Mark Menendez said it was difficult for him to watch the weigh-in for the first Bassmaster Elite Series event of 2013 (the Sabine River) on the Internet. Since then, he hasn't missed the circuit too badly.
The Kentuckian is sitting out this season on a medical exemption as wife Donna continues her recovery from a battle with pancreatic cancer. He's unsure whether he'll return to competition next year.
"She just finished the chemotherapy protocol about 10 days ago and we're starting the monitoring process," he said. "She looks great and she's feeling pretty darned good, and that's allowing me to venture out and do a little fishing these days.
"I've also worked about 50 days for sponsors already - all of them kept me on board and I've done every promo I possibly could. As for coming back next year, I'll most likely be the last guy to say whether I'm in or out. It all depends on Donna, and I'll wait and push it as long as I can and we'll go from there."
The only tournament he's entered this year was the Mark's Outdoors derby at Lay Lake last month, and he managed to earn a check (he was 35th out of 500 entrants). His Skeeter boat, which was delivered in January, has just 5 hours of run time on it.
The boat has a purple pinstripe motif in honor of Pancreatic Cancer Awareness.
"Those will probably be my colors for a long time to come," he said.
