5 Questions with Mike Iaconelli

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Mike Iaconelli has never been scared to answer a question. His interviews and opinions have entertained bass fishing fans for over a decade, and his list of accomplishments has earned him regard among pros and weekend anglers around the world. Ike recently took the time to answer five more questions about his bass fishing career in this revealing 5 Questions interview.
Mike Iaconelli has never been scared to answer a question. His interviews and opinions have entertained bass fishing fans for over a decade, and his list of accomplishments has earned him regard among pros and weekend anglers around the world. Ike recently took the time to answer five more questions about his bass fishing career in this revealing 5 Questions interview.
<b>What do you like best about being a professional bass angler?</b><br> I wake up every morning doing what I love. I’m either fun fishing, tournament fishing, talking about fishing or working on new fishing lures. It’s a real privilege to have a job like this. I can’t imagine any other occupation at this point in my life.
What do you like best about being a professional bass angler?

I wake up every morning doing what I love. I’m either fun fishing, tournament fishing, talking about fishing or working on new fishing lures. It’s a real privilege to have a job like this. I can’t imagine any other occupation at this point in my life.

<b>What do you like least about being a professional bass angler?</b><br> The travel. I don’t care how you rationalize it, being away from your family for three or four weeks at a time is not fun. Making money doesn’t get the lost time back to you, your wife or your kids. <p> It’s doable when they can travel with you but in reality as the kids get older it gets harder and harder. They develop lives of their own with their own interests and their own friends. I don’t have the right to take that away from them. The whole thing is very painful for me.
What do you like least about being a professional bass angler?

The travel. I don’t care how you rationalize it, being away from your family for three or four weeks at a time is not fun. Making money doesn’t get the lost time back to you, your wife or your kids.

It’s doable when they can travel with you but in reality as the kids get older it gets harder and harder. They develop lives of their own with their own interests and their own friends. I don’t have the right to take that away from them. The whole thing is very painful for me.

<b>If you could change one professional decision you’ve made, what would it be?</b><br> It would be how I acted the first two years of my career. I tried to be what I thought a professional angler should be — personality, dress, the whole works. I wanted everyone to like me. I tried to be a different person from who I am. <p> That was a disaster. After the second year I said the heck with it and just acted like myself, like me or not. I should have done that from the very first tournament I ever fished.
If you could change one professional decision you’ve made, what would it be?

It would be how I acted the first two years of my career. I tried to be what I thought a professional angler should be — personality, dress, the whole works. I wanted everyone to like me. I tried to be a different person from who I am.

That was a disaster. After the second year I said the heck with it and just acted like myself, like me or not. I should have done that from the very first tournament I ever fished.

<b>What’s the one day that had the biggest positive impact on your career?</b><br> It was the third day of the 2003 Bassmaster Classic. I had serious issues in my personal life and in my professional life. Things were in a mess. I’d basically decided that I’d had enough and that I was going to quit professional fishing right after the Classic. <p> But when I won, everything turned around. Obviously, being a Bassmaster Classic champion changed my career. That’s a given. But it also put me in a positive frame of mind so that I could deal with, and resolve, my personal problems. The whole thing was a life saver.
What’s the one day that had the biggest positive impact on your career?

It was the third day of the 2003 Bassmaster Classic. I had serious issues in my personal life and in my professional life. Things were in a mess. I’d basically decided that I’d had enough and that I was going to quit professional fishing right after the Classic.

But when I won, everything turned around. Obviously, being a Bassmaster Classic champion changed my career. That’s a given. But it also put me in a positive frame of mind so that I could deal with, and resolve, my personal problems. The whole thing was a life saver.

<b>What’s the worst tournament decision you ever made?</b><br> It was at the 2015 Bassmaster Elite at the Sabine River presented by STARK Cultural Venues. I had some quality fish I found in practice but they were a couple of hours away. On the second day they were calling for wind. I chickened out and fished close to the ramp. I caught a couple of ordinary fish and finished 30th. <p> That wouldn’t have happened early in my career. I’d have hunkered down, made the run and made a better showing. The decision I made — chickening out — haunts me to this day.
What’s the worst tournament decision you ever made?

It was at the 2015 Bassmaster Elite at the Sabine River presented by STARK Cultural Venues. I had some quality fish I found in practice but they were a couple of hours away. On the second day they were calling for wind. I chickened out and fished close to the ramp. I caught a couple of ordinary fish and finished 30th.

That wouldn’t have happened early in my career. I’d have hunkered down, made the run and made a better showing. The decision I made — chickening out — haunts me to this day.