I fished against a professional bass fisherman

I was watching fishing on T.V. this weekend as there was 3 hours of B.A.S.S. coverage for the angler of the year 2 postseason tournaments. I have been following B.A.S.S. all year and it was a big thing for me as I am now a B.A.S.S. member and might be fishing their Federation Series next year as a co-angler.

While I was watching the show I was looking at B.A.S.S. online. I was reading a blog written by Charlie Hartley, a pro bass fisherman from Columbus. He was talking about his addictive behavior and how his Mother got him addicted to fishing before he got addicted to something bad. He mentioned that he still does the evening tournaments around Columbus. I remembered that I had seen a Venom Lures wrapped boat at one of our Thursday night tournaments. I looked up our tournament results and sure enough he had fished in a couple of the same tournaments we had fished. I had fished with a Bassmaster Elite Professional fisherman and did not even realize it.

He did better in the 2 tournaments that we fished at the same time but only had a little over a pound more than us in both. He also was skunked in 3 of the 6 tournaments he fished and only caught 1 or 2 fish in the other 3 tournaments. That is about how we did in our 8 tournaments. I feel better about my fishing now. It is tough around Columbus to catch bass. I feel even better now that I went down to Kentucky lake and caught tons of bass and some big bass there. I knew that he was a big time fisherman since his boat was wrapped, but I didn't know he was one of the best. That makes 3 professional fisherman I have ran into and didn't get to meet this year.

The first was when I bought my new boat and took it into the Marine to have the water pump replaced. There was a wrapped boat hooked up to a matching truck at the marine being looked at. I later saw a picture of the same guy in bassmaster magazine fishing a Northern Open tournament trying to make his way into the Elites.

Next, I passed and almost got ran into by a Chevy Pro that was there to practice for the Lake Champlain FLW Tour event that was going on the weekend that we were in Maine. I had passed him and thought what a nice boat he had. Then I got lost and turned around to go back where we had came from. We were sitting at a stop light and he turned a tight corner towards us and barely had enough room to make the corner. I thought he might hit us. I saw his boat wrap with all of the stickers including the FLW sticker that made me realize he was a pro. I had a pretty good look through the windshield and think it was Anthony Gigliardi that finished 2nd in that event. I had wanted to pass by Lake Champlain to see it since it was one of the stops on both the Bassmaster Elites and the FLW Tour. I didn't realize they were having a big time tournament that week or we might have stuck around.

Now I realized that I had fished at least 1 tournament with Charlie Hartley. I think I was on vacation in Kansas the other tournament he was in with us. He owns a sign business in Grove City near where my oldest son's babysitter is.

I wonder how many other people I pass or run into throughout the year that I don't realize are famous. I wouldn't have recognized any of these 3 without their boats and I have even been following fishing all year.