24 years at B.A.S.S.

Tournament Director Trip Weldon talks to Don Barone about his time with B.A.S.S. and what's most important to him.

“Now the seats are all empty…”

Dateline:  Year, 24

“I think Trip wears B.A.S.S. underwear.”

KVD

“Trip is my encyclopedia of B.A.S.S. facts, when someone asks me something historical about B.A.S.S. I just turn to the little guy next to me on stage and he answers the question for me.”

Rick Clunn

“You a Neil Diamond fan, db.”

My face is looking straight ahead at the road, my eyes though are all scooched up to the right looking over at the passenger seat.

Neil Diamond is not on the rental car radio.

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young…are.

“You know, db, Neil Diamond in his prime.”

“Yeah, yeah I did, great singer.”

And we both smile.

A Yankee.

An Alabama guy.

Rental car secrets between two good friends, only two good friends can admit to liking, “Solitary Man,” and “Cherry, Cherry.”

Only two good friends like me and…Trip Weldon.

“…let the roadies take the stage…”

Today, July 1, is Trip’s 24th year at B.A.S.S.

He’s had the Tournament Director gig now for 13 years, for my first two years at B.A.S.S. we never said a word to each other, in fact I thought his name was either:  Weldon Something, or, that for some reason he fell down a bunch and that people just gave him that nickname.

He never really looked bruised but I kept a distance in case he tripped and I couldn’t catch him.

I wasn’t stuck-up, just didn’t think I could hold him up with my bad knees.

It was an Elite event in my hometown of Buffalo, NY where we first talked, the wrapped boys had just taken off, when I heard from behind me:

“Your daddy, your folks they lived in Gadsden, Alabama.”

I turned around to see Weldon Something standing above me on a bunch of rocks, and I looked over at my wife Barb, who was standing next to me, and gave her the long married husband to wife look that says, “Help Me,” hoping that if she moved next to me that between the two of us we could catch Weldon Something if in fact he had a tripping problem on the rocks.

“Yes, yes they did, they liked it, liked the people there a lot, “ I said as I took both hands out of my pockets, just in case, you know.

“Hum,” Weldon Something said as he turned and walked away in what to me was a pretty steady manner.

“Hey saw Trip talking to you.”

Kerry Short was walking up to Barb and I on the rocks.

“Shhh…don’t call him that he may hear you and you know, for the record he seemed to walk just fine over all those rocks…”

Kerry just looks at me and says this, “……………”

That quote meaning, speechless.

“What are you talking about db, that was Trip, Trip Weldon, Trip is his first name.”

“Oh…”

“…pack it up and tear it down…”

Actually, “Trip” is not his first name, his first name is Henry, or possibly, Hank, maybe Henry, at breakfast after the Neil Diamond question he sort of explained it to me.

Sort of.

Looking back at my notes scrawled around bacon grease on a napkin this is what I wrote:

“Grandfather is Henry Howard Weldon, Sr. (1)…his father was called Sonny (but there must have been a Henry somewhere before the Sonny part because Sonny was Weldon Jr. (2), then came “Trip” because I was Henry-3 (?) then my son, Hank is the 4th and his soon to be born baby boy will be Henry-the-5th.”

To be honest I think that last paragraph up there may be only 70-80% correct at best but if it is real wrong I’ve asked Trip to correct it in the comment section at the end of the story, so take his comment to be true and this to be, you know, almost…true.

“db, I was an only child, spoiled wonderfully, very close to my Mom and Dad, my Father was an Accountant, my Mother, Magie, was a championship bowler and softball player…”

Personally, I love that quote, “spoiled wonderfully.”

“…it was my Mother who loved to fish, she was the one who took me fishing…”

In fact…

“…how did I meet my wife, well db, my Mother and my wife’s Mother were fishing buddies and one day as they were in the boat together my wife’s Mother asked my Mother if she happened to know any eligible bachelors and…”

And his Mother’s fishing buddy’s daughter, Mary, has now been married to Trip for 31 years.

“I wasn’t an eligible bachelor much longer after that question was asked.”

“…they’re the first to come…”

“Trip and I pretty much started at the same time, I saw when I first started that he was a big fan of bass fishing,” said Kevin VanDam.

Last Saturday at 10:21am I texted KVD this message, Hey man just wondering if you had a couple of minutes tomorrow or Monday morning to do a real quick interview about Trip for a story I’m doing about him that will run on his 24th anniversary with BASS.

At 10:42am, 19 minutes later, KVD called me, not the next day, not Monday, 19 minutes later I was hearing, “I know him really, really well, he has to make a lot of tough decisions and he always, always has the integrity of bass fishing in mind when he makes those decisions.”

