TAKEOFF
ANGLER PROFILE
By Sean Ostruszka
DOWN UNDER, BUT NOT OUT
photos by Matt paCe
I
CARL JOCUMSEN’S QUEST FOR THE AMERICAN DREAM
t’s an ethos of our nation, a core prin-
ciple that brings so many to the
United States – the American dream.
It’s the idea that stipulates if you work
hard enough in this country you can be
successful.
Carl Jocumsen believes in it. He’s ded-
icated the last eight years to his pursuit
of it, and to outsiders, they’d say he’s liv-
ing it. The Australian native is a profes-
sional fisherman, after all, and the first
ever from his country to fish the
Bassmaster Elite Series.
What they don’t realize is that in those
eight years Jocumsen has lived the
dream, lost the dream, spent more than
$20,000 in visa and attorney fees to
defend his dream, traveled back and
forth across the Pacific Ocean dozens of
times to continue pursuing his dream,
fought through jet lag during tourna-
ments to keep after the dream, and at
times been utterly miserable over the
years because of it.
“I can’t even count how many times I
thought about giving up,” admits Jocumsen.
Yet, he’s still here. Better yet, he’s final-
ly finding happiness. All it took was some
time, perspective and a camper.
Too Much, Too Soon
Jocumsen came to the U.S. in 2011
with the plan to pursue a career as a pro-
fessional fisherman. It was a plan that,
technically, did pan out. He came within
one point of qualifying for the 2014 sea-
son of the Elite Series and officially quali-
fied for the 2015 season.
Jocumsen is quite amazed it ever
worked out, and actually wishes it hadn’t.
First, there were the setbacks off the
water.
“Most people here take it for granted,
but living in the United States legally is
hard to do,” Jocumsen says. “Everything is
difficult, from getting a driver’s license to
a bank account. I couldn’t pay my bills or
entry fees because I didn’t have a social
security number. It was continual road-
blocks for years.”
The hardest part might’ve been that
for the first year and a half he couldn’t get
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2018 I FLWFISHING.COM
a visa for longer than 89 days. That meant
he had to fly back to Australia every 89
days, get a new visa, and turn around and
fly right back to try and fish a tournament.
“I’d fish tournaments on no sleep or
practice, completely jet-lagged,” remem-
bers Jocumsen.
Obviously, with that much happening
off the water it’s remarkable he was able
to do anything successful on it. Yet, he
did. He fished a couple FLW Tour events
as a co-angler, and began fishing the
B.A.S.S. Opens, all with the goal in mind of
qualifying for the Elite Series.
Why the Elites instead of the Tour?
Jocumsen credits constantly watching the
Elites on ESPN back in Australia, and he
felt that was where he had to be to prove
himself successful.
Looking back, he admits that thinking
was flawed, and the results proved it.
After two seasons, he got an email saying
he’d been dropped from the Elites.
“Honestly, I had no chance,” Jocumsen
says. “I wasn’t the angler I needed to be.
The learning curve from the Opens to the
Elites is too steep. It’s like going from
backyard football to the NFL.”
What he did know was that after get-
ting dropped from the Elites, he’d spent
five years pursuing his American dream
and was right back at square one.
A Taste of Home
When life gets rough, anything can be
depressing. The primary trigger of
Jocumsen’s frustration in the early days
was the crummy hotel room.
“When I did well, I’d come back to
some cheap hotel, and I never felt like I’d
accomplished anything because of where
I was staying,” he says. “And when I did
poorly, that disappointment was ampli-
fied. I’d walk into my hotel and just say
‘this sucks.’”
A big reason for the disdain was how
he grew up.
While there are some remote tourna-
ment fisheries in the United States, most
are at least near a small town with lodg-
ing, restaurants and general amenities. In
Australia, fishing a tournament most
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