If you don't like to eat catfish, Bo Jackson says you don't know food.
"One thing I know is I love to eat catfish," said Jackson, the only athlete to be named an All-Star in both the National Football League and in Major League Baseball. "If you don't like catfish, you're not American."
Love of catfishing is just one thing that Jackson shares in common with Arkansans, who rate catfish as their second-favorite fish to catch. Jackson, who won the Heisman Trophy in 1985, broke the hearts of Arkansas Razorbacks fans in 1984 when he led the Auburn Tigers to a 21-15 victory over the Razorbacks in the Liberty Bowl.
As an ardent catfisherman, his boat of choice is the XPress XP200 Catfish, an aluminum boat made in Hot Springs by a 54-year-old, family-owned company that also makes aluminum bass boats and luxury pontoon boats. Randy Brooks, owner of Brooks Marine in Bauxite, tested the boat on Lake Maumelle to make sure its systems functioned before delivery. I was on the lake that day and pulled close to examine one of the most distinctive boats I had ever seen.
"The first time I saw that boat was like when I saw my wife for the first time and said, 'That's the woman I'm gonna marry!' " Jackson said. "My exact words were, 'One day I'm gonna have that boat!' I'm in love with it. That Catfish Series boat can tame the river. When I back it down the ramp and everybody's looking, I get out of the truck with my chest poked out, and I say, 'Uh, huh! It's mine! I own it!' "
Jackson's affinity for fish dates to when he was a child in Bessemer, Ala. Fish was a staple in his home, and Jackson said nobody prepared it better than his mother.
"The fish man would come around every Thursday and Friday with a truck full of fish on ice under a tarp," said Jackson, who now lives in Chicago. "Carp, catfish, drum, croakers, buffalo; you name it, he had it.
"Mom liked catfish because it had less bones in it than the other stuff. She didn't want us to choke on bones. She couldn't afford to take us to the hospital with bones stuck in our throats."
With 10 children jostling for a share of fresh fried fish, Jackson said that if you wanted to eat, you had better be sitting with your utensils ready when the platter landed on the table.
Nowadays, the only thing Jackson enjoys more than eating catfish is catching them.
"I bass fish a lot, but the thing with catfishing is that every time the tip of that rod bends and shakes, there's a chance it might be another one-and-a-half pound catfish, or might be Grandaddy Mo," Jackson said. "You never know until you set the hook to see how hard it pulls back. I guess it's my competitive nature, but I say the bigger the better."
Clay Connor, director of marketing for XPress Boats, said Jackson's exacting specifications reveal an angler as meticulous and as competitive as the four anglers -- Bill Lowen, Harvey Horne, Caleb Sumrall and Dale Hightower -- who represent XPress Boats on the Bassmaster Elite Series Tour. Connor also said that Jackson's lifestyle and values mesh so evenly with XPress' culture that the company considers him part of the family. One of XPress' "Beyond The Boat" videos features Jackson at xpressboats.com.
"Bo became famous when you and I were kids," Connor said. "Fast-forward 30 some-odd years, and it's amazing how many kids today recognize the photos of him holding that bat across his shoulder pads. Through it all, he is still married to the same woman he married out of college. His three kids all have college degrees, and he is probably a more successful businessman than he was in athletics.
"And," Connor added, "he is passionate about the outdoors."
For Jackson, fishing is a release and an escape from a busy life, but it is also a life within itself.
"I like to get out and fish just to relax and get away from being Bo Jackson," he said. "I've been on calls since 7:30 this morning, and I'm on my way to a meeting now. You can do that and then go fishing, and all the worries and stress and issues just fade away."
Though avid, Jackson brushes off any notion that he is an expert catfish angler. He said fishing is an endless learning experience, and he credits the mentors who share their knowledge.
"It's like when I play golf," Jackson said. "I tell people, 'Look, I'm just another bad golfer out here looking for my ball.' It's like that with fishing, too. I'm just a guy with a hobby trying to get better."
Despite the self-deprecation, Jackson knows the finer points of finding and catching catfish on moving water.
"If I just want to relax, I've got buddies that have lakes and ponds where I can fish from a small boat or a canoe," Jackson said. "When I want an adventure, I go on the river."
The key to finding catfish, Jackson said, is finding a combination of cover and structure in current. His favorite places are in swift tailwaters like those below the locks and dams on the Arkansas River.
"I anchor down as close to the dam as they'll let you get," he said. "I get upstream from the structure and let the scent of that bait go downstream to where the fish are."
If current is slack, Jackson anchors in backwaters near eddies about 10 yards upstream from brush piles or other natural cover. The challenge is wrestling fish out of cover or preventing them from getting in cover when hooked.
"If it goes into a brush pile, there's a change you're not going to get that fish," Jackson said. To minimize break-offs, Jackson uses Spiderwire braided line.
Jackson is casual about his equipment choices except for electronic graphs. He relies on them to help him find fish-holding structure. His favorite is the Garmin LiveScope.
"Right now, I am a LiveScope student," Jackson said. "With the LiveScope I will find spots I have passed over all my life."
The size and shape of the weight Jackson uses depends on current. He said he uses egg weights and teardrop weights as heavy as 4 ounces.
"I use a swivel with the beads. I try to keep the weight from beating up my line," he said. "I watch people and tie my line like they tie their line. I don't try to get the nicest rods or the best gear. If I can get line strong enough to hold that fish and a hook strong enough and sharp enough to hold that fish, I'll induct him in the Hot Grease Hall of Fame."
