The occasional free breakfast is up there on Billy Myers’ favorite things about working for B.A.S.S., but when deciding his absolute tops, it’s open and shut.
“It’s a tie between opening the door on the trailer to start getting ready, and closing the door when we’re done and leaving,” Myers said. “When you get there, you’re excited to be in a new place and to see folks you haven’t seen in a while. By the time that week or 10 days is over and you shut the doors on that trailer for the last time, you’re whooped and ready to come home.
“I’d say those two things are a tie.”
Since retiring in 2013 at Fire Chief of Gwinnett County near Atlanta, Myers, 56, has ridden the byways and highways to work at Bassmaster tournaments. He’s a crew leader of the CTA – “contract tournament associate, I think … what it really means is roadie without a band.”
Growing up on a dairy farm West Virginia, where he hunted and fished, Myers left after high school to serve in the U.S. Navy. After his stint, he settled northeast of Atlanta, where he put in 30 years as a paramedic and firefighter, which has come in handy with anglers.
“I have been called upon to help with a few injuries and illnesses. Everybody knows what I did for a living, If somebody needs help, they seek my help,” said Myers, who said otherwise it can be somewhat of a repeating fire drill. “We travel to the site with the equipment, set up the venue and handle the registration and the tournament. And then we tear it all down.”
Rinse and repeat.
And it could be any of the Elite Series, Opens, Nation, College and High School competitions, or even the Classic. Myers heads out Tuesday for this week’s B.A.S.S. season opening events, the Carhartt College Central Tour presented by Bass Pros Shops, Jan. 25-27, and the Mossy Oak Bassmaster High School Central Open presented by DICK’S Sporting Good, Jan. 28. Both are being held on Toledo Bend Reservoir out of Many, La.
And yes, Myers most likely will help put up signage. But he doesn’t work every one of the 32 B.A.S.S. events that span from January to late October.
“There’s probably 10 or so of us, and we couldn’t do them all,” Myers said. “It would be physically impossible. Several weeks there’s more than one tournament. You might be in California one week and need to be in South Carolina the next. You can’t do them all.”
Myers said he and most the others work about 20 weeks, and while doing that he tries to balance responsibilities at home. He and his wife, Jami, run a small farm in Pulaski, Tenn., south of Nashville.
“It’s an agricultural area on the Alabama border with row crops, corn, soybeans, hay and a large cattle industry,” he said. “We have a small herd of beef cows, and we also raise and sell non-GMO, antibiotic-free pork. There’s a pretty good market for that.”
The Myers sell to individuals wanting a whole or half hog, processed to their wishes, for significantly less than the grocery store.
It’s not just the anglers who experience pre-season excitement. Myers gets somewhat amped up for the events and needs to get things done on all fronts. He said he’s had his truck serviced, and it’s ready to meet up with the B.A.S.S. trailer he hauls. It’s usually kept at his home, but in the offseason it’s been at B.A.S.S. headquarters in Birmingham, Ala., having the scales calibrated and whatnot. Myers also ties up loose ends so as not to leave trying tasks on the farm.
“I just try to make sure everything is not a burden on my wife while I’m gone,” he said. “That doesn’t always happen. With livestock, something’s going to happen. She’s been here to see calves born and make sure they’re OK. She’s been there to load a cow in the trailer and take it into the vet.
“She’s the real worker here – the one who does the majority of it. I’d probably say that is true with all the wives. There’s a lot of stuff at home that needs to be taken care of.”
Through the snowpocalypse, the Myers babysat grandkids while their offspring vacationed in Jamaica (Oh, that sounds warm). He also has to make sure there’s time off from the B.A.S.S. schedule to do things like cut and store hay.
“This is a great retirement gig,” he said. “The travel is pretty cool, but B.A.S.S. understands the importance of family. I think that’s kind of the whole industry, it’s real family oriented. I wouldn’t be a part of it if it wasn’t.”
A typical tournament morning has Myers up probably before most anglers, between 3:30 to 4 a.m., he said. It all depends on where they are, daylight savings time or the drive to the launch site.
“If the launch is at 6, we’re out and set up and ready to go by 5, long before the launch. Reason is just to make sure you’re good to go,” he said.
Each tournament day can be different. Sometimes there are maintenance issues that will keep the crew out through the weigh-in, making for an incredibly long day. On other days there will be time to go back to the hotel and relax until a couple hours before the weigh-in.
“There’s a lot of moving parts,” Myers said. “We’re out and ready for the weigh-in a minimum of an hour before first check-in is due. Once the weigh-ins start, it’s a parade of folks coming through. There’s a lot to keep up with that.
“If you think there’s 200 boats with 400 anglers, those boats and bags have got to keep moving. It’s a pretty well-oiled machine most of the time.”
If something does happen to go wrong, Myers said it usually goes unnoticed because all the team members are rather level headed and adjustments are made on the fly.
The travel is nice, but meeting new people in those locales also has its benefits. There’s kind of a tradition among the crews that after tearing down for a launch, they all go out to the area’s hotspot breakfast joint.
“You try to sneak out where the locals go and try to blend into the community a little bit,” Myers said. “It’s neat when they say, ‘You guys are with the fishing tournament?’ Sometimes they’re so excited for you to be there, they buy you breakfast
“It’s all a blast. Man, we have such a good time. So many great folks and I’ve traveled to places that I would have never known existed let alone traveled to. It’s been awesome.”
