Why I Fish: Buddy Gross

“I believe it is what I was put on this Earth to do.”
— Buddy

Dateline:  Somewhere on the St. Lawrence

“What’s normal anyways?”
— 
Forrest Gump

This is the exact moment Elite angler Buddy Gross knew what he was put on this Earth to do.

“It was like yesterday, I still remember that first fish I caught, my father gave me an old Johnson reel with maybe 4-pound line, nothing special. My parents back then were broke so I’m pretty sure it was a well-used reel…”

I’ve never met Buddy before, never talked to him before. I know he won an Elite gig this year, I know he, is at the moment, in second place in the Bassmaster Angler of the Year race. That’s all I know of the man. 

And yet, as he talks, I’m smiling, a big smile 

That’s what happens when someone who is put on this Earth to do something is telling you what it is that they do and it is that something … trust me on this, when that happens, it’s a magical interview.

“…so I’m fishing the bank and suddenly I get this bite and I start to reel and my rod and reel breaks, snaps, so I look around, it’s just me so I start hand lining it, grabbed the line and just started pulling the fish in with my hands and you know I’m like just 5 or 6 years old.”

Buddy Gross, that’s your sign, what you did there as a very young kid, is proof of what you were put here to do. 

Me, I would have dropped the line right on the spot and then would have run back to tell someone the whole story of what happened in great, short sentence detail. 

“On the way home my father stopped and bought me a baitcasting reel.”

Guess dad knew then too.

“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”
— 
Mae West

“Buddy and his dad loved to go to Mountain Cove Farm, Lookout Mountain on rainy days. There was a pond they could fish in from the road and these were the catch on one of those many days.”  — Elouise Gross, Buddy’s mom.  

“Some 40 years ago my dad would take me fishing, he’d sit in the boat and fish and eat a ham sandwich or something, me I was all at it, I’d be all over the boat tossing here and there, really all over it, couldn’t help myself.” 

As I’m typing what Buddy is saying, I’m nodding my head, don’t mean to, but when he tells me “couldn’t help myself,” and “I was all at it,” I get that, a connection not so much between anglers but between two strangers who are lucky enough in life to be doing what they love, what they almost have to do.

“Know the feeling dude, I write because I can’t not.”

“Not how long, but how well you have lived is the main thing.”
— 
Seneca

“Harrison Bay State Park boat dock, Chickamauga Lake. This is where we had our boat docked, he is getting his pole ready to fish.” — Elouise

“My father, he was an outdoor man, he always said he would relax fishing but with me ‘it was too much like work which I came out here to get away from’. (Buddy laughs telling me this.) But you know I think he knew, think he knew I was all-in with this fishing thing.”

Buddy told me that he used to sell “Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks” and “managed a family body shop,” and when I first asked the simple question, “Why do you fish?” he first said, “It’s how I feed my family.”

I sort of expected an answer along those lines, these are not seven-figure players out here. Many of them scramble to piece together enough sponsors to help pay the bills. Buddy has his fair share but, “I’m always looking for others, every dollar counts you know.” 

To be honest, I do forget that “every dollar counts” because most of the sports folks I’ve interviewed owned at least one Ferrari while living in a 20,000-square-foot castle on a hill.

I’ve never seen Buddy at an event, never seen the logos on his jersey, but if you watch, and you care about these guys as I do, take notice of the logos they wear. Do what you can to help them out.

Put on this planet to do what you are doing doesn’t necessarily mean you can feed your family while doing it.

“Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.”
— 
Babe Ruth

“Harrison Bay State Park boat docks. He and a childhood friend are trolling around in the bay near where we were docked.” — Elouise 

“I just couldn’t stay away from the water, I would fish anytime I had the chance to do so, my stepson and my daughter, they like to fish, my stepson is more into baseball but my daughter goes fishing with me … for awhile … after a bit she is in the water swimming, that’s her thing.”

We talk of children, we talk of the fact that Buddy has never fished anything like the St. Lawrence River. “It blows up out here; I ain’t never been on anything like this down South, concerns me.” 

I tell him I grew up on the shores of two oceans, “Lake Erie and Lake Ontario,” and Buddy laughs. I tell him “that things can change real quick on you up there, be careful dude,” and he tells me he will. From the sound of his voice I’m sure he will.

And then I ask, once again, “Why do you fish?”

“You know, because it’s me, it’s just who I am. I’ll tell you one thing db, one thing, I will fish until the day I die, to the day I die, that’s how much it is of me.”

That’s an exact quote, the key word there is “of” me not “to” me. “Of me” simply means you are doing what it is you are supposed to be doing.

And at that point it is not “doing.”

At that point, it is “you.”

The essence of what’s inside of all of us, the essence of what some of us are so lucky and blessed to be doing.

If you can’t separate yourself from what you do and that what you do you would do no matter what.

Consider yourself.

Blessed.

“I’m not sure what this was all about. It is still during the same time as these others. I just got a kick out of seeing the picture and thought I’d send it to you. :-)” — Elouise

“You are never to old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”
— 
C. S Lewis

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