Tour vet recalls bass club, Classic experience

A tournament angler with a bucket list and no vacation time...

RIDGELAND, Miss. — You are a weekend tournament angler with the bucket list opportunity of a lifetime on the line. You just received an invitation to compete in bass fishing’s world championship. The only problem is you have no vacation time away from a full-time job.

What to do?

Postal worker Alfred Williams once faced that daunting decision. To his credit, the Mississippi bass club fisherman found a way to fish the event while keeping his job. The story about how he pulled it off is just as interesting as what happened next.

In 1983, Williams won the B.A.S.S. Federation Central Divisional held on Ross Barnett Reservoir. As the top club angler in the region he earned a berth in the Bassmaster Classic. His win made headlines on the sports page of the Jackson Clarion-Ledger.

Williams’ boss read the story and viewed the front-page picture of his employee holding the winner’s trophy with keen interest. That’s because Williams, a clerk in the distribution center, called in two days’ sick time during the tournament dates. He was out of paid vacation leave.

“I had the unused sick leave and only needed a couple of days,” recalled Williams, now 67 years old. “He told me if I was well enough to go fishing that I was healthy enough to be at work.”

Williams didn’t lose his job. When informed he faced a week of unpaid suspension time he came back with this plea bargain idea.

“I requested to serve the time over a certain week in August,” he said, with a smile.

The supervisor accepted the offer and Williams competed in a very tough Classic on the Ohio River at Cincinnati. He finished in 10th place and earned a check for $1,500.

Williams faced another difficult decision when returning to the post office. He wanted to compete at the pro level. However, the expenses involved required him to keep his full time job.

Once again, he found a work-around to keep it while living a dream.

Back then, the tournament season ran from September through May. Williams’ 15 years of service with the U.S. Postal Service came with 5 weeks of vacation. The calendar break in the middle of the season enabled him to fish the Bassmaster Invitationals, at the time the only pro-level B.A.S.S. circuit. Combined with other leave time he struck a balance.

“About 90 percent of us fishing the Invitationals had full time jobs,” he recalled. “We took off a week, fished the tournaments and then went back to work.”

Williams fished the tour full time from 1983 through 2003. His consistency paid off with a full sponsorship from Ranger Boats in 1988. In 1989, B.A.S.S. launched the Top 100 series, the forerunner to the current Bassmaster Elite Series. Williams easily made the cut and fished at the highest level of the sport until retiring from the tour.

To date, he’s competed in 94 pro-level events. Williams retired from the postal service in 2002. Since then he remains competitive by fishing tournaments around his hometown of Jackson.

Early on he garnered recognition for his skills with a plastic frog, back in the days when lily pads and aquatic vegetation flourished on Ross Barnett. He remains a threat to win tournaments and enjoys success on a regular basis.

The desire to compete remains while he yearns for the camaraderie.

“To this day I receive Christmas cards from fellow competitors from that 1983 Classic,” he said. “I just ran into Rick Clunn and it was like we never spent any time apart.”

He recalls the days when the Classic contingent was much smaller. Nightly functions were times of bonding between the spouses of competitors.

“I really miss that part of it,” he added. “We all basically ate every meal together as a group, fished from sunup to sundown and did it all again the next day.”

Williams wants to come back one more time. He likes the thought of competing in the Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Opens presented by Allstate. He’s fishing the current event as a co-angler on his home lake.

“If I can get the sponsors lined up I plan to try and fish next year,” he said. “I really enjoy it.”

If that happens, the next go-around won’t require taking time off. He’ll have all that he needs and then some to rekindle friendships and compete again.