FIRST CAST: CURTIS NIEDERMIER
timing is
everything
In 2007, I was about to graduate from college, and I was debating taking a
job at a non-profit management company in St. Louis or an entry-level
gig at the non-profit where I was interning while at school in Columbus,
Ohio. People told me how great it was to have options right out of school,
but the reality was that both jobs were real snoozers. What I really wanted
was to be an outdoor writer and to travel the country hunting and fishing.
As part of my internship, one of my assignments was to track press mentions
for the organization where I was working. One day, a few weeks before
graduation, I was scanning for our press releases on The Outdoor Wire
when I noticed a job posting for an associate editor with FLW Outdoors in
Benton, Ky. “Located near the banks of beautiful Kentucky Lake,” it said. I
sent off a resume that night.
A week or so later I was on a plane headed for an interview. At that
point, I hadn’t even researched how far Benton was from the little town of
Republic, Ohio, where I grew up. I just knew the job had it all – fishing,
writing, travel.
For the record, it takes about nine hours to drive from Republic to
Benton, which, after accepting a job offer from FLW, I found out on the
day I made the trip down to launch an adventure that has lasted 13 years.
Had I not had that internship, and had I not checked The Outdoor Wire
that afternoon, I might never have seen the job posting that led to this
opportunity. Timing was everything.
And now, the timing is right for me to go in a new direction. In mid-
July, just a couple weeks before the editorial staff put the finishing touches
on this issue of Bass Fishing, I started a new job as senior writer and copyeditor
at Mercury Marine, where I’m now working remotely from my
hometown in Ohio.
The couple months leading up to this transition were hectic for my family.
We sold our house. My wife left her job to stay home with our kids. We
moved out of state. And we did it all during a pandemic. But somehow, it all
worked out.
The way it went reminds me a lot of something I often hear professional
anglers talk about. They say, when it’s your time, good things happen. I
know that’s true because that’s how it worked for me and FLW in 2007,
and that’s how it worked for me and Mercury this summer.
But there’s more to it. “Your time” never comes if you don’t work hard,
and, in many cases, if other people don’t support you and give you a
chance in the first place.
That’s why I’m so thankful for FLW and all the opportunities the company
has given me. I’ve worked with great people and learned from great
mentors. I’ve traveled to all corners of the country and fished with some of
the greatest anglers in the world. It’s been one heck of a good time.
I owe a lot to FLW, its anglers, the staff and the readers. But mostly, I
owe them this: Thank you.
Curtis Niedermier, former Editor-in-Chief
Bass Fishing Magazine
Editor-in-Chief
Curtis Niedermier
Production Manager/Graphic Designer
Michelle Dowling
Associate Editor
Justin Onslow
Senior Designer/Illustrator
Matt Pace
Field Editor
Matt Williams
FLWFishing.com
Senior Editor
Kyle Wood
Digital Editor
Jody White
Staff Videographer/Photographer
Rob Matsuura
MajorLeagueFishing.com
Sr. Director, Digital Media
Joel Shangle
Sr. Manager, Digital Editorial
Rachel Dubrovin
Sr. Manager, Digital Content Development
Josh Gassmann
Digital Content Editor
Ellise Verheyen
Digital Content Editor
Olivia Fissel
Staff Writer
Mason Prince
Major League Fishing/FLW
President and CEO, MLF
Jim Wilburn
President and CEO, MLFLW
Boyd Duckett
Executive Vice President and General Manager, MLF
Don Rucks
Executive Vice President and General Manager, FLW
Kathy Fennel
Vice President of Marketing and
Business Development, MLF
John Acosta
Vice President of Operations, MLF
Todd Walker
Vice President of Operations, FLW
Dave Washburn
Director of Sponsorship Sales, MLF
Chris Bork | [email protected]
901.229.4797
Director of Sponsorship Sales, MLF
Meade Arseniadis | [email protected]
612.940.0419
Director of Account Services, FLW
Jenn Sonnek | [email protected]
651.235.4770
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FLWFISHING.COM | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING.COM | AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2020