(Editor's note: This is part 1 of a 2-part story about veterans Tommy Martin and Stacey King starting over with FLW Outdoors.)
Between the two of them, Tommy Martin and Stacey King can boast 50 years of competitive fishing experience.
They've traveled similar, and different, roads throughout their careers, but over the past year,
their goals and accomplishments seemed nearly identical.
Martin began his career with BASS in 1974, at the Florida Invitational. He's fished 300 other BASS events since that time, including 19 Bassmaster Classics. King turned pro in 1986. He's fished 203 BASS events, and 12 Classics.
Despite their histories with BASS, they left the league last year to begin anew with FLW Outdoors. Here's a summary of what went down:
It's not often that two salty veterans walk away from a collective 50 years of history to start fresh, but these two did. And they couldn't be more excited about how their first year went down.
One Goal to Start
"Last year, at the beginning, my major goal was to make the FLW Tour – it's the biggest tour they've got," Martin said. "I'm 66 years old, so I don't have a lot of years left where I can fish with good health, so I want to be on top – the FLW Tour and the Forrest Wood Cup.
"But after fishing BASS for 33 years, and fishing all their bigger tournaments and qualifying for everything they had, it was kind of a letdown to have to go back to the bottom, so to speak, and start all over."
He started with a registration for the Stren Centrals, but when FLW Outdoors chairman Irwin Jacobs announced the FLW Series, he was all over it.
"Irwin Jacobs was good enough to start the FLW Series, for those of us who were disgruntled with BASS, and gave us another shot to qualify for the FLW Tour," Martin said. "I probably wouldn't have made it without the FLW Series." True, because his Stren Central points finish was 39th – not enough for a Tour berth.
King, on the other hand, nearly double-qualified for the Tour. He made it by virtue of his 2nd-place finish in the Midwest Stren points, but a 144th-place bomb at Smith Lake dropped him too far down the FLW Series points.
The good news for him was the Smith disaster didn't keep him out of the Cup. He was the highest finisher from the Midwest at the Stren Championship, and that earned him a Cup berth.
"To qualify for the Tour was my primary goal," he said. "Then, as the year progressed, my secondary goal was to qualify for the Forrest Wood Cup. It's the richest tournament in the history of the sport, and I think it's going to be real exciting. I fished many Classics, and I was thrilled to be at every one of them.
"Now I'm able to fish the top FLW tournament, and personally, it's a milestone I'm just thrilled to accomplish."
Stacey King nearly double-qualified for the FLW Tour, but stumbled at Smith Lake.
Martin, who also qualified for the Cup (he did it through the FLW Series points), is equally stoked, especially since the Lake Ouachita venue sets up perfectly for him.
"At Ouachita, we'll be fishing hydrilla – dropping a jig in the grass," he noted. "I started all that in 1974 at Toledo Bend when the grass started there. I developed that technique, and it's always been my specialty. I guess if I have one goal this year, it's to win that event. But I also just want to be consistent and have a good year."
Oh, That Feeling
Neither Martin nor King said he was "nervous" before last season began. But there was the sense that business needed doing.
As the year rolled along, each clinched their berths at various stages, but the emotional outcome was always the same.
"That happened at Lake Wheeler (the Stren Championship) this past fall, in November, and I was just elated," King said. "I was just so excited to know that I'd accomplished both my goals, and I'm really looking forward to this year.
"I've taken on a heavy schedule – I'll fish the FLW Tour, plus the Forrest Wood Cup, the Eastern FLW Series and the (PAA) Texas Bass Classic – and I hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew. I'll be hitting it really hard."
Martin's moment of accomplishment was slightly more dramatic. He went into the final FLW Series event at Smith Lake needing a strong finish to retain his points position.
"I caught one fish the first day, and the second day I caught a limit – one of only four caught," he said. "Then, the third day, we had to weigh in at 3:20. At 2:55, I had no fish. Without a fish, I'd drop out of everything.
"It was frustrating – I was doing everything within my power to catch one. I moved onto a little spot where I'd caught a few in practice, and in two drops caught two keepers for 4 1/2 pounds. Those two fish in the last 10 minutes – that was the key to my whole year.
"If you're a pro fisherman, you have to think you're going to catch one up until the last second – right until you pick up the trolling motor," Martin added. "It was just an enormous lift. It was kind of a blessing – like all of a sudden it was meant to be."
Notable
> Both anglers are now en route to Lake Okeechobee for the FLW Series opener.
> The ice storm that recently struck Missouri narrowly missed King's house. "I was fortunate that it came within about 5 miles of my house – we only got heavy rain," he said. "Everybody north of Springfield is still blanketed under 2 to 3 inches of solid ice. The power outages are enormous, and a lot of people will be out for 2 to 3 weeks. It's really a hard situation, and boy they need some prayer, that's for sure."
– End of part 1 (of 2) –
