NACOGDOCHES, Texas – Albert Collins loves competitive bass fishing, but he loves his family even more. He left the sport for them.
Collins quit fishing, not only competitively, but altogether after he gained custody of his two young daughters. Raising them was bigger to him than any personal goal, even his hope to qualify for a Classic.
“I figured one day I would be fishing the Bassmaster Classic, once I got to the point in my life where I could concentrate on it,” Collins said a few years back. “It’s always been my dream. I’ve never been to a Classic. I told myself that I would never go to one unless I was fishing it.”
Collins has made up for lost time. This year he won the B.A.S.S. Nation Championship to qualify for the 2016 GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by GoPro. In 2013, he fished his first Classic after winning the 2012 Bassmaster Weekend Series championship.
It’s anybody guess what heights he might have attained if he hadn’t taken a nine-year hiatus from fishing, but he doesn’t want such speculation. He’s adamant his girls never think they caused him to miss out on anything, because they didn’t. He said he served a much higher purpose with them than anything he could have done fishing.
“I did want to fish, but I just couldn’t do it with the kids,” he said. “And I’d do that again in the heartbeat.”
He felt the need to be there to get his girls off to school, when they came home, to make their dinner, discuss their days, help with homework, etc. Fishing was out, even on weekends. It’s an all-or-nothing proposition for Collins.
“My buddies were like, ‘Come, go fishing with me one time,’” he said, adding he had to refuse. “’Why not? It ain’t going to hurt going one time.’ I said it’s like telling a crackhead to do it one time and quit. Fishing’s addictive. It’s like a drug to me. When I start fishing, I fish. I go. I go all out.”
Fishing was ingrained in Collins early as he grew up on the shores of Sam Rayburn. He started going down to the lake at 3 or 4 and fished all on his own.
“When I was 5, I had a little rubber, two-man boat, and I would take it down to the lake and I would paddle around that boat around the bushes and catch fish,” he said.
He graduated to an aluminum boat at 9 or 10, then guided in high school before being sidetracked momentarily by girls. Before stopping at age 33, Collins became known as quite a stick in the southeast Texas tournament scene, where he says good anglers can make a living on Rayburn and Toledo Bend. Elite Series angler Todd Faircloth, who lives on the other side of Rayburn from Collins, said he’s lost his fair share of entry fees to him.
“I just love the competition,” Collins said. “Moreso than anything, you’re trying to compete against the fish, but you’ve got these other guys doing the same – you’re just trying to do better. To me, that’s what drives me so much. I’m competitive.”
SECOND CRACK AT GRAND
Collins’ first Classic was also on Grand Lake. From his pre-practice days of catching 25 pounds, he thought he’d do well. When official practice came, his fish were still there. Then it snowed on Wednesday’s final practice.
“With all that cold, I could see the water temperature just click down while I idled around the lake – it went from 48 degrees to 39 degrees and it messed me up,” he said. “I could still see fish, but I couldn’t get them to bite, and I spent too much time chasing them.”
Collins said this time he plans to fish the conditions. Fishing regularly against the likes of 1974 Classic champ Tommy Martin, as well as having legendary angler Harold Allen as his team partner the past five years, Collins certainly isn’t star struck, but he hopes to improve on his 48th-place finish from 2013.
“I’m not intimidated at all,” he said. “I’ve changed my outlook from when I was here before. I was pretty deadset on what I was going to do. I thought I was on the winning deal. It didn’t work out, and I just stayed with it.
“I’m not doing that this time. If it’s not working, I’m going to do something else, good, bad or otherwise. I’m going to do everything I can possibly do to figure this out and win it.”
Figuring out things is what Collins does. He won consecutive Weekend Series titles, but the second one didn’t have a Classic berth attached. It did give him a $150,000 payday, including his Triton Gold incentive. He continued his hot run in 2014 but barely missed winning the B.A.S.S. Nation Championship on the Ouachita River. He knew what to do if it ever returned, and when it did last year, Collins’s plans worked.
“The area I fished was just brutal getting in and out in a fiberglass boat,” he said, adding he only got to fish one day there as the water dropped. “I cracked my boat and had to put it in the shop, but I knew the fish were in there to win it.
