Some people say that bass fishing is an addiction. That doesn’t apply to Louisiana angler Gerald Spohrer. With Spohrer, bass fishing is a bona fide obsession.
In 2013 Spohrer fished the Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Central Opens. It was his first exposure to big-time tournament fishing. He nabbed sixth place at Ross Barnett Reservoir and finished the season 25th in the points standings.
That encouraged Spohrer to fish the Central Opens again this season, plus the BASSfest at Tennessee’s Chickamauga Lake in June. His long-term goals are to qualify for the Elite Series and make a living as a professional bass fisherman.
If Spohrer’s desire doesn’t get him there, his obsession surely will.
Grandpappy Jimmy Daigrepont is the root of Spohrer’s fishing compulsion. Daigrepont lived in southern Louisiana, was Cajun to the core and spoke French and broken English.
He also loved fishing saltwater for redfish and speckled trout. Thirty years ago, when Spohrer was still in diapers, Daigrepont would take his grandson fishing.
Spohrer never learned to speak French, other than some Cajun slang, but he did inherit his grandfather’s passion for fishing.
At the ripe age of 4, Spohrer was able to sling a Beetle Spin with a spincasting rod. He longed to do so every waking minute, but grandpappy Daigrepont lived 2 hours south.
Although Spohrer’s father, John, didn’t fish, he would drive his son to nearby ponds and turn him loose on the bass and bream. While his father read a book in the truck, Spohrer would fish for hours.
Spohrer graduated to a baitcasting rod when he was 7 years old and added Texas rigged worms and other bass lures to his pond-fishing arsenal. He had no mentor and learned what he could about bass fishing from magazines and the internet.
Dad was relieved of his chauffeuring duties when Spohrer started riding a bike to neighborhood ponds. Sammy, a generic brown and white mutt, tagged along.
“I’d fish all day,” Spohrer said. “It’s all I wanted to do.”
A 6-pound largemouth, Spohrer’s first truly big pond bass, fell for a jig when he was 10 years old.
Spohrer’s bass fishing world expanded exponentially when he got his driver’s license at age 15 and acquired a 14-foot bateau (Cajun for johnboat) with an electric motor. No pond bass within miles of his home was safe.
“People made fun of me because I fished so much,” Spohrer said.
About this time, Spohrer got a summer job at Ascension Marine and started saving money to buy a new truck. By summer’s end, he had banked $3,000.
That’s when someone bought a new boat at the marina and traded in a 17-foot Bullet bass boat powered by a 115-hp Mercury outboard. Spohrer’s employer offered to sell the boat to him for its $7,000 trade-in value. His father offered to cosign for a loan to buy the boat.
Goodbye new truck, hello bass boat.
During the summers between his sophomore and senior years in high school, Spohrer competed in local Wednesday evening jackpot tournaments. He took a drubbing.
“I only knew how to catch bass in ponds,” Spohrer said. “Everything was new to me. I didn’t know how to fish a tournament.”
Despite his lack of success, Spohrer learned a great deal by seeing what his competitors did to catch bass and eavesdropping on their conversations at the weigh-in.
A four-year stint in the Navy after high school put Spohrer’s bass fishing on hold. Assigned to an aircraft carrier, he was on active duty throughout that time.
“I couldn’t wait to get out of the Navy and go fishing again,” Spohrer said. “I had a baitcasting rod on board and I’d pull it out and cast with it.”
After being honorably discharged from the Navy in 2005, Spohrer got a job as a mechanical technician at Shell Chemicals. He focused on his career, buying a house and truck and making a life for himself.
Although he went fishing during that time and bought a bass boat, Spohrer steered clear of tournaments. He still felt the sting of fishing those Wednesday evening events when he was in high school.
A coworker that knew how much Spohrer loved bass fishing encouraged him to join the Ascension Area Anglers, a B.A.S.S. Nation affiliated club, in 2010.
“That club has some of Louisiana’s top bass fishermen,” Spohrer said. “Competing against them has made me a better fishermen.”
Spohrer signed up to fish the B.A.S.S. Nation Central Division championship in June 2012 at the Red River. It was the biggest tournament he had ever entered to that point.
The Red River was 4 hours away from Spohrer’s home, and he had never fished it. For two months prior to the event, he pulled his bass boat to the Red River every weekend. His persistence paid off with a seventh place finish.
That transformed Spohrer from a dreamer into a believer. Since then, he has competed in at least 50 tournaments a year, including club events, team tournaments, Wednesday evening shootouts and the Bassmaster Central Opens. He has done well in many of these events and has claimed some first place finishes.
“My goal for this year is to qualify for the Elite Series,” Spohrer said.
That goal would be easier to achieve if Spohrer were able to fish more than one Bassmaster Open circuit. His job allows only four weeks’ vacation, all of which is dedicated to the Central Opens and BASSfest.
“I have a great job, but it’s competing in bass fishing that makes me happy,” Spohrer said. “I have to make a living in bass fishing or I’m going to be miserable.”