Gerald Swindle always seems to make the most of his time, but lately it’s snuck up on him. Swindle, 52 and in his fourth decade of tournament fishing, is among the elder statesmen of B.A.S.S., and he’s one of its leaders.
Asked for a sit down with The Daily Limit, the two-time Bassmaster Angler of the Year was surprised when told his 300th Bassmaster tournament approached.
“I didn’t even think about it until you said something. It didn’t even dawn on me,” said Swindle, widely known as G-Man or simply G. “There’s a bunch of people I grew up with saying I probably wouldn’t make it 20 tournaments. I had some betting I wouldn’t make two.”
“What’s weird, I don’t feel like I’ve been fishing that long. But then when I look around at all these young guys, I think, ‘Dang, I’m old.’ They must look at me how I used to look at Rick Clunn and Denny Brauer. I told LeAnn, you and me are Shirley and Denny Brauer.”
While the Brauers ruled the road roost for some time, the Swindles are among the couples holding court in 2022. LeAnn, aka Lulu, manages Team Swindle, and a number of anglers’ wives seek her counsel on a wide range of topics.
G continues to dole out his country-spun wit and wisdom to more than throngs of fans. Many younger anglers have his ear and go to him for advice. It’s something he feels compelled to do, in part because he never had that when he first began fishing B.A.S.S. events in 1995.
“There wasn’t a rookie of the year. Nobody cared,” he said. “I finished 16th my first year, and you think they care? They didn’t even speak to you. They didn’t even like you. It took years to earn respect from them guys. They weren’t mean to you; they just didn’t accept you.
“So now I make a conscious effort not to be that way to other young anglers. If they need help or me to be a leader, I want to help. This is a business world, and I’m a firm believer in giving back and mentoring. If some of these guys think enough of me to ask, I’m going to help.”
Steve Bowman heads up angler relations at B.A.S.S., and he appreciates that Swindle offers an angler’s perspective to younger pros, helping solve whatever problems might arise in their professional or personal lives.
“He makes my job easier,” Bowman said. “We want to know who our anglers are and what they’re going through, so we know how to better serve them. Gerald’s actually a confidant to a lot of the anglers, and he helps me, he helps B.A.S.S., telling guys, ‘Don’t let that burn you down. Don’t let that eat you up.'”
Swindle is just one of the veterans providing leadership among the angler ranks, which hadn’t been there for some time, Bowman said. Pros like Mark Menendez, Matt Herren, Hank Cherry, John Crews and Bernie Schultz have been steadying forces since the 2019 realignment, and Swindle came back after a year at MLF fully following suit.
“He returned with the attitude of ‘we’re going to make this right,'” Bowman said. “Young guys look up to him — they look up to all those guys. Swindle is easy to talk to. He’s willing to listen, and he gives knowledge and experience from going through the fires. He didn’t have that when he first came through.”
Just be yourself might be Swindle’s best advice. It’s served him well, even though it took him a few years on tour before he fully unleashed his true personality, that of rapid-fire redneck comedy.
“You got to get comfortable in your own skin,” Swindle said. “When I first started, I didn’t know whether to be embarrassed to be a country boy. I didn’t know if my slang was going to have people make fun of me. It took a couple years of being out there to realize, ‘Hey, I can just be who I am.’ I hate to say I kind of grew into who I am, but I just learned to embrace it.
“As it went along, I got more comfortable on stage and fans would see the funny side of me and it just kind of took off.”
On the stage and in social media posts, Swindle definitely entertains. His gift of gab has all kinds of fans flocking to him. Photographer James Overstreet dubbed him the “king of quotes,” recording Swindle dandies such as these:
- “I’m catching one fish for every 41 gallons of gas.”
- “Them fish had me ready to fight Satan twice today.”
Overstreet and others have noticed that many of Swindle’s best bits come on his worst days fishing. Swindle said that self-deprecating humor is kind of a smokescreen.
“It’s when I’m really flustrated,” a word he coined. “I’m trying to deflect where it’s not about my fishing. If people are like, ‘That’s funny.’ Well yeah, but I never told you what I was doing. It’s almost like a diversion.
“I enjoy getting on stage and making somebody smile. I was always a jokester. Now being able to take the B.A.S.S. stage and platform, it’s just kind of took off. I never in a million years dreamed I would have fans, much less the fan base I’ve been able to establish.”
With around 600,000 followers on social media’s big three, Swindle has one of the largest followings among those who fish for a living. But it’s not all laughs. Swindle has been downright poignant. He posts on good and bad things he notices about our society, and his messages have made a difference.
“I never dreamed that I would be able to help so many people through motivational speaking and the positive mental attitude bracelets,” said Swindle, who’s been blown away by the feedback. “At least a dozen people have said, ‘Hey, you saved my life. I was on the verge of suicide.’ Then I started to realize, this whole bass fishing thing and that B.A.S.S. stage, it’s a lot bigger than most those anglers know walking across it.
“If I can tell some of those young guys one thing right now, it’d be that stage you’re walking across is training you to climb the biggest mountain and reach the most people. And it may not be with a fishing pole, so you have to know that. I think most of them think, it’s just fishing. And it is fishing, but it’s a business and people who relate to you, you may end up helping or influencing.”
Editor’s note: Read part 2
