By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor

Kyle Mabrey is wishing he could be in Las Vegas this week, strolling the aisles at the ICAST show or stationed at a booth pitching his handmade umbrella rigs to potential wholesale customers or getting the word out to the hundreds of media types passing by.

More than that, he wishes he'd been able to match wits on the water with the FLW Tour competitors this year like he had for the past 5 seasons.

"It was tough sitting there and watching everything go down," he said. "I've fished B.A.S.S. or FLW for the past 10 or 11 years so it was a big contrast this year to not have tournaments on the schedule. I missed it a lot."

The main reason he sat out 2013 was simple: Finances. Previously, he'd had a fair bit of help from sponsors, but he fished 2012 almost entirely out of his own pocket and it took a toll on him.

"It put a lot of stress on me," he said. "I'm the worrying type by nature and that dictated some of the decisions I made. I wasn't 100 percent totally into what I was doing and I decided not to do that again.

He had the framework of another deal in place prior to this season, but it never came to fruition.

"I had a deal with a decent proposal in the works and it just came down to deadlines," he said. "The deadlines weren't met and we had to let the season pass."

Instead, the owner of five Top-10 finishes on Tour, followed the season from afar, watching the weigh-ins online and even tuning into the live in-boat camera feeds that FLW features on the final day of Tour events.

"For me to have done it for the past 10 or 11 years and not be involved first-hand this year, it was a different deal," he said. "It hurt my feelings to sit there and watch and know I wasn't a part of it."

Not Done Yet

By no means, though, is the two-time Forrest Wood Cup qualifier calling it quits on fishing at the highest level. While he's missed going head to head with the best of the best on Tour, Mabrey has enjoyed the freedom to pick and choose where and when he fishes tournaments this year. He's fished several BFLs and some regional trails in central Alabama, even winning an Airport Marine charity tournament at Lay Lake in April that netted him $10,000.

"Some mornings, we'd wake up and not know where we'd be going," he said. "We'd be debating between Lake Jordan on the Coosa River or (Lake) Guntersville. It's a good thing about where I live. There are a lot of good tournament trails down here and some of them pay out good money.

"That part of it was cool. I didn't have a schedule that took me all over the place. The biggest thing about fishing the BFLs and smaller events was it made me remember what it was that made me love fishing to begin with. I didn't have the need to perform under the pressure that goes along with the big ones."

Still, he'd love to be back out there competing on a national level against the biggest names in the sport.

"I'm going to be positive and am looking forward to getting back out there," he said. "I don't feel like my career as a professional bass angler is over by any means."

He says he has more than a dozen proposals out to potential sponsors for next year in hopes that by getting the ball rolling early, he won't be waiting until the last minute for answers again.

"It's just a tough market right now," he added.

'My Calling'

Since he wasn't fishing the Tour, he was able to put in more hours at his regular job as a pediatric respiratory specialist at Children's Hospital of Alabama. He typically works 12-hour shifts assisting children who are transitioning out of neonatal intensive care or pediatric intensive care but still require some form of respiratory support.

"We work on weaning them from the respiratory support and educate the families on how to take care of it at home," he said. "I look at it every day and think, 'How in the world do I do this,' because I see some awful situations and circumstances. I just feel like it's my calling and it's what I'm supposed to be doing. My attitude is I try to do the job to the best of my abilities."

He'll even pull up old videos of himself fishing on the Internet to show the children even if it takes their mind off their situations for a few minutes. If some kids show an interest in fishing, he'll bring them a goodie bag of baits to take home and use.

"I try to do it as good as anybody can and try to make a difference," he said. "At the end of the day, we're all just humans. I've seen some guys on Tour that are just so single-mindedly focused on what they're doing. That's understandable, but I see a certain aspect that's missing from their lives because they haven't been touched by those kinds of circumstances.

"I think I appreciate (fishing) more than some people because I've seen how bad some situations can be and for no reason whatsoever."

Hammer Time

After the umbrella rig craze exploded in late 2011, Mabrey and longtime friend Todd Trammel started making their own versions of the rig called the Yellow Hammer Rig and began selling them under the name Yellow Hammer Lures online and in local tackle shops around Alabama. It has remained a two-man operation so far and every rig they make is made by hand.

"We've had a good year so far," Mabrey said. "I think a lot of guys are appreciating the little details that we put into our rig versus some of the others that are mass produced. The thing we've come to understand is we can't produce product at the rate of say a Pradco because they're making it overseas and the volume they're making and selling is exponentially greater than us.

"We're small and we can't really advertise so we're just doing what we can do and thankfully, we have had some good exposure in tournaments that has helped. We put in full-time hours on it and when the demand is there, we'll work on it in the evenings."

They've turned a profit in 2013 so far and lately they've been building up inventory in anticipation of the fall season, which is when most anglers feel the umbrella rig is most effective.

"For most people, it's a seasonal thing, but I was out fishing today and I know lot of guys put the rig down," he said. "But as Casey (Martin) showed (at Lake Chickamauga), it can still work. You just have to fish it differently than you do in the middle of the fall or winter."

Notable

> Mabrey is no stranger to Guntersville and is anticipating the Bassmaster Classic winning weight record will fall next February there. Lately, he said it's taken upwards of 30 pounds to win 1-day derbies there. "It's typical Guntersville," he said. "The whole Tennessee River is the best chain in the country in my opinion right now. It'll be much better to have it there at that time of year than it would to have it now. The winter will dictate how it'll play, but I'm expecting a good Rat-L-Trap bite and fish to be caught on jerkbaits and jigs and crankbaits. I think it'll take at least 75 pounds to win."