Dateline: A follow up to this: https://www.bassmaster.com/don-barone/montgomery-looking-forward-not-back
So, back a couple of weeks ago at the AOY playoff gig I wrote a story about Elite angler, Andy Montgomery, click the Dateline tag up there if you didn’t catch the story but here’s a long winded synopsis of the thing.
Montgomery was in the 2017 Bassmaster Classic by a nose hair.
That’s pretty much it, plus or minus 1,343 words.
“At the Angler of the Year tournament on Mille Lacs I had to fish pretty hard to make sure I would still be in the Classic, I fish hard all the time but this time it was pretty much game on.”
Or, in fact, as it worked out, game off. “Going into the last day of the tournament, on Sunday there, I was out, out of the Classic, fell out sitting at 41st, I was first guy out.”
And that wasn’t the only ill wind blowing, Mille Lacs was kicked up, wind blowing big waves, lots of bumps, lots of changes where Andy had fished the other two days so, “I changed up, just changed up and went somewhere else.”
All or nothing, love that, me, I’d rather go out with an epic whiff than standing there looking at the plate only to have the ump end my season.
When all else fails, fail not yourself. “In my new fishing spot I caught 20 pounds 10 ounces and then sweated it out through the weigh-in, came down to me and the last five guys to weigh in.”
“db, I came in 39th, huge relief for me, for my sponsors, my family, it’s so important to my career, that 1,300 mile drive home, that’s a long ride, lots of time to think, lot’s of time…”
And on the phone, Andy in South Carolina, me in Connecticut, came a pause, a slight pause of maybe a half beat, a double clutch breath, then…
“db, the 2017 Bassmaster Classic, I’m in man, I’m in!”
And there you be,
db