Bailey Gay would move heaven and earth to make the Elites.
Unfortunately, Gay, a 23-year-old from Union, Ky., couldn’t dig out the Lake Okeechobee bottom last year or he’d already have fulfilled his dream. His tactical error still haunts him.
“I think about it every night,” he said. “All I had to do is drive straight and go to Clewiston, but I turned left and went into Coot Bay. I love fishing the Opens, but c’mon! I wouldn’t have to go through any of this.”
The heavy equipment operator is making another pass this year, and he has things graded well and ready to pave his way onto the Elites. He stands in the 10th and final place to advance from the Nitro Boats Bassmaster Elite Qualifiers to the top Bassmaster circuit.
“Last year, I was seventh going into the final event at Okeechobee,” Gay said. “I would have made the Elites Series if I didn’t get stuck on the bottom on Day 1. Seven minutes late. I had the fish to not even need to catch one on Day 2. It should have been a cakewalk.”
Instead of starting in 11th place with 13-6, Gay’s 7-pound penalty buried him in 50th. He climbed to 41st, but still dropped to 13th in points, just seven clicks from qualifying.
Gay said his first day on Okeechobee had been going well. He caught a decent limit after his hour and a half ride to J&S canal. Protected by the canal walls, Gay had no idea if Big O was showing its teeth, so he played it safe.
“I saved myself two hours to get back to Clewiston, thinking it’s going to be rough. The lake is dead slick calm,” he said. “It only took 30 minutes. I got plenty of time. I can actually fish somewhere near the boat ramp, I have so much time to kill.”
With an hour and half, Gay thought he’d slip into Coot Bay for an hour. He kept moving deeper and deeper until it was time to head to check-in. Disaster struck.
“I’m literally four minutes from Clewiston takeoff,” he said. “I get myself all the way worked back into this place. I didn’t realize that I couldn’t take off. I couldn’t get up on plane. I couldn’t get the grass picked off my motor long enough to take off. I tried every trick in the book.
“I basically had to idle for 30 minutes and watch the clock tick down, while my cameraman just sat there and witnessed me having a complete meltdown.”
The penalty was severe – a missed berth to the Elites, his dream needing another foot of water but ending a foot under blacktop.
Gay fished all sorts of tournaments before focusing solely on the Opens the past two years. He got the bug pond fishing, but loving competitive fishing, he started a high school club and went on to win back-to-back state championships.
Gay has long hoped to compete on the pro circuit with big-name anglers like Mike Iaconelli, Kevin VanDam, Greg Hackney and Bill Lowen, who began his career fishing on the stingy Ohio River just like Gay.
“Bill Lowen has always been somebody I looked up to,” Gay said. “I have a boat ramp at my house on the Ohio River. It makes those days when you’re not catching them not feel so bad. So I’m used to that.”
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Gay’s school closed. He kept up with studies at home and at 15 went to work with his father, a supervisor at Reigler Blacktop just outside of Cincinnati.
“I swept shop floors, organized shelves, then got on a crew, ran a shovel for three years,” he said. “I slowly learned the equipment. Now I’m full-time operator. This will be my seventh year.”
Riegler has concrete, asphalt and dirt and rock crews, the ladder of which Gay works on with three others. He operators a “bulldozer, excavator, grader, any heavy piece of equipment it takes to build a road.”
Members of the Reigler family are probably Gay’s biggest supporters. They like him enough to put up with him taking time off at the last minute.
“They sponsor me by letting me off and letting me keep a job,” he said. “Because if it was anybody else, or if I worked anywhere else, I would be fired by now. I’m not very good with letting them know I have a tournament coming up. It’s more like, ‘Hey, I’m leaving right now. See you in a week.’
“I’ve been there for so long, they really support my dream. They want me to make it as bad as I want to make it.”
Recently married and building a home, Gay said he believes having a job with decent income helps his fishing.
“If I can figure out a way to work and fish the Elites I will, because I enjoy working,” he said. “I enjoy consistent income. It makes me take more risks in fishing when other guys need to lay up to get paid. I know that I’m getting a check that week when I’m going back to work.
“When I left Toledo Bend, I drove 15 hours to get back to work Monday.”
Gay made two of four checks in Turtlebox Bassmaster Opens to qualify among the 127 anglers competing in the three-event EQ sprint. After finishing 36th the Norfork Lake EQ, he climbed into the Top 10 with an eighth-place finish at Toledo Bend.
His fate will be determined in the season finale on Lake Guntersville, Nov. 11-13, when the Top 10 in points punch tickets to the 2027 Elites.
“I fished Guntersville a lot but never in a no-scope event,” Gay said. “I think a safe bet is obviously the grass. I don’t know if I can find an offshore school that’s still lingering around, but I think a safe, consistent way to always get bit is to catch them out of grass.”
Admitting grass is not his forte, Gay said he’s OK fishing it.
“I don’t think there is any grass in the state of Kentucky,” he said. “But I like grass. I’m not scared of it.”
Foremost on his mind is where he needs to finish, and how not to stall out.
“I think I need a top 25 – that might be a little sketchy,” he said. “A top 20, I think I’m good. A top 15, I think I’d be a lock.
“I like just the idea of making the Elites. That would be life-changing, I would say. It meant a lot to me last year. This year would make it even more unreal.”
After literally running aground in his 2025 quest, Gay hopes to make the grade this time.
