EDITOR’ S NOTE
WHO’ S A HAMMER?
There are angler-of-the-year titles and championship titles and tournament titles. And then there’ s the title of“ hammer.”
This one’ s special. There’ s no formal process for being deemed a hammer. It isn’ t earned on paper. An angler sort of just becomes one when, through the consensus of his peers, he’ s regarded as a bass angler of special talent. There’ s no formal declaration, either. One day, an angler walks up to the bag line, and someone asks,“ You get’ em, hammer?” And that’ s that.
To get a better idea of what qualifies someone to be a hammer, I asked Associate Editor Jody White to define it. He often uses the term to describe deserving pros.
“ A hammer is an angler that can win at any time, though it can also describe someone who dominates a particular place, time or technique,” he says.“ Calling someone a hammer is also a great way to compliment him on a good performance, even if he might not actually be a hammer.”
I’ ll add to Jody’ s definition that to be a hammer is to be feared by your competition. This might be at the local level or on the national scene. A hammer can pull off feats that impress even other hammers, such as catching 20 pounds on a 12- pound lake or uncovering a magic frog bite that no one else knew existed.
There’ s also a metaphysical aspect – something very tough to explain – that’ s part of being a hammer. When a hammer walks into a tournament registration meeting, people notice. They recognize him as the man to beat. When he walks on stage, photographers prepare their cameras. When other anglers roll into a pocket where a hammer is already fishing, they turn around and leave. Those fish have already been caught, and that hammer deserves such respect.
A hammer is not necessarily an FLW Tour pro, though there are plenty of hammers on Tour. Career earnings don’ t determine hammer status, nor do win totals. But a noteworthy win – a blowout, an improbable comeback, a shallow-water win during the peak of ledge season – can allude to someone’ s hammer status.
The best example of a hammer might be Todd Castledine. The Nacogdoches, Texas, pro recently pulled off a dramatic win in the Costa FLW Series Southwestern Division opener at Sam Rayburn when, on a tough post-frontal day three, he weighed in 27 pounds to rocket from ninth to first.
Afterward, Jody and I were debating headlines via text messages, and I commented that Castledine is a sledge in a world of hammers. He really is that impressive.
What’ s remarkable about hammers like Castledine is that even when they don’ t win they make an impact.
Last year, Castledine had the day-three lead at the Costa FLW Series Central Division event at Lake Dardanelle. He told me the night before that he’ d figured out a frog bite that had the potential to produce a mammoth bag and guarantee the win, but he wasn’ t sure if he could get five bites. Castledine could’ ve played it safe and flipped up five fish, but even then he might not have won. He’ d have left the outcome in the hands of his competitors. Hammers don’ t fish that way. Instead, Castledine threw a haymaker with the frog. The haymaker missed, but his frog tactic was so interesting that it drew most of the attention, and we ended up covering it in this magazine.
That’ s another mark of a hammer: a contender every time he’ s on the water, but impressive even in defeat.
Curtis Niedermier, Editor-in-Chief
publisher Irwin L. Jacobs
Editor-in-Chief Curtis Niedermier
production Manager / Graphic Designer Michelle Dowling
assistant Managing Editor Chad Love
Senior Editor Kyle Wood
associate Editor Jody White
Editor Emeritus Colin Moore
Field Editors Rob Newell & Matt Williams
Contributors Joe Balog, David A. Brown, Dan Johnson, TJ Maglio, Sean Ostruszka, Joe Sills, Paul Strege
Graphic Designer D. W. Reed II
Graphic Designer / Illustrator Matt Pace
Director of advertising Al Chapman | 270.252.1628
Senior Web Content Manager Jesse Schultz
Social Media and Communications Specialist Chris Burgan
Letters to the Editor FLW Bass Fishing 30 Gamble Lane, Benton, KY 42025 flwfishing @ flwfishing. com
Chairman & CEO Irwin L. Jacobs
president of FLW Marketing Division Trish Blake
president of FLW Operations Division Kathy Fennel
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Vice president of Marketing Patterson Leeth
Vice president of Operations Dave Washburn
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FLWFISHING. COM I aprIL 2017