on The coVer
the Mentalist Mike iaConelli
Mental
GaMer
words by // Mike Pehanich / www.smallwatersfishing.com
T
ournament bass fishing boils down
to competition – outsmarting fish
and out dueling fellow fishermen.
Too often, however, the passion and excitement
of the sport blind us to the fascinating and
often complex personalities of the anglers that
generate them.
That’s too bad, in a way, for some of the sport’s
most interesting and successful personalities
are like artichokes. What you see is what the
cameras and headlines capture. You have to
Page 15 | Fishhound Mag
peel away tough layers to get to the hearts of
the men.
Take Mike Iaconelli, for example.
Fandom recalls a cartwheeling, breakdancing
Jersey boy with a trigger temper, not the more
complex man of many hats including inventor,
tackle tinkerer and director of a successful
and growing business enterprise. and there
may not be a better teacher – – or student -of the game in the professional ranks than this