No More Getting Fat on Home Cooking
Posted by Pete Robbins on Feb 1st 2021
photos courtesy of MLF/Big5
This past weekend Texas angler Derek Mundy caught a 39-07 bag on the way to winning the Toyota Series event on Sam Rayburn, just a few weeks after weighing in 40-10 to win a BFL. With apologies to Mr. Mundy, who is having a better month than Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes combined, I’d never heard of him before. That doesn’t mean much. After all, last year at this time I hadn’t heard of Taku Ito or Kyle Welcher or Wes Logan, but they did all right for themselves since then. My knowledge base does not necessarily correlate to his skill level. For all I know, Mundy could be the next Skeet VanWheeler.
Thirty-nine-plus a day would get you paid in any era, but to me it’s a sign of the changing game. I remember years ago the late David Wharton, an 11-time Classic qualifiers with four B.A.S.S. wins under his belt, told me about his high school classmate Stan Burgay. Burgay was a police officer and a hell of a stick, and because he only fished (and won) tournaments close to home, Wharton speculated that they netted the same amount in an average year. His friend could win $5k or $10k here and there, sleep in his own bed at night and enjoy health insurance.
For better or for worse, those days are over – whether you live at Rayburn or Kentucky Lake or Guntersville. There may someday be another Andy Morgan who wins five of six Red Mans in a single division in a single year (and comes in 2nd in the last one), but it’s doubtful. The days of being able to make serious bank are over.
Just look at the field Mundy beat last week. It included tour level hammers like Jeff Sprague, Todd Faircloth, Todd Castledine, Keith Combs, Paul Elias, Rick Clunn and Tommy Martin. It also included a lot of Lone Star freaks like Dicky Newberry, Chris McCall, Russell Cecil and others, many of whom have fished one tour or the other at various times. from the top to about two-thirds of the way down, tours are stronger than ever. Some of that is electronics, some of it is other forms of the evening of the playing field – but the best way to make six figures on your home waters these days no longer seems to include jackpotting multiple tournaments every month.
