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often means also preparing for a
camping trip. The lakes are so far away
from civilization that any sort of electric
hookup is a significant perk.
“You’d fish tournaments where you
had to consciously conserve your bat-
teries to make it through all three
days,” Jocumsen remembers. “There
was no way to charge them unless you
brought a generator.”
And if you think that was rough, try
resting up the night before a derby
while sleeping in what basically
equates to a canvas sleeping bag.
“Everyone slept in swags [roll-up
beds] on the ground.”
You can obviously forget the air con-
ditioning, too.
“Someone might set up a 10-by-20
Quickshade [those pop-up tents com-
mon to tailgate gatherings] if we were
too hot.”
And if it rained?
“You might bring a big dome tent,
but only if it was calling for bad storms.”
It’s hard to imagine launching a pro-
fessional fishing career this way, but
from age 13 to 26, Jocumsen live d for
such trips.
“Tournaments in Australia are as
much about the camping and commu-
nity as the fishing,” he explains. “You’d
sit around fires at night, barbecuing up
some food and laughing, telling stories.
“Those trips were a huge part of why
I love to fish. When I came to the U.S., I
lost that piece of me for a while.”
Ironically, all his setbacks kept him
from being able to afford even the
cheapest hotels at times. Thus, he and
his girlfriend, Kayla Palaniuk, and their
dog, Roo, slept in a camper in the back
of his truck every so often. Gradually it
became more often, and finally became
all the time. They now travel the FLW
Tour full time in a truck-bed camper, a
transition that wasn’t as much about
money as it was comfort.
“Camping out at tournaments, sleep-
ing in the camper, became the biggest
game-changer for me,” Jocumsen says. “I
felt like I reconnected with being back
home. My outlook did a 180.”
Somewhere between being dropped
from the Elite Series and joining the FLW
Tour in 2017, and ditching hotels for
campsites, Jocumsen finally started feel-
ing like he belongs. He says the last two
years have been the happiest he’s
known since coming here. While he’s still
seeking consistency on the water, his
consistency off the water has made him
feel like he’s finally able to learn and
improve. After all, while they have “bass”
in their names, Australian bass behave
quite differently than the largemouth,
smallmouth and spotted bass he’s tar-
geting on the FLW Tour.
Which brings us back to the
American dream.
When writer James Truslow Adams
coined the term “the American dream,”
he did so with the following description:
“… that dream of a land in which life
should be better and richer and fuller
FLWFISHING.COM I AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2018