PART I: HATS OFF TO ELITES
This is Part I of a five-part series on Elite Series anglers and their relationship with hats.
If you travel to certain villages south of the border, as far as South America, you might come across someone wearing a ball cap once owned by Edwin Evers.
It’s unlikely that person is a fan or has ever heard of Evers, let alone bass fishing tournaments. The only connection is the hat. So his Talala, Okla., home doesn’t fill from bottom to top with hats, Evers bags up extras for a relative to take far, far away.
“Aw goodnight, I give bags of them away. I have an uncle who goes on mission trips,” said Evers, the 2016 Classic champ. “They love hats. I literally give trash bags full.”
It’s among the most unique dispersal methods of the heavy-hatted bass fishing pros. Bassmaster Elite Series anglers get tons of hats each year from sponsors. They are almost always wearing a hat, but inquiring minds want to know what happens to all the others.
The idea to look into their hats was spawned from a Facebook post by Stacy McClelland, wife of Elite pro Mike McClelland. She dumped a box of 100 or more of his hats on the floor and wrote, “And he says I have a shoe problem.” She had hashtags #timetopurge then #gladhesontheroad. (Uh-oh. We’ll visit how that turned out later.)
While it’s rare to see a pro angler without a hat on, most hadn’t given much thought to their headwear relationships. Almost to a man, the Elites queried for their take on hats at first responded curiously, most with a quizzical look, asking “Hats?”
Once primed and privy to the premise, the Elites donned their thinking caps and offered all sorts of info on hats: their likes and dislikes; details of their collections; thinning the herd; the business implications; superstitions; and even wearing the wrong one.
There was so much information, this reporter got stupid. So, here we go. Hold on to your hat.
PUT THIS IN YOUR HAT
Wikipedia says hats are “head coverings worn for various reasons, including protection against the elements, ceremonial reasons, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory.”
B.A.S.S. pros have all of those covered in one way or another. Shaw Grigsby is among the handful of anglers who approach the hats they wear while fishing pragmatically. He doesn’t have a lot of hats and uses the ones he keeps for their intended purposes.
“They keep the sun out of your eyes, and keep it off your nose, and hopefully help so you can see a few fish,” he said.
There are several non-hat freaks on tour, but Stacy McClelland is correct to infer that many Elites have “hat problems.” A good number report they are fanatical about hats. Many called themselves “hat guys,” admitting that they are rather picky about the ones they’ll wear out of their obnoxiously large collections.
Gerald Swindle, the 2016 Toyota Angler of the Year, has been a B.A.S.S. pro since 1995, and he wore hundreds upon hundreds of caps before winning his first AOY in 2004, and he’s worn a couple hundred more since. Over the years and relationships with companies, Swindle has tossed, donated and given away tons of hats while accumulating quite the collection.
“Oh God, it’s ridiculous,” he said. “I probably have 100 in the truck. At home, it’s stupid.
“I have certain ones that I wear, but I have a huge collection of them – two, three hundred at least. I got them all in boxes on a shelf in order. If I want a Quantum hat, I know exactly where it’s at on the shelf. Organization, baby.”
Some anglers said they are extremely discerning. They might receive a plethora of hats, but it’s a select few that actually make it onto their heads because a hat has to fit just so and look right, too. Some say their heads are too big, too small, too round, too tall for a specific style. Finding the perfectly fitting hat is not always easy.
“For me, I have kind of a smaller head, so I have to get a hat that fits that don’t look too high, or blow out,” Kevin VanDam said. “The sponsors are good about getting hats that fit us right. They know that if we get a hat we like, we’re going to wear it more.”
Chad Morgenthaler is among those who have “300 to 400 hats” but probably has only worn a dozen or two.
“I’m picky that way,” he said. “I’m super finicky about my hat. It’s got to look right. It’s got to have the right fit to it. It can’t be all jacked up. It can’t look like a trucker hat. It can’t be a flat-bill. It’s gotta be bendable. I do wear mesh hats, but I prefer non-mesh hats.”
Chris Lane said he goes mesh in summer to help stay cooler and he wears totally enclosed hats to stay warm in colder temps.
Like Grigsby, Tommy Biffle has a lot of hats but doesn’t hold a deep personal connection – they’re just hats. While some anglers flip between a wide selection, he has a standard go-to. When one Gene Larew cap wears out, he just pulls out a new Gene Larew cap.
“I’ve always told everyone if you get a hat you like to wear, then you’ll wear it every day,” said Biffle, adding fit and comfort send his from “tournament hats to yard-mowing hats to being done.” Biffle said he has hundreds of other hats he’s kept over the years in boxes.
“Don’t know what I’m going to do with them,” he said. “Started to give them to a guy who had a hat collection – and I had more hats than he did.”
