A
s one of only two pro anglers to fish
the complete Bassmaster Elite and
FLW tournament schedules, Ish
Monroe may be bass fishing’s King of the Road.
Grueling? No, man. He’s living the dream!
I’d heard the palaver. Ish Monroe was the
hardest working angler on tour. The record
seemed to substantiate the claim. Only he
and Oklahoman Dave Smith fished every
Bassmaster Elite and FLW event in 2014,
and Ish peregrinated from far-off Hughson,
California, to the Eastern Theater where the
overwhelming majority of bass fishing’s major
events take place.
If reputation had him bass fishing’s punchthe-clock hero of the hard hats, he was having
none of it.
“It’s not as much work as people think,” he said
matter-of-factly. Then, to prove he wasn’t just
feigning an “aw, shucks” line of modesty, he
rolled out the math.
“It’s really only 16 weeks a year with a lot of
time off for family and business,” he explained.
“I have a week off in March, April and May, two
weeks off in June, three weeks in July and two
off in August. Then I spend most of September
through December at home. So basically I work
four months a year and I get eight months off!”
But there’s more, I insist. He had scudded
over flights and highway time with his Ranger
in tow.
And how about Major League Fishing?
“That’s just two weeks out of the year, and it’s
fun, it’s exciting and it’s cool” he retorted. “And
we get to fish waters we haven’t fished before.
They’ve got ice, drinks, sandwiches… They have
our boats prepared. It’s like having a caddy!”
He blew off the burden of promotional
appearances for sponsors, and his community
work with youth with similar nonchalance.
Was he a recent graduate of some positive
thinking seminar?
No. He insisted that time was not an issue.
In fact, he even had room in his schedule for
travel and saltwater fishing in the off-season,
emphasizing that it was a four-month offseason that had allowed him to travel to
China, Australia and Europe last year.
His work life seems to run like a well-oiled
machine, and he credits an assistant, Valerie
Lorenzo, for “keeping me organized.”
Not until the topic turns to scheduling does
he yield. Working out the details for a twotour season is an occupational demand that
he finally admits to being “hard work.”
Organizing tackle for two tours is another
challenge, he grants. In fact, it is a five-dayper-week job for a good part of the off-season
– a challenge that he manages by rigging a
separate boat for each tour– a River2Sea
Wrapped Ranger for the Bassmaster Elites
and a Lowrance-wrapped Ranger for the FLW
tour. He keeps both boats back East with
trusted keepers and drivers.
“That was the hardest thing…setting up two sets
of tackle,” he said, launching a rapid-fire litany
of lures he’ll need at key tour stops.
But before a cloud of reality can set in, he finds
a silver lining that W. Clement Stone might
have fashioned. “Hey, I have Daiwa sending me
tackle, River2Sea sending me baits. That’s like
Christmas!…and I have Bass Pro Shops wherever
I go in case I come up short. If the worst part of
my job is prepping my tackle, SIGN ME UP! I cast
for bass and make money! Really, how bad can
that be?”
Learning Curve
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