Being a BFL co-angler is like paying your dues in any sport - you have to crawl before you can walk. I talked to Marty Stone one day for a good half hour or more about how a man is to get started in the sport of bass tournament fishing, and his response was amazing. He said that co-angling is the first step on the ladder. Nearly all the pros have done it, and like it or not, you really shouldn't bypass it if you wan't to be a complete angler. It's how you learn the basics, develop confidence in different techniques, and create a firm foundation on which to stand on when it does come time to be a boater. You start off focusing on the fishing alone. You remove so many factors by simply going as a co-angler. You develop a different mentality throughout the season and are continually refining your skills, and picking up a few new ones along the way. Sometimes being a co-angler forces you to fish a certain way you normally wouldn't in order to catch fish, and it's those times in which you find yourself growing as an angler. You learn from both the good boaters and the bad boaters. Usually bad boaters are the ones you learn the most from...mainly from their mistakes or poor choices or attitudes. And to clear something up, most times a bad boater isn't all that bad...most times he's just misguided and probably should be a co-angler instead...he probably just skipped that co-angler step and it's now showing

Keeping a positive attitude all day is harder than it seems on most days, but being able to do so greatly enhances your fishing ability...ask Rick Clunn about that, in fact I think might even have a book about it. Your attitude, whatever it may be, is what determines whether you've had a good day or not...for me, just being on the water is worthy of a daylong smile, and with that attiude it means I've never had a bad tournament!


I've fished co-angler for four years now in BFL, and I pretty well know how to fish now. For me, the hard part is coming up as I transition into the boater role, and that hard part is now finding fish! I reckon it won't be too much longer before I give Dave a call and see what he can teach me about finding the fish...which, from what I've gathered from the message boards, is his specialty.

Here's my breakdown of tournament roles:
Co-angler : learning to catch the fish
Boater : learning to find the fish
Pro : combo of boater/co-angler roles and refining them to his own style

Good luck with the BFL this year and I hope you have fun with it. I met some great people along the way and bet you will too. There's nothing like starting off being total strangers at 5:00 a.m. and then being able to consider each other a friend by the end of the day...it's a really cool thing and I think you'll enjoy it!