“I told my wife if I ever had to fish this river again, it will be out of an aluminum boat. When we heard where it was at, she said, ‘I guess you need to go get that aluminum boat.’ They’re not cheap, but they’re worth every penny. It got me to the Classic.”
Collins has hopes to go pro in one circuit or another, and key to that would be getting some northern fishing exposure. He’s branched out of late with events in neighboring states, but to make that jump he has to broaden his fishing horizons.
“I’ve never fished north. I should have this year, but I just didn’t work it into my schedule,” he said. “I’ve got tournaments that I fish around here that I actually depend on now to make money. I don’t work. I fish tournaments for a living. That’s it. I’ve got to try to fish my tournaments I can make money on and roll in a big tournament here and there where I can.”
And that might take him to Bass Pro Shops Bassmster Opens, where he could try to qualify for a third Classic in a third manner.
IKE APOLOGIZES TO BARKING DOG
Back in 2013, Mike Iaconelli had an infamous run-in with a dog on Grand Lake. It looked like a golden retriever that sat on a gangway barking and drew a frustrated Ike’s ire.
On his return this year, Ike offered up an apology. The JM crew put together a video explaining how Ike was upset and took it out of the pooch. The video switches between then and today.
“For me and my personality, I like to bring my passion out – good and bad.” Iaconelli said recently. “When it’s happening, I like to let it out … Man, I can’t control it. I have a lot of emotions, and I’ve got to learn how to channel it.”
In cuts to his curse at the hound then goes back to Ike’s voiceover.
“This is a personalized message to my good friend, the dog at Grand Lake. Now I know I was kind of a (bleeped out with a bark) on that day … You got to understand all the frustration … I was feeling at that moment in time. I had a shot to win that Classic and I saw it slipping away from me …
“So, I’m sorry. I want to say forgive me Dog at Grand Lake. And when I come back this year to visit you, this year I will blow you a kiss, and I will let it fly in the wind and remember you always, my beautiful Dog of Grand Lake. I love you.”
So if anybody sees that pup, could you ask it if it accepts? And then get back to us.
FUNNY CLASSIC KNIGHT
Hall of Fame college basketball Coach Bobby Knight had the Night of Champions crowd in stitches Wednesday with his presentation.
A close personal friend and best fishing buddy of Jerry McKinnis, Knight addressed the Classic anglers, spouses and B.A.S.S. family at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa, and he drew big laughs.
His first pointed remark that drew a guffaw came right off the bat as he corrected McKinnis, who introduced him as having won two NCAA national championships. Knight, of course, coached the Indiana Hoosiers to three crowns.
Retired as the winningest coach with 902 victories and now second to Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, Knight’s talk then focused on inspiring the anglers as they embark on bass fishing’s grandest stage.
His best laugh came as he told the anglers to understand their capabilities. He told a story of a 93-year-old man who was enjoying fly fishing success at a lake when a large frog at his feet made him an offer.
“If you’ll pick me up and kiss me, I’ll become a gorgeous woman and give you a life of erotic ecstasy most men have never dreamed of,” Knight said the frog told the old man.
The man, however, only picked up the frog and put it in his pocket.
The frog’s muffled voice coming out of the pocket asked, “Are you hard of hearing? I said if you just kiss me, you can have things you’ve never imagined.”
The old man, showing he well realilzed his capabilities, said without blinking, “Yes, I heard you. But at my age, I’d rather have a talking frog.”
And as they say in the biz, it killed.
AND FINALLY, SOME FISHING NEWS
If you want to know what’s going on with the water conditions on Grand Lake, check out Steve Wright’s look at “Watching the water temps.” And if you are interested in seeing the conditions that the anglers face, see the photos and comments Shaye Baker put together in “Examining Grand Lake conditions.”
CULLING
- Brandon McMillan’s father should be here this week, cheering on his son as he fishes his first Classic. Jimmy McMillan never got that chance, Bryan Brasher writes, because Jimmy was gunned down at the family grocery store four years ago.
- If you like seeing stuff built, check out Chris Mitchell’s photographic look at the work being done to build the extravagant Classic stage in the BOK Center and fill the 150,000 square feet of Expo space in the Cox Business Center.