BACKLASH
Q&A
BRANDON M C MILLAN
Clewiston, Fla.
how’d you make out with the hur-
ricane last fall?
For the most part we were good.
having lived in Florida your whole
life, have hurricanes just become
normal for you?
They are. You know, we go five or six
years without one, and then we’ll get
one or two. It’s just normal.
You’re nuts.
Nah, you know what’s nuts? This past
one was the first time in 34 years where
I left the state for a storm. I’m never leav-
ing again. It’s way more dangerous on
the road than dealing with the hurricane.
seriously?
There are only three roads in and
out of Florida, and all of them were
flooded with people. Then there was a
gas shortage.
96
so you’re just going to barricade
yourself inside your house, huh?
Actually, I told my wife the next time
we see one coming I’m booking hotel
rooms on each side of the state. Then
10 hours before landfall I’m going to
the side it’s not going to hit. This past
one chased me up the entire state.
Which family is better on Lake
Okeechobee: the mcmillans or the
martins?
Oh, man. That’s not a good question.
I mean, I have to pick us. One,
because if I don’t I’ll get in trouble
from my family, and two, there’s more
of us. They have Scott and Roland.
Roland still fishes a lot of local stuff,
but Scott is like me. We both don’t get
to fish there near as much because
we’re traveling too much. We have my
brothers, Jared and Dylan. Jared is
probably the best on Okeechobee
right now.
does it pain you to say your
younger brother is better than you
at something?
No. Not at all. I like seeing it. He’s a
really good angler, and my dad always
said my youngest brother, Dylan, had
the most potential of all of us. He’s only
19 and hasn’t won anything big yet, but
it’s coming.
Your dad, Jimmy, was a legend on
that lake. Was it ever hard fishing
in his shadow?
Nah. He made it easier for us grow-
ing up, teaching us how to fish. He’s
been gone seven years last January.
By Sean Ostruszka
What’s one of the biggest things he
taught you that you still remember?
Not to panic on the water. I remem-
ber a tournament where he finished sec-
ond to JT Kenney. I believe he was lead-
ing going into the final day. Well, his third
fish was a 7- to 8-pounder, and he lost it.
He turned to the camera and calmly said
“there goes $100,000,” and went back to
fishing like nothing happened. A few
minutes later he caught a 9-pounder.
That always stuck with me.
Is fishing all you do?
Heck no. I’m a UPS driver full-time.
I’ve been delivering boxes for 13 years.
so how does that work with fishing
the tour?
There was a deal when the economy
tanked where we were offered as many
unpaid weeks as we wanted because we
were union and they couldn’t fire us. So
I took them up on it.
that has to be a lot of work.
It is. There are those times when I’m
driving through the night after a tour-
nament to be at work on Monday.
Every year I tell my wife I’m going to
quit my job and just fish. One day I will,
hopefully.
FLWFIshIng.COm I apRIL 2018