Koby Kreiger would give just about anything for one more day fishing with his father.
Watching his dad succumb to cancer 15 years ago affected Kreiger immensely. The experience also made him rethink life and how he reacts to things.
It was his father, Quinn, who did so much to shape Kreiger’s life in fishing. They were tournament fishing partners for many events, and Kreiger relished those times with Dad, yet said he only began to fully appreciate them after his father passed.
“Maybe back then I didn’t realize the importance of going out fishing with him,” he said. “Now that I’m older and more mature, that means a lot more.
“You didn’t know when you’re a young kid, you might be out fishing, but you’re not really fishing. You’re with your dad and on a fishing trip, but there’s a whole lot more going on about life. You don’t realize that until you get a little older. Yeah, now I get it.”
Kreiger’s fondest memories growing up in northern Indiana were with Quinn, and that set him on his way into the fishing industry and tournament angling. Kreiger, who lives in Alva, Fla., runs the Roland Martin Marine Center in Clewiston, selling boats and ordering tackle. His father began a custom boat trailer business, Trailmaster Trailers, one of his major sponsors that is now run by his brother.
Besides bass tournaments, where he’s earned $1.73 million, Kreiger has been a saltwater guide for tarpon and goliath grouper around Boca Grande Pass when he lived in Pine Island. The biggest tarpon he’s landed was 175 pounds, and he assisted a client to a 400-pound grouper.
“Bass are around 2 to 7 pounds, but when I go fun fishing, I want to catch something big,” he said, noting his very first fish was the total opposite and typical of most youth — a bluegill. His first bass came when he was 8, and he caught the tournament bug quickly as Quinn began competing when he was 37.
“My Dad got into bass tournaments late — I was still a little guy,” said Kreiger, whose first taste of competition was a victory with him in a benefit tournament. “We got a trophy, and I took that to show and tell at school. I thought, ‘Buddy, this fishing is the coolest thing.’ That is basically how it all started.”
When he was 10, Kreiger landed what he considers his first big bass out of Paw Paw Lake in Michigan. The 5-plus came on a blue Action Plastics Firetail Worm, