Bass fishing fans come from all over the country to the Bassmaster Classic, including Joe Manuel and his son Joshua, 14, of Burleson, Texas, by way of Benton.
Joe Manuel is a budget officer for the Natural Resources Conservation Service. He served in a similar capacity at Benton in 2001-2009. Joshua is a bass fishing fanatic who caught his first bass in a Saline County farm pond. He said his dream is to be a professional bass angler. Meanwhile, he owns a lawn mowing business.
“I’m about to start my fifth year of Joshua’s Lawn Service,” he said. “Let me give you my card.”
With the money he’s earned from that business, Joshua is refurbishing a 1989 Skeeter bass boat with a 200-horsepower Yamaha outboard that he bought. In this way, he’s following the model of Boyd Duckett, winner of the 2007 Bassmaster Classic. Duckett was independently wealthy from his successful trucking business when he burst on the fishing scene in 2007. As Joshua pointed out, he’s gotten even wealthier from his successful line of fishing rods.
Some dads take their sons to football games. Joe and Josh go to the Bassmaster Classic because of a mutual passion that began at that Saline County pond.
“When he caught that first bass, I don’t know who was hooked more, him or the fish,” Joe said. “He’s fun to fish with. Even when he was a little kid, he never complained if the fish weren’t biting or if it was too hot or too cold. He was always happy.”
Now Josh is a walking billboard for Rapala lures. He’s got the Rapala ballcap and hoodie, and a Rapala T-shirt underneath. He’s loyal to the Rapala pros, Brandon Paliaunuk, Gary Klein and Mike Iaconelli. His favorite way to fish is to throw square-billed crankbaits.
“The best at doing that is KVD [Kevin VanDam],” Joshua said, grimacing. “It pains me to say that because he fishes with Strike King.”
“He won’t buy a Strike King bait,” Joe said. “We were at Lake Fork one day,and I was catching them on a KVD Sexy Frog. I only had one. I said, ‘Let me cut this off and let you use it.’ He would not use it.”
The Rapala connection began early when Josh used Storm Wild Eye baits, a Rapala brand. He sent a letter to the company praising its lures, and he got a very nice letter in return. That started a relationship. He rattled off the names of all the Rapala brands, including Blue Fox, Terminator, Luh-Jensen, Trigger-X and others. In fact, Josh said he was waiting for the Bassmaster Expo to open so he could go meet with “my friends, the Rapala executives and the vice presidents and the pros.”
Josh mentioned his top three bass fishing experiences. His first was catching his first bass on a soft plastic bait. It was in Texas, and he used a Yum Salamander in red/black flake to catch a 5-pound largemouth. Joe showed me the photo on his iPhone.
The second was a trip to Lake Fork, where he used a Rapala Dive-2-Fat crankbait in Helsinki shad color in an epic day.
“I caught one that weighed about 3 ½ pounds on the third cast,” Josh said. “I kept throwing it the rest of the day and kept catching fish. We caught every bit of 45 fish that day.”
The third was a trip to Lake Chicot, where Josh caught his first bass on a spinnerbait.
“We didn’t catch a lot of fish, but it was the first time I caught a fish that was 3 pounds or bigger,” Josh said. “I didn’t know much about using spinnerbaits. I threw it like a crankbait. I threw it next to some lily pads and let it sink down. I gave it a crank or two and hooked a really nice bass.”
Joe recalled the 2011 Bassmaster Elite Series event at Little Rock. They were driving when they saw a truck towing a bass boat stopped on the shoulder with the hazard lights flashing.
“It was Kevin VanDam, and he had two flat tires,” Joe said. “I asked him, ‘What can I do to help you?’ He said, ‘I’m just going to drive it like it is. I don’t have time to mess with it.’ So I escorted him to the ramp. I drove in front of him with my hazards flashing. KVD and his flat tires was one of that tournament’s big stories.
“He was the nicest guy. They all are. They’re just good people. That’s why there’s not a better sport for a young boy to follow.”
Sports, Pages 27 on 02/23/2014