CAN’T TRUST SOMEONE WHO DOESN’T LIKE HATS
Maybe it’s just part of the sport that hats naturally accumulate, but many anglers have worked to compile nifty collections. Jay Brainard, who just finished his first Elite season, was among the most demonstrative in his affection for headwear. He said he’s always wearing something on his head, no matter what.
“I love hats. I wouldn’t trust a man who didn’t like hats,” he said.
And he has the goods. In the console of his pickup, he has two rows of around 40 neatly stacked hats at his quick disposal, plus way more in the back of the truck and even more at home.
“I think I can wear a different sponsor hat for every day of the year,” he said.
While his fishing hat collection is impressive, the former freestyle bullfighter probably has more money sunk in his extensive cowboy hat collection. Brainard is all about hats, and he can’t appreciate someone who doesn’t appreciate hats.
“I once saw a guy turn his hat around backwards, and then put his hand over his eyes to block the sun out,” he said. “My grandpa would say he had his head on backwards.”
Brainerd thinks someone who can’t work a ballcap needs our pity.
GOTTA KEEP THIS ONE … THESE ONES CAN GO
“If you’re a professional fisherman, you tend to get a few hats,” Brent Chapman said, “so every couple of years I’ve got to clean out the closet and give away some hats.”
That disposing of hats has many faces. Anglers give away single hats all throughout the season to friends, family and fans. Stephen Browning lets his fishing buddies come over and grab hats, but he and Terry Scroggins hold on to a selection of their best.
Scroggins, who entertains a lot at his Florida home, said his best hats are kept under cloak as he often would oblige a visitor asking for one. “If you leave them out, you have to give them away to anybody who comes to the house,” he said.
“I’m about like Scroggins,” Browning admits, “I keep my good ones in a certain area and my other ones out in the garage.”
When the stack piles up in back seats, boat compartments or wine racks, sooner or later the decisions need to be made. While one or two hats of their favorite styles might be stowed for the keeper cache, the others gotta go.
“At the end of the year, I’ll be down organizing and I’ll go through some older hats and give them away,” Swindle said. “I give to bass clubs, youth groups. You get requests, ‘Can you send hats?’”
Then there are hats so well-worn they’re not worthy to ever again see the light of day.
“Most of the time mine end up in the trashcan after I burned them up,” Grigsby said. “I wear them saltwater fishing, freshwater. You get them grungy and you just got to toss them. Nobody wants my old hat.”
Like Evers, most load up their extras and donate. Chapman equates it to recycling.
“Sponsors are always changing logos,” he said. “Just cause you like some old hat, they want you wearing the new stuff with the new logo, and stuff that looks better as well.”
Like their new wrapped boats, each season brings sponsor boxes full of hats. Elites get piled on about everywhere they go; shows, meetings, conferences, etc. At every B.A.S.S. tournament, the pros can expect to gain at least another handful of hats.
Anglers set out each season with a certain number of their “tournament” hats, which they say can remain presentable for several events. The hats they wear during weigh-ins, and to a degree whenever they might be photographed, are often kept in a well-protected container.
“Gotta have a fresh hat,” Dean Rojas said holding a plastic container of hats in his truck cab. “I got all my sponsors, whatever I need. They stay clean, they stay dry. These only come out on game day and TV times.”
WHAT TO WEAR WHEN PECAN PICKING
Evers, who has 50 or 60 hats in his truck, said he uses four at any given tournament.
“I have a hat for practice I’m supposed to wear, and three different hats I wear tournament days, and I rotate them,” he said.
After Evers won the Bassmaster Classic on Grand Lake, he went out for the champion’s photo shoot. He diplomatically made certain to acknowledge all his major sponsors, which saw him changing hats five or six times for every pose.
Yet it’s kind of ironic that while he receives insanely detailed, finely stitched hats with his own E2 logo on the back, he prefers something much simpler while out working in his pecan orchard.
“My favorite is just a Bass Pro hat, and I actually buy them. I get 80 hats and I go buy a Bass Pro hat because it fits right,” he said, coming to a realization. “In the orchard, I wear one that I bought from Bass Pro, but it’s all greasy. My favorite hats are ones I actually I buy … that’s funny … just an old, plain Jane, gray hat.”
You might see some of his old tournament hats in Haiti, or Guatemala, or wherever Evers’ uncle’s church visits. If you ever see someone down there with an extremely nice E2 hat adorned with several of his sponsors, you’ll know exactly how it got there.
Click links for photo galleries on “Brief history of fishing hats,” and Hat Couture
Part II: Elites keep memories under hats | Part III: Hats fill bill as No. 1 ad space
Part IV: Purging hats a delicate endeavor | Part V: ‘Catching hats’ and wrong ones