COLUMN
FOR THE RECORD
COLIN
MOORE
b
16
Running buddies
ack in the days when bass tour-
naments first caught on, friend-
ships among anglers usually
began and ended at the water’s edge. It
was tough enough for one fisherman to
discover a fishing pattern that would
hold up throughout a tournament,
much less afford to share any useful
information. There were exceptions
such as the so-called “Hemphill Gang,”
whose membership included Tommy
Martin, Larry Nixon and Harold Allen,
among others. Yet even their relation-
ships were measured and based more
on mutual respect among homeboys
than any kumbaya camaraderie.
Times have changed to some
degree; the pros are more open with
each other, perhaps more so because
they realize that the other guy isn’t just
a competitor, but a card-carrying mem-
ber of the same trade, somebody who
has experienced the same emotional
highs and lows, who has suffered
through the same sort of disappoint-
ments and still soldiered on. Theirs is a
shared professional pride.
That doesn’t mean they share every-
thing, however. It usually depends on
how their personalities and fishing
approaches dovetail. Not counting fam-
ily members or co-anglers who travel
and practice with pros, there are basi-
cally three types of running buddies on
the pro side of the FLW Tour: true-blue
friends who keep no secrets from each
other, and who actually might he lp
each other in competition; those who
travel together, but keep their own
counsel about fishing specifics; and the
remainder who are somewhere in
between. Typically, on the road they
room in the same rental houses or stay
in the same motels, and eat their meals
together. They’re buds.
No Secrets Here
As Jeff Sprague puts it, he and fellow
Texas angler Jason Reyes are “thick as
thieves – straight-up friends” and share
knowledge and fish. Other examples
include Todd Castledine and Russell
Cecil, and 2017 Forrest Wood Cup
champion Justin Atkins and pals
Brandon Cobb and Shane LeHew. One
of the first rules of such partnerships is
that information travels a two-way
street, and the arrangement has to be
mutually beneficial.
“Complete trust and honesty is the
key,” adds Sprague. “If I find something
that might turn in to a winning pattern, I
share it with him – and vice versa. If I tell
Jason that I’m punching a hard reed line
with an ounce-and-a-quarter weight and
I’ve got them dialed in, he knows that’s
exactly what I’m doing, and it might help
him wherever and however he’s fishing.
It kind of follows the old saying about
two heads being better than one.”
Typically, Sprague and Reyes go their
separate ways in practice, but check in with
each other by phone and compare notes
at the end of each day. In competition,
they’re each other’s head cheerleader –
though out of contact on the water.
“As long as one of us is catching
them, I’m happy,” says Sprague. “I’m just
as happy when Jason’s on them as I
would be if it was me.”
Different approaches
South Florida stick Brandon McMillan
and his running buddy, Canadian Jeff
“Gussy” Gustafson, are miles apart geo-
graphically, but blood brothers when it
comes to fishing. Like Sprague and
Reyes, they keep each other clued in,
though their fishing approaches are dif-
ferent. Where McMillan is a short-range
cover bomber, Gustafson isn’t so locked
in to flipping or pitching.
“We fish completely opposite each
other. Maybe that’s why our little part-
nership works out as good as it does.
We each catch the fish the other one
probably isn’t going to catch,” says
McMillan. “There have been times when
Gussy’s pulled up on me or I’ve pulled
up on him when one of us needs a fish.
No problem. My brother [Jared] fishes
so much like me that if I told him that I
caught fish on the last dock in such-
and-such creek, we’d wind up hurting
each other.”
Atkins, Cobb and LeHew don’t go so
far as sharing waypoints and fishing
side by side, though they will alert each
other regarding patterns and fishing
locales. They cooperate to a certain
degree, but each angler wants to win if
there’s any chance of making it happen.
“Say a tournament is on a lake like
Okeechobee. It’s so big that no one per-
son can cover it all. So we communicate
during practice, put our heads together
and try to break things down,” notes
Atkins. “If one of us gets on a specific
bite, one of the others might be able to
use the same pattern on another part of
the lake, or maybe it’s a timing deal one
of us might be able to take advantage of
when the others can’t. If everybody’s
catching good weight, we might not
share as much; you play it by ear.”
FLWFISHING.COM I May-juNe 2018