EDITOR’S NOTE
Publisher
Irwin L. Jacobs
Editor-in-Chief
Curtis Niedermier
Production Manager/
Graphic Designer
Michelle Dowling
BUILD YOUR LIFE RESUME
C
ongratulations to Clent Davis on winning the 2018 Forrest Wood Cup. He’ll
forever be remembered as a champion. What an achievement. What a
career milestone to add to his resume.
On the subject of resumes, I came across an interesting idea recently called a
“life resume.”
Unlike a professional resume, which lists career accomplishments, a life
resume is a list of meaningful experiences that someone has lived out. Trips
made to faraway places, family goals met, friends visited, fishing trips experienced
– these are the types of things that make it into a life resume.
I think that keeping a list of this sort is a wonderful idea. Too often, we expend
more hours and more energy and more worry on things that really aren’t as
important to our lives as we think, like the stuff that pads our professional
resumes. Making a living is important, but enjoying life is, too. A life resume can
remind you of the payoff for all that hard work, or help you set goals for what
you’d like to add to it.
In tournament fishing, winning the Cup is the ultimate pro angler resume
builder, but for many qualifiers, just getting there and experiencing what it’s like
to be part of the event is a life resume achievement.
Some of the pros probably forgot that in Hot Springs back in August. It looked
that way to me. I could sense the disappointment in a few whose results weren’t
what they’d hoped.
Maybe they’ll come around and realize that although there’s only one winner,
there are no losers at the Cup. Every participant walked away with another expe-
rience to add to his life resume.
As I examine my own life resume, I’m starting to worry that the category of
fishing experiences isn’t growing fast enough. It wasn’t always that way.
When I started at FLW, I fished all over the country with anyone who’d take me.
I begged my way into the boat. I was so consumed with improving as an angler
and learning more about this sport that I gave up everything else to pursue fish-
ing. The “Fishing” column on my life resume ballooned.
Sometime in the last 11 years my focus shifted. I started spending more time
watching other anglers fish than catching fish myself. I worked longer hours. I
turned down chances to fish world-class lakes and reservoirs in order to hustle
back to the office after tournaments. I chased opportunities to further my career
and my professional resume, at the expense of my life resume.
I don’t regret it, but I do want to even things out; to bring things back into kil-
ter. I think I’ll start by going back to my favorite fisheries up north and catching
smallmouths and walleyes. I haven’t done that in about five years. I might skip
work a few times this fall to catch the morning topwater bite, or book an inshore
trip with a guide so I can learn more about fishing the salt. That’s a world I’ve only
dabbled in. And I’ve still never fished the Boundary Waters from a canoe, though
I’ve always wanted to. That’d be a fun summertime trip.
The list of potential experiences goes on and on. I suppose if I do things right
going forward and rethink my priorities, my life resume and the Fishing column
within it will go on and on too. I can only hope.
4
Curtis Niedermier, Editor-in-Chief
Associate Editor
Justin Onslow
Editor Emeritus
Colin Moore
Field Editors
Rob Newell & Matt Williams
Contributors
Joe Balog, Tyler Brinks, David A. Brown,
Dan Johnson, TJ Maglio, Sean Ostruszka,
Paul Strege
Graphic Designer/Illustrator
Matt Pace
Director of Advertising
Al Chapman | 270.252.1628
FLWFishing.com
Senior Web Content Manager
Jesse Schultz
Senior Editor
Kyle Wood
Digital Editor
Jody White
Letters to the Editor
FLW Bass Fishing
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Chairman & CEO
Irwin L. Jacobs
President of FLW
Marketing Division
Trish Blake
President of FLW
Operations Division
Kathy Fennel
Chief Financial Officer
Dave Mahler
Vice President, Controller
Tommy Boaz
Vice President of Marketing
Kelly Oettinger
Vice President of Operations
Dave Washburn
FLWFISHING.COM I FALL 2018