Bass Fishing Aug - Sept 2020 | Page 6

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 4 FLWFISHING.COM | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING.COM | AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2020