TAKEOFF
ANGLER PROFILE
THE UPS AND DOWNS OF DAVID DUDLEY
LESS THAN A DECADE AGO, THE VIRGINIA PRO FACED BANKRUPTCY AND AN UNCERTAIN
FINANCIAL FUTURE, BUT THROUGH FAITH AND UNMATCHED RESILIENCY, DUDLEY
TURNED HIS HARDSHIPS INTO THE KIND OF MOTIVATION THAT HAS PRODUCED
By Rob Newell
SOME OF BASS FISHING’S GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENTS.
PHOTOS BY KEVIN BLACKBURN
D
avid Dudley knows bet-
ter than most the ups
and downs of the pro
fishing roller coaster. During
his 25-year career, Dudley has
ascended to the very peak of
the tournament ride, only to
plunge straight down into an
abyss so deep he wasn’t sure
he’d ever climb back out.
The peak came in the
early 2000s, when the
Lynchburg, Va., pro earned
$1.2 million in just two years
by winning the Ranger M1
Millenium tournament and
the Forrest Wood Cup, mak-
ing him one of professional
bass fishing’s youngest mil-
lionaires.
And then came the abyss.
By 2010, in the wake of a
crippling national recession,
Dudley, like many others,
found himself in dire finan-
cial straits. He struggled just
to feed his family as creditors
looked to foreclose on his
properties and liquidate his
assets. Dudley had to end up
selling most of his rods and
reels and much of his tackle
just to keep the lights on.
To an ordinary angler, the
situation could have been
career-ending. But Dudley is
no ordinary angler. Through
faith, grit and sheer determi-
nation he battled his way
back from the brink of bank-
ruptcy with back-to-back FLW
Tour Angler of the Year wins
in 2011 and 2012. In that
same timespan, Dudley post-
ed an impressive eight top-10
finishes in FLW Tour Major,
FLW Tour Open and Forrest
Wood Cup competition, won
two Tour events in 2012 and
banked more than $600,000.
These days Dudley is back
on solid financial ground.
Through debt consolidation
measures he managed to
hold on to most of the vaca-
tion rental properties in
which he’d invested, and in
recent years Dudley has
started several new success-
ful business ventures. On the
water, he notched his sixth
consecutive top-25 AOY fin-
ish in 2016, matching the
longest such run of his
career. Despite great uncer-
tainty and against seemingly
insurmountable odds, Dudley
has managed to climb his
way back out of that abyss,
and in the process, he’s
become stronger both on the
water and off.
Rock Bottom
About the time Dudley
raised his first FLW Tour
Angler of the Year trophy in
2008, the bottom fell out of
the nation’s economy. Shortly
thereafter the bottom also fell
out of Dudley’s fishing per-
formance. His earnings on
Tour tapered off, and in 2009
Dudley missed qualifying for
the Forrest Wood Cup for only
the second time in his career.
Another tough season in
2010 didn’t help matters, and
by the start of the 2011 FLW
Tour season, Dudley’s financial
situation had become so dis-
mal that he had to borrow
rods, reels, tackle and expense
money just to fish the events.
“I’m not going to lie — it
was a pretty rough time in
life, a real wake-up call,” he
recalls. “I couldn’t even afford
groceries. Friends and family
from the community had to
bring us milk and bread to
eat. I had to put water in the
milk to make it last longer.”
The irony of Dudley’s
financial fallout was that he
was still being touted as a
fishing millionaire. Dudley,
who has today earned more
than $3.4 million with FLW,
David Dudley's billboard business has become a lucrative part-time enterprise for the Virginia pro.
APRIL 2017 I FLWFISHING.COM
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