“Brother let me be your shelter…”
Dateline: Sturgeon Bay
“I get called Bobby more than he is called Chris, that’s how good he is.”
Chris Lane
It is Lane2.
Bobby to my right, Chris to my left, both have flowers in their hands.
Bobby is holding up the restaurant table cut flower arrangement.
Chris is sticking an orchid in my face.
Bobby: “Wow this is very nice, very fresh.”
Chris: “db look at this orchid man, look at the colors and how bright it is.”
I, you know, don’t quite, know, um, what to say.
Welcome to everything I never knew about the Lanes.
“What’s a matter db, you don’t like orchids, you know my Grandmother, Joan McLain, grows orchids, famous orchid lady, even has a orchid she developed named after her…”
Frankly I don’t know which Lane guy said it, but whoever said it, they were right…
Here’s Bobby and Chris’s Grandmother Joan:
And this here is the orchid named after her:
Chris Lane: “My wedding the entire church was filled with orchids db, it was beautiful, just beautiful.”
Like I said, um…
“…I’ll never leave you all alone…”
True confession, for the past 8 years of this gig I have basically ignored both Chris and Bobby Lane, I viewed them from afar, never really warmed up to them, thought they were brusque, thought they were overbearing.
So I gave them space, said hey, was polite, never hung around with them, never got close even though I was told over and over again how nice they were, how I should get to know them.
But I passed.
When I sat down at the dinner table with both of them at the AOY shindig, I told both of them exactly that.
Both just sat back and looked at me. As I would have if they told me the same thing I just laid on them.
And then I stuck my hand out and said simply and exactly this, “I apologize, I was wrong.”
Both immediately took my hand and shook it, said no problem man, then offered me some salad, some soup, invited me to join them for dinner, bought my dinner and opened up to me like I was some long lost friend.
I just thought you should know that.
For honesty’s sake.
“…brother let me be your fortress…”
“I’m older,” Bobby.
“Yeah big deal, 15 months, don’t make you wiser none,” Chris.
“So what do you want to know about me,” Bobby.
I don’t say a thing, don’t have to, this is after all, Lane2.
“You know, we are almost equal in Top 10 finishes,” Chris.
Both brothers toss that around a bit as I punch up Bassmaster-dot-com on my iPhone and see that:
Bobby 27 Top 10s.
Chris 26 Top 10s.
“Told you, we know that because whoever finishes worse has to buy the beer.” Couldn’t tell you which one said that but when I looked up both were smiling and shaking their heads yes.
Then, “We want to…
“…set the mark as brothers.” Chris started the sentence, Bobby finished it.
That’s pretty much how the night went. To know that is to know how close these brothers are.
As the waitress comes and takes away the soup and salad bowls Bobby stands up and says, “Excuse me a minute, beer you know,” and walks away, at the table it’s just Chris and I.
Chris leans forward, “You know db, Bobby being out here fishing against me has made me sharper in my game. The real fans, the ones who know fishing know how good he is, I’m more of a risk taker but he, Bobby, he likes to say he is just sneaky snake good, he’s going to his ninth Classic made the cut on every one he has been in so far, he’s that good…”
Then, “…you know what db, everybody does stories about me, you should just do a story about him, he’s the funniest guy out here, I’m telling you, he’s the story.”
And so, on the advice of younger brother, Chris, here’s….Bobby.
“…when the night winds are driving on…”
“My dream was always to become a professional bass angler.”
Bobby was born March 6, 1974…that was four days after I was married so I know the dude is 41 years old.
His dream has been pretty good to him:
101 total B.A.S.S. tournaments.
5,410 pounds of bass caught.
First place: 1
Second place: 6
Third place: 2
Top 20: 45
Top 50: 75
Just went over the million-bucks in winning mark which means he averages $10,000 in winnings for every B.A.S.S. tournament he has entered.
“I approach it as a career, a job, a business.”
Bobby is married to Madeline and they have three children, Alexis, Robert (the thirrd), and Amberley, “Family is everything db, the last three years I’ve become more of a father myself, grown up more, I realize the importance of the future and I want to be the best I can.”
Then, “…and then there’s the underwear, that helps as well.”
“…be the one to light the way…”
I’m going to just step back here and let Bobby explain this:
“Every year I buy new underwear to wear during the tournaments, not cheap you know, we go online and find just the right ones…”
I don’t ASK A THING.
“You see here db, Day 1, I wear the green camo pair…”
I’m just writing notes.
“Day 2 I wear the stars and stripes ones…”
Um.
“Day 3 once I make the cut then I wear the boxers with the $100 dollar bills on them…”
I’ve actually stopped writing.
“…and the final day, Day 4 when I’m fishing in the Top 12, that day I wear my Superman underwear.”
Now you know.
“…bring you…”
We are standing alone behind a sponsor booth, Bobby has just spent 20 minutes giving a Bassmaster University seminar to a bunch of people.
“Well that was fun, great to see the kids with their dads.”
Bobby and I have now had several conversations over the week that is the AOY tourney, this is the first one we have had alone.
Just us.
“I realize now, come to it over the years, realize the importance of fishing in families lives, makes life enjoyable, great bond.”
He takes a sip, I click the pen, I know something is coming, and comes it does.
“You know db, my father, Robert, I’m Robert junior, my father has never, NEVER missed calling me before an Elite tournament, NEVER in the history of me fishing has he not called me every morning of these tournaments.”
I just smile.
“I wait for his call every morning.”
It wasn’t until this very moment that I knew for an absolute fact that I had badly misjudged Bobby.
I put my arm on his shoulder, and he just smiled. “He calls me the night before every tournament and just asks me this, ‘Are you going to catch them good, or really good,’ every night before the tournament I get that call.”
“On the first day of the tournament he calls me and always says the same exact thing, ‘Go get ’em.’”
“Day 2 he knows how my first day went and he always says, ‘Here’s what I need you to do,’ then he begins to tell me how to play the game on Day 2.”
“On the third day if I have made the cut he calls and says, ‘You’re this far behind the top this is what you need, this weight…’ and then he tells me the weight I need.”
Bobby just stares off, watches the crowd walk by, one guy walks up with his son and asks for an autograph. Bobby signs something thanks the dad and pats the boy on his head, smiles and watches them walk away.
“On Day 4 my father calls and he just says this, ‘Why don’t you just go and win it,’ says that exactly, every Day 4, every tournament, every year.”
It came to me then that I have been wrong all around with these guys.
It should be Lane2 + 1, for dad.
It should be Lane2+1+4, for Bobby’s family.
It should be Lane2+1+5, for Chris’s family.
And the grandma who has a Orchid named after her.
Then, “db, I’ve got to go, got to get my tackle ready for tomorrow, move up to make the 2016 Classic…”
Which he did, Bobby finished 21st in AOY points, Chris finished 19th, both will once again fish on the sport’s biggest stage.
“…but you know what db, if any thing comes of this story we are doing I hope it is this, hope it is this, that dads read this and that they will call their sons, call their sons because man db, it means the world, means the world to the sons.”
db
“…home.”
Brother
NEEDTOBREATHE
“I grew up without a dad. When I would think about what it would be like to have a dad in my life when I was a kid, Bobby is that kind of dad to my kids. So in a weird way, my dreams came true, but for my kids which is even better!’
txt to me from
Madeline McKnight-Lane
Bobby’s wife