By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor

Hard breaks used to mean one thing to Davy Hite. They referred to a contour change on a lake map. Now, the phrase indicates a commercial is coming and he needs to wrap up his analysis while the background music builds to a crescendo.

That’s just one of the adjustments Hite had to make this year as he transitioned from full-time tournament angler on the Bassmaster Elite Series to full-time studio analyst for Bassmaster Live web broadcasts.

Hite wasn’t considering retirement this time last year, but when the idea was floated of him taking on an expanded role with the Bassmaster Live production, he was intrigued, but a little apprehensive. He’d done work in front of the camera before as a product endorser and later as an on-site host of “First Look” video segments for Bassmaster.com at Elite Series tournaments.

When the announcement came last November that Hite would be essentially replacing Mark Zona as the lead studio analyst, Hite said he viewed his departure from the Elite Series as a transition rather than a retirement from competitive fishing.

With his first season in the studio now behind him, Hite has settled into his new role.

“When the opportunity did arise, I was nervous about it,” Hite said. “I’d been fishing full time for 23 years and to do something that long and then all of a sudden change, I was nervous about it. It was a tough decision and maybe a few years before I wanted to retire from the tournament trail, but I also thought about the last person they hired was Zona 13 or 14 years ago. I knew this door wouldn’t be open for long and it might not be open again for another 13 or 14 years.

“I thought about it and prayed about it and talked to my wife about it a lot and decided to do it. I feel good about it. I think it’s an opportunity to stay in the sport I love and stay around the people that I love and transition into something a little different.”

The Door Theory

Hite gets asked a lot about how he went from casting for cash on the Elite Series to analyzing things, such as good friend Kevin VanDam’s decision-making on the water, while seated behind a desk in a television studio in Little Rock, Ark.

The answer is simple. One door opened so he decided (eventually) to close another one.

Hite’s role in front of the camera began to take shape in 2014 when he started doing “First Look” interview segments for Bassmaster.com. His first experience was at the 2014 Bassmaster Classic at Lake Guntersville. Hite had failed to qualify, but he was able to contribute to the tournament coverage with exclusive access to competitors as they came off the water on the final day. His first interview was with Randy Howell as he came off the water with a Classic-clinching 29-02 in his livewell.

Later that season, if he missed the top-12 cut, Hite would stick around for the final day of competition and then interview the projected top finishers prior to the day-4 weigh-ins. He’d ask anglers, who were his peers and fellow competitors, about their day and delve into pattern details.

“The first year I did it I did it 100 percent for free,” Hite said. “I didn’t ask for any compensation for my time or extra days in a hotel because I felt like it was a good opportunity for me to have some camera time and for my sponsors.”

He grew into the role as the season went along and the anglers he interviewed became more comfortable having a fellow competitor firing questions at them. He saw the whole experience as a great opportunity. He continued in the “First Take” role through the 2015 and 2016 Elite Series seasons.

“The thing that’s so weird about this is so many times in life, when you think a door closes or something bad happens, it can open a door that you don’t even realize is there,” he said. “That’s exactly what happened. For me to be able to start doing that First Look stuff, I had to miss a Bassmaster Classic.

“In life, when you think one door closes and you start to wonder, ‘Why me,’ it can be opening up a door that you don’t realize is there. Three years ago, before I started doing the First Look stuff, I had no idea or had any aspirations to be the guy on the other side of the microphone, so to speak. It did feel awkward at first with me interviewing my peers all of a sudden.”

Different Perspective

Hite, who turned 52 in May, enjoyed a career that spanned an era that saw professional bass fishing receive various degrees of media exposure. As a winner of both the Bassmaster Classic and Forrest Wood Cup, he’s been on the receiving end of his share of coverage, too. The Bassmaster Live coverage, he says, is among the best things to happen to the sport that he can recall.

“I’m not saying this because I’m involved because I felt this way before I got involved, but I think it’s the most positive thing to happen to our sport in my 20-something year career,” he said. “What we’ve always missed is a chance for fans to watch and feel what’s going on. In football, you have a stadium and in basketball you have the court. In fishing, there was no way to grow the fan base until people were able to watch it live and see how good these guys are, but also see that they’re human, too.”

He enjoys sitting back and watching how an angler handles the pressure of not getting a bite for a prolonged period of time. He’s lived that reality himself and he’s able to relate the experience to viewers in a thoughtful way. His on-camera presence has impressed many, including his predecessor.

“Davy is the perfect fit for the Bassmaster team," Zona said. "He’s won everything, knows the highs and lows of the game and most of all, he has chemistry with the team in the studio and on the water. It has been an honor to work beside him during this transition and I truly look forward to working with him the next decade."

He did admit that the Cherokee Lake Elite Series, which served as the backdrop for his debut in the studio role this year, was a tough event to watch from the sidelines for obvious reasons.

“The first tournament in studio was tough on me,” he said. “I’m not going to lie about that because I’ve been doing this for so long and you start thinking about all the good times – the tournaments you won and the tournaments you had good finishes in and were really dialed in. It was very awkward at first. I miss it, but I don’t miss it.”

Getting settled into his expanded on-camera role was made easier by his experienced colleagues. Studio host Tommy Sanders is unflappable and developed good chemistry with Hite while Zona and Dave Mercer were quick to offer advice.

“They took me under their wing,” Hite said. “Tommy and Mark and Dave (Mercer) are just awesome. You don’t realize how good those guys are until you have a microphone clipped on and you’ve got a producer talking to you in your ear and the guys in the truck talking to you in your other ear, but you’re supposed to be talking about what Kevin VanDam’s doing on the water and be able to end at an exact time so we can cut to a commercial.”

He said the talent and experience he’s surrounded by at JM Productions was part of the reason he took on his new job.

“You realize how talented how those guys are and to be honest, I would not have taken the job had I not known that those guys were so good that it’d be real hard for anybody to mess it up,” he said. “I knew they’d take me under the wing. Had they offered me the opportunity with a couple guys I didn’t know, it might’ve worked out, but we’ll never know because I wouldn’t have tried it. I had confidence from being around those guys that they’re professionals and good people and good at what they do.”

Since his departure from top-level competition, Hite says his approach to fun fishing has changed as well. No longer is he just preparing for tournaments or hunting big fish. He’s enjoying the sport more for its purity now.

“I’ve been fishing with a different mindset and I’ve really enjoyed that because before, even if I wasn’t fishing a tournament or if it was during official practice, when I’d go fishing, it was somewhere to pre-fish or it wasn’t where I wanted to be, but I needed to be there to use that as part of my job,” he said. “It’s given me a different and positive experience on the water now. When I catch a fish, I don’t have to hide it or worry about the guys I compete against seeing my bait. I smile and take a picture or talk about what I caught it on.”