Since much of his new work is carried out in manufactur-
ing plants along the Tennessee River, his old career and his
new career have blended nicely. His notoriety as a pro
angler has helped get his new working relationships off on
the right foot.
“Fishing is a way of life along the Tennessee River,” Bolton
says. “So a lot of the guys that I work with in these facilities are
fishermen, too. Sometimes when I enter the building they’ll joke
and say, ‘Hey, what are you doing here? There are no fish in here.’
Fishing is a great common ground on which to get to know these
guys, and I’m enjoying a new identity as ‘Terry, the safety guy’
instead of ‘Terry, the fisherman.’”
Despite new time demands with work, he’s still able to fish
the FLW Tour and accommodate his sponsors’ requests.
Ironically, Bolton believes his new role in life has actually
helped his fishing.
“Due to my job I simply do not have the time to obsess
and fret over tournaments anymore,” Bolton says. “I pretty
much just show up and fish. Instead of planning and scripting
everything in my head a hundred times over, I just let the day
develop in front of me and run with whatever seems to be
working at the time. It’s taught me a lot about fishing the
moment and fishing what’s in front of me instead of forcing
things that don’t work.”
Bolton says he will run the roads on the FLW Tour for a few
more years, and then he’ll hang up his suitcases – but not his
fishing rods.
“I’m always going to fish; I love it too much not to,” he adds.
“But now, when I’m ready to quit traveling the Tour, I can still
fish on my own terms without wondering what the heck I’m
going to do next. And none of that would have been possible
without a college degree.”
Since his academic training ended some 20 years ago,
Bolton had to attend a few classes to get up to speed on the
new protocols for safety compliance in the modern era, and
now he’s working full time while still fishing the FLW Tour.
Bolton’s job shed a new light on the earning-a-college-
degree argument.
For two decades Bolton lived the life so many of today’s
young anglers dream of: a full-time bass pro traveling country.
In his early years he was a two-tour pro on the FLW Tour and
Bassmaster Top 150. Then he switched to just the FLW Tour
and Costa FLW Series. He acquired a nice portfolio of paying
sponsors, qualified for 13 Forrest Wood Cups and earned
more than a million dollars on the water.
He was living the dream, so why in the world would he want
to go get a job?
“I got to tour the country as a full-time professional angler
for two decades,” he says. “And I loved it; I wouldn’t have traded
it for anything. But the reality is I’m 48 years old now, and I’m
not going to do this forever; that’s just a fact. And the last time
I checked, there was not necessarily a retirement plan or pen-
sion for pro bass fishing.
“Here’s another thing,” he continues. “Life changes. Young
guys who want to fish so bad right now will not understand
this, but as you get older you realize there are other things in
life than just going to the next bass tournament that’s 500
miles away. I still love fishing, but I don’t want to be trapped in
that road warrior tournament-fishing lifestyle when I’m 60.”
Today’s young anglers are using college to prepare them
for the marketing and business side of pro fishing. Bolton’s
specialty degree likely prepared him in other ways, and is
now a nice bridge from professional tournament fishing to
professional safety inspection.
Terry Bolton (left) is putting his college degree to good use as a safety engineer, a job he plans to take on full time after fishing.
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