Winter 2019
page
32
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On the Elites, you need like $90K to pay for entries and expenses and you haven’t even paid any bills back home after you’ve spent that. There are probably less than 10 or 12 guys that have deals that cover all that in the bass fishing world and I am not one of them. I’ve already given years of my life to the sport and at the age I am now, I need to consider finances and choices of stability. Even if I was fishing out here and I was paying my own entry fees, you wouldn’t see my name anywhere.
In the West, (the angers) we just trade money with each other. We barely cover expenses, IF we win and IF we don’t we may not even get that back. Not to mention covering the time off of work that you don’t get paid for. I would have to cover not only my entry, my expenses; but weeks of wages and union hours… It just isn’t worth it. It has taken me a long, long time to figure that out; but in the last two years, I finally have.
I look at all of my heroes, the guys that were doing this when I was a kid. The guys that were winning boat after boat and what do they have by way of financial security? Mostly nothing. The one guy that does – Dee – well, he has it because he worked a Monday to Friday job at Safeway and retired from the company. That’s enough to show me. That should be enough to show us all.
WB: Who are those heroes you mention?
BUB: There are at least 10 or 12 and I don’t want to forget any names and hurt someone’s feelings. Of course, my dad and Dee and Murray. Murray won everything out here. As a kid, I dreamed about winning enough to win more than Murray. I knew if I did that, I would’ve made it. But, it’s not just those three, that are my heroes. There are several others. Those guys... they love it like me. They love it with a passion that we don’t even know how to put into words.
But, fishing bass fishing will never be able to support their professionals. Not like golf or Football or even NASCAR... at least not in my lifetime. We won’t have mansions and cars or anything else – at least not from fishing winnings.
Realistically, a guy cannot even afford a new bass boat at this point (without having a sponsorship for it) ... unless he has a really good job or two-earner income. This sport is expensive, and the payback doesn’t match the cost.
But again, for me, for the guys that I was talking about that are my heroes, my friends... they know. They know how it is. When you love it like we do... like I do...you will give up everything...
You will give your life...
You will give your health...
You will pay more than you can pay...
You will spend more than it costs...
You will give more than you have to...
You will give anything to get back out there... to give it another shot...just one more time... just one more win... just to drive your boat back to weigh-in KNOWING you have the winning fish in the box... KNOWING you’ve just smashed their heads in. There is just nothing like that feeling. It’s better than money.
WB: Before we close out, tell the readers one thing they don’t know about Bub Tosh.
BUB: I pray. I pray more than you know. •