Pals, Sort Of
Lawyer finished 15th, Scanlon 16th and
Watson 18th. Collusion? No, it was pure
coincidence.
“We don’t share a lot of fishing infor-
mation, unless one of us is really strug-
gling by the end of practice,” notes
Lawyer. “Usually, though, if one of us is
struggling, all of us are probably strug-
gling to some degree. We might com-
pare notes and maybe throw each
other a bone, but that’s about it.”
Chums on the bank, but mum on the
water, the trio’s original common denom-
inators were various Ozark tournaments
they fished. Otherwise, theirs has been
sort of an odd-couple arrangement.
“We don’t travel together much. I like
to start out at daylight and get to the
tournament [site] early so I can get
everything arranged. James likes to
sleep ’til about noon and then get to
where we’re going about midnight,” says
Lawyer. “But we do try to get a house
together at a tournament and share the
load. I’ll usually bring groceries and do
the cooking, and Casey will bring a
bunch of groceries. James will pitch in
on everything else, except he won’t
wash dishes. He’ll wash your boat if you
ask him to, but he won’t wash your dish-
es. I don’t know if it gives him bad flash-
backs to all the KP he pulled in the Army,
or what.”
Which brings up another point:
Having a running buddy doesn’t mean
you have to be nice to him all the time.
Simple compatibility often trumps
other reasons why some pros pal up with
each other. There are the FLW veterans
such as Andy Morgan, Darrel Robertson,
Terry Bolton and Ramie Colson Jr., who
just get along because they’ve cam-
paigned together for so long. And there
are always similar alliances percolating
among Tour newbies.
For instance, James Watson, Casey
Scanlon and Jeremy Lawyer have start-
ed running together even though
there’s not a lot similar about their fish-
ing styles. Watson tends to fish quickly,
while Lawyer is more a plodder.
Scanlon is somewhere in between. At
Okeechobee in the season opener,
Jeff Sprague (left) and Jason Reyes are friends on and off the water. They work together to try to promote mutual tournament success.
May-juNe 2018 I FLWFISHING.COM
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