Bo Jackson, the only player to be an All-Star in two professional sports (baseball and football), might be the greatest athlete in modern times. One of Bo's favorite off-field endeavors was, and is, bass fishing. So, when he reels in his third weed of the morning is he still, at that moment, being an athlete?
I opened this can of worms by posting the question on an online forum for boaters. A few responses cut to the heart, but most were shots to the gut.
gkib: "Athlete" to me implies speed, strength and hand-eye coordination. Fishing requires patience and beer.
"The whole idea of drinking and fishing might be true on a recreational level," says Jay Yelas, three-time Angler of the Year on the Bassmaster and FLW Outdoors pro fishing circuits. "There was even some truth to it years ago when guys would fish tournaments with hangovers. But today you can't compete if you don't take care of yourself. You'd be amazed at the endurance required."
A Few Dollars: If you can gain weight while performing, you're not an athlete.
Sure enough, studies at Nutri-Strategy tell us that "general fishing" will burn 345 calories an hour — significantly less than you burn while gardening (431) or brushing a horse (518). But if you lump pro fishermen in with "general fishing," you'd also have to apply to pro football players the stats that say throwing a football burns fewer calories (216) than playing the flute in a marching band (345).
"Most pro fishermen I know lose 7 to 8 pounds during a tournament," says Yelas, who played baseball, football and basketball in high school. "You're balancing in waves all day. You're standing to work the trolling motor and making 2,000 casts — with accuracy. It's all simultaneous. If you're mentally off for a few seconds, it can cost you a tournament. One of the hardest things is to keep the mind sharp when the body is physically exhausted, day after day."
Hillbilly Trader: There are those fishermen who are athletes, and those who are beer-gutted buffoons who throw bait.
Michael Boulware is a 6-foot-3-inch, 220-pound defensive back in the National Football League. He's a hitting machine who works on hydraulic power — nonstop forward motion. Two summers ago he fished with FLW Outdoors pro Clay Dyer.
"After four hours he was spent," says Dyer. "He asked, 'How long do you do this?' When I told him nine or 10 hours on a tournament day, he couldn't believe it."
mronzo: If fishermen were athletes, they'd be using steroids to help them catch more fish.
OK. OK. If we can get serious for a moment, let me introduce you to a new booklet from personal trainer and tournament fisherman Troy Lindner called Fit for Fishing. Get the jokes out of your system — there's nothing in there about using pork rinds to work the jaw muscles, or how to callous a buttock.
"A lot of people don't think the words 'Fit' and 'Fishing' belong in the same sentence," says Lindner, who operates California Complete Fitness in West Los Angeles where he trained Olympic gold-medal swimmer Amanda Beard. "But you need ab strength to handle waves, and flexible hips so you can work the trolling motor and cast at the same time. As tournaments become more competitive, we're starting to hear pros use words like 'stretching' and 'core strength' — words that didn't used to be in their vocabulary."
The first volume of Fit for Fishing includes exercises with simple props like a towel, a water bottle and a mat — yes, the same tools you might use in competitive eating. But Lindner, 32, says volume two will introduce medicine balls and free weights — ones that weigh more than 12 ounces. And for those cynics who think tournament fishing requires no more energy and toughness than playing H-O-R-S-E in the driveway, Lindner has one final message: I'd like to see you try it.
