Being able to balance my time with family and fishing is definitely my number-one most difficult task. Both deserve and need my time. Fishing for a living requires a lot of travel and time spent on the water and staying focused on bass fishing.
I guess that balancing the time with my girlfriend is the most difficult. She’s been my girlfriend for the past 8 years. But since she travels with me, that makes spending time with her somewhat easier. The most difficult thing is carving aside time to spend with my girlfriend, since I love to fish. When I’m not fishing, I still want to go fishing. Although she understands my fishing addiction, it’s an ongoing strain for both of us. She doesn’t get aggravated that I’m gone fishing, because she knows I’m not doing something bad. However, she has a hard time understanding when I’ve fished hard all week in a tournament, and I have a day off after the tournament, why I want to go fishing with my buddies.
I love fishing so much, and I want to learn all I can about fishing by trying new lures, fishing different bodies of water and testing new techniques. Fishing is about change – fishing and weather conditions change, lures change, line changes, so there’s plenty for me to learn. I never get bored with fishing. I think that what truly bothers her is that I want to go fishing when I’ve got time off and could spend that time with her. She does enjoy fishing, but she doesn’t want to go fishing every day like I do. I’ve learned that to be a fulltime bass-fishing pro and make my relationship with my girlfriend work that I can’t go fishing every day, although, that’s what I want to do and she knows that. It’s not that I don’t want to spend time with her, but rather bass fishing is an obsession with me. She does understand my passion.
