By Christy Hutto

How many sports are there where the stars can stand around with more than 1,000 fans and just share stories and answer questions? There definitely aren’t many besides fishing. I participated in my first competitive bass tournament Saturday, April 9, with none other than Mike Iaconelli. Thanks to Mark’s Outdoors, I had one of the most fun experiences of my life. I found out that I got drawn out to fish with Mike Iaconelli when I received a personal call from Mark with all of the details for the day. I was so excited to receive the news because I had met Mike in 2004 and I knew he was a great, down to earth guy. I tried to imagine how the day would be with 1,000 people, but the picture in my mind was overwhelming.

Amazingly, I made it to Paradise Point at 4:30 a.m. to meet up with Mike and to load the tackle and rods that I borrowed from my boyfriend. The first thing that I was instructed to do was to do a camera interview for Mark’s video. Mike arrived after the interview and his passion for the sport truly shown through immediately in everything he did. Even that early in the morning, he was awake,. Enthusiastic, and ready to fish. It impressed me so much to see how he, and the other pros, spoke to everyone and were willing to answer any questions in depth. He seems to have a lot of respect and interest in anyone who shares his love for fishing.

During the fog delay at the launch, he struck up conversation with other fishermen and kept everyone’s spirits up. I watched this man get so excited about every aspect of the sport and he showed how passionate he is about giving back to it not only by participating in this type of tournament, but also in his interest in restocking the lake with the yearling bass. While we waited, a fellow pro tossed Mike a new bait by Jackall and he tied it on in about 5 second flat and swam it by the boat. He showed so much excitement about the action of the bait and started talking about what, where, and how we would fish. He was undoubtedly getting fired up. Speaking of getting fired up, this guy has an infamous scream that I can vouch for. Yes, if you were wondering if he screamed when he caught his fish, the answer is yes. It made the whole experience that much more fun and it really got me excited about catching more.

The craziest thing that I witnessed him do was that he literally stalked a fish. He was sight fishing in extremely shallow water when he said in a loud whisper, “I see a bedding fish that I’m about to catch!” So I set my rod down slowly and quietly, I grabbed the camera, and just watched in awe. In about 5 minutes, I watched him kneel in the front of the boat tying and retying about 6 different baits and putting them in the fish’s face until finally, he put the right color sweet beaver in front of the fish and it ate it! He said his heart was pounding and he was shaking. I think it’s great how he gets so enthused about every fish he catches even though he fishes all the time. I still can’t get over his determination and effort in catching that one fish.

I took advantage of spending 8 hours with Mike and he taught me a lot. He is so knowledgeable about the sport and he said most of what he knows is what he learned on his own by reading magazine articles, and watching videos about fishing. He explained how fish bed and pointed out a couple of beds for me to see. He was eager to advise me on the best baits to use and why in different conditions. Even though he was in a competition, he never hesitated to turn the boat around to rescue my flip-flop that I let fly out, or my hat that flew off. Also, I’m extremely grateful for his patience in helping me get my bait unhung from brush about three different times.

He’s such a nice, open guy, who doesn’t think twice about greeting a fellow fisherman on the lake, and I would be honored to fish with him again. Although the weighing scale did not show our day to be very productive, I got a ton out of it, and catching fish was just a bonus. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the tournament. The Mark’s Outdoors tournament can’t be done justice with words, it has to be experienced and it truly is great fun for everyone of all ages. So I know what I’[l be doing about this time next year, do you?