That’s respect to make that call back to me so quick when I gave him a day or two out to make the call.

That’s respect from a man who sometimes butts heads and disagrees with Trip.

This afternoon at 5:40pm I sent this exact text to Rick Clunn:  “Rick do you have a minute to do a quick interview about Trip.”

“Hey db…” 

The call from Rick came at 5:42pm.

“Trip is in a terribly hard position, but he is always fair, he understands, being an avid fisherman and lots of knowledge of the sport, he understands and knows the original intent of the rule, that’s crucial, he respects the intention behind the rule and is going to be fair.”

I was one time sitting in the office of a federal judge who was pretty much telling me he wasn’t going to tell me anything, but doing so politely and with a smile, I did the story without his involvement, crimes were done, people went to jail, I didn’t screw the story up much because we became friends.

Behind his desk was a very simple, handwritten sign that said exactly this:  “Being good is easy, what is difficult is being just.”~ Victor Hugo.

I hadn’t thought of that sign in years, until my talk with Kevin & Rick, about Trip.

“…and the last to leave…”

If you think you know Trip, you don’t know Trip unless…

…you know his favorite “all time band,” are The Eagles.

…you know he has seen, “The Celtic Women” in concert a couple of times.

…you know on his bucket list he wants, “to take Mary to see a Broadway Show.”

…you know his first car was a red 1969 Pinto.

…you know he was a Clerk Operator working for the railroad for 13 years.

…you know his first boat was a 15ft Ouachita with a 70hp Johnson that he bought right out of high school.

…you know he grew up wanting to be a professional angler.

…you know one of his best friends on the tour was B.A.S.S. worker, James “Pooley” Dawson, who recently passed away, and that Trip still carries a white towel (Pooley always waved the boats in with a white towel) with him in Pooley’s honor.

“…but I can hear the sound…”

“You really only hear about Trip when the wheels come off, but I know him, and I know him so well I know how he fears bad weather days, big storms, struggles with should we launch, should we not launch, and then when we do launch I know he paces and paces all day, always checking his watch, checking the weather, looking at the radar just like a dad waiting and worrying about all his children coming home safely.”  -Kevin VanDam

I’ve been there, I’ve seen him pace.

I’ve been there, I’ve seen him go off by himself and use his phone to watch BassTrakk, watched him look at the blogs, at the standings, dial up weather-dot-com, watched him go to the end of the dock, and look.

Never once has he ever told me he hopes this person, or that person ever wins.

Never once has he ever said anything to me that I would take as a bias toward one angler over another.

Trip:  “I try to keep the sport first and foremost, no one is bigger than the sport in this or any other sport.”

Trip:  “The honor I’ve had of being besides legends in the game and the privilege I’ve had to watch other become legends.”

Trip:  “The biggest thing I’m proud of is my staff, their amazing hard work and how long many of them have been with us, those backstage workers are the true unsung heroes out here.”

“…of slamming doors and folding chairs…”

You don’t know Trip unless you know how much love he has for his family, how much love he has for his faith.

“Pray more now every day with the boys having babies.”  Hank the 4/5/6 is his son as is Ben who I assume is the first, both new husbands and soon to be new dads.

“I can’t wait to be a grandparent, both of those babies already have a fishing hat, but I think the birth of those babies will make me a better person.”

At every tournament, Trip and I have dinner together, along with Chuck Harbin, Senior Tournament Manager and Trip’s right hand man.

The three of us all talk about the tough part of doing a job we all love, being away from family as long as we are, Trip and I are working together for sometimes 3 weeks at a time, day in day out, seven days a week, 21 days of bad hair (what’s left), bad smells, and lots of laughs.

“Being away from Mary, being away from those new grandbabies coming, that’s the hardest thing, when I retire I hope to be around them all the time, hope to do volunteer work at my church, hope to make life better for other folks, give back, I’ll follow B.A.S.S. always follow the guys but I’ll go quietly, won’t see me trolling around all the bass fishing boards giving out my opinion that’s for sure.”

I want to leave you with one last exact txt message, this one from Trip:

“didn’t see u around today u ok?”

“u” is me.

Trip is well aware of my health issues.

He doesn’t just walk the docks as a dad concerned for the anglers, he walks behind the stage caring for all of those behind there as well.

He walks through this sport, caring for all in it, all who love it, and yes, that means you.

That smile you see up on stage is for the game.

And if you don’t know that, you don’t know Trip.

Hope you do now.

“…and that’s a sound they’ll never know.”

The Load Out

Jackson Browne

“I am just a common man who is true to his beliefs.”

Coach John Wooden

db

PS:  BTW, I have never, ever, actually seen him trip…

See photos of Trip through the years here.