BACKLASH
Q&A
TOM MONSOOR
La Crosse, Wis.
How many times a year do you get
asked about swim jigs? It’s all that
popped up when I Googled you.
Probably 200 days a year.
I hear even many of the pros on Tour
come to you and ask about it.
Oh, sure. Every tournament I’ll have
guys say, “I need a dozen of this one or
that one.” It’s unending because there
are just so many different styles.
So you pour jigs for other pros, too?
How many would you say you pour
in a year?
Not that many. Maybe 300. It’d be a lot
more if I offered it, but the only guys who
ask are guys who know me really well.
It has to be pretty cool to have so
many people asking your advice and
throwing your jigs.
It is. You know what I get asked about
even more? How to sharpen a hook the
right way. I must get 30 guys at every reg-
istration who come up to me with a sharp-
ening stone and ask me to show them.
112
Professional anglers don’t know
how to sharpen hooks …?
Not the right way. There’s a right way to
sharpen a knife and sharpen an ice pick.
There’s a right way to sharpen a hook. If it
doesn’t stick in your thumbnail on its own
at a 45-degree angle – not pushing it in; on
its own – then it’s not sharp.
I hear you’re pretty good at catch-
ing more than just bass. Tell me
about the Monsoor Fishing Co.
Oh, I’ve done that my whole life. We
catch probably 1 to 2 million pounds of
carp and sheepshead a year.
What do you do with them?
We sell them. The carp go every-
where. Europe, and a lot to New York.
They want them alive, like lobsters in
glass cases.
People eat carp?
People swear they’re delicious. There’s
a restaurant in Omaha that’s famous for
its open-faced carp sandwiches.
I’ve tried them every way possible.
They don’t work for me.
I’m so glad other people like them,
though. It’s given me a great life.
How did you get into that business?
My dad, Edward, was a doctor. He
knew everybody. One day when I was a
little kid we were driving by the river, and
he stopped to talk to some commercial
By Sean Ostruszka
fishermen. This guy held up a big carp,
and my dad asked how much it was
worth. He said “a buck and a half.” I told
my dad that day I was going to be a com-
mercial fisherman.
So was your dad a big fisherman?
He liked to fish, but it was my mom,
Lola, who loved to fish. Every chance
she got she’d drag us out to go fishing.
She lived to fish. In fact, to the day she
died, she had a wooden, flat-bottom
rowboat on Blue Lake in La Crosse.
Can you imagine if you grew up
anywhere else and not on the
Mississippi River?
No, I can’t imagine it, and I don’t
want to.
I’m 67 years old … 67? Maybe 68. As
you get older you don’t want to remem-
ber. But anyway, I have a dog named
Jigs and a girlfriend, and all I do is fish.
It’s great, though the one is a very
demanding woman.
Your girlfriend?
No. Jigs. She’s a big yellow lab, and the
most affectionate thing you’ve ever met.
She also wants attention all the time. Oh,
my gosh, is she high-maintenance. But
she loves to fish as much as I do.
FLWFISHING.COM I JULY 2017