is a new bi-monthly newsletter with an annual subscription rate of $39.95. It can be ordered by calling toll-free 800-252-FISH. A sample issue can by seen on his Bass Sessions 2001 web site, www.timtuckeroutdoors.com.
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