TAKEOFF
TOURNAMENT LIFE
RECHARGING FOR THE TOUR
TOURNAMENT SEASON MIGHT END, BUT THE FISHING NEVER REALLY STOPS
By Justin Onslow
Tour pro Greg Bohannan recharges his
batteries between seasons by fishing,
hunting and, most importantly,
spending time with his family.
Y
24
ou’d be hard-pressed to find a professional angler any-
where in the country who doesn’t partake in some
form of fishing when the tournament circuit ends and
the winter months roll in. Sure, the season is officially over,
but there’s really no offseason for the pros on the FLW Tour.
While fishing and hunting often go hand in hand – and it’s
no surprise many Tour pros do their fair share of both in the
offseason – no two anglers approach the winter months in
the same fashion. The tournament trail is a grinding, grueling
tour of the country’s best fisheries that leaves most anglers
scrambling to complete to-do lists a mile long when they
finally have some time at home.
Family time, sponsor business and other domestic
responsibilities (those gutters aren’t going to clean them-
selves) are often anglers’ primary focus in the couple months
between seasons. Still, as is the case with 12-year FLW Tour
pro Greg Bohannan, you can’t expect anyone who spends
nearly 10 months a year on the water to take to being cooped
up indoors for very long.
“I don’t have any really bad habits, but I’m an absolute
whitetail addict,” he admits. “My wife gets it. She grew up with
older brothers who love to hunt, so she hunts with me a little
bit, but she kind of gives me a November pass.”
While Bohannan certainly takes his other responsibilities
seriously – fishing included – there’s just something about the
three weeks from the end of October to Thanksgiving every
year that push fishing far out of his mind.
“I do absolutely no fishing those three weeks,” Bohannan
continues. “I try to work really hard to keep my calendar
open. My wife jokes, ‘My husband is the best husband in the
FLWFISHING.COM I WINTER 2019