My Love for Fishing

     I do not remember the first fish that I caught, but I have been told I was still in a stroller when I caught it. That is all it took. That one fish and I was hooked for life. Now that baseball is over, I am focusing on a professional fishing career. In the last three years I have gotten off to a pretty good start.
     I have fished local tournaments for many years, but in 2009 I decided to start to pursue my angling career. That year my dad and I won the points championship in a very well know local trail where we fished against anglers on the pro circuit. In 2010, I won the point championship in the North Carolina Division of the Bassmaster Weekend Series as a co-angler. In 2011, I again won the points in a trail, but this time it was in the Bassmaster Southern Opens as a co-angler. My most prestigious award in my short angling career. This has helped me land a few sponsors in Joolasoft, JJ Kane Auctioneers, Pure Fishing, and Falcon Graphite Rods.  This year I plan to start over in the boater ranks in the North Carolina Division of the Bass Fishing League (BFL) that is hosted by Walmart.

     To explain, there are two different divisions within each division. What I mean by that is there is a boater division and a co-angler division. The boater drives the boat and is responsible for finding fish. The co-angler is just along for the ride and fishes where ever the boater takes him. They do not fish against each other, they fish against the other boaters and co-anglers in their respective divisions with their weights only counting for themselves and not each other. Most tournaments have a limit of 5 fish per angler, with a minimum size limit that is determined by the state that you are fishing in. Whoever brings in the most weight at the end of the day wins the tournament. There are penalties for bringing in a dead fish and for being late to weigh in. An angler is allowed to "cull" in the event that he/she has his or her limit and another fish is caught that would help the total weight. If this occurs this fish is placed in the live well and the smallest is released.