®
Summer 2023
page 26
event in Florida to get my truck fixed. That’s why I fly back and forth from home between events; it’s just too much.”
He’s fortunate to have some good friends throughout the country that let him store his rig between events, which has been a lifesaver. The distance from home and added logistics with planes is just one thing Smith has had to deal with, but there’s also a significant shift in the fishing itself.
“Fishing the NPFL helped get me ready,” he said. “To do this nationally, you must learn stuff we don’t have back home. You need to understand ledge fishing, how to fish for big smallmouth in the Great Lakes, and how to safely drive that big water. Then there’s the uniqueness of Florida and the blueback herring lakes, those are things we don’t have in Northern California.”
The other thing Smith has had to adapt to is the fishing pressure, specifically in the southeast.
“Bass fishing is popular in the west, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a hobby and back there, it’s a lifestyle,” he said. “I remember when we had our event on Lake Eufaula in Alabama during one of the first nice days of the year and no doubt, there were well over a thousand boats out there just on the south end of the lake where I was. We’re blessed to have some of the best fishing on the planet and they don’t even get touched with fishing pressure like the lakes back there do.”
So far, he’s figuring it out with two solids seasons on the NPFL, a second-place finish in the Bassmaster Opens points and checks in his first two Elite Series events. Like others before him, he’s a versatile angler.
“If you fish a traveling circuit back home, whether it’s MLF, Wild West, or WON Bass, you’ll have to be versatile,” he said. “The fisheries are so different, so you don’t see many specialists coming from there. You need to be as comfortable with 6-pound test and a drop-shot as you are with 65-pound braid and a frog and that has really helped me. We have so many great anglers back home, and I was the lucky one to qualify, so I put a lot of pressure on myself to rep the West Coast and show them what we can do.”
California and the entire West Coast are rooting on Bryant Smith as he takes on the top level of bass fishing. If he’s like the other western pros before him, we’re likely to see him find success for many years to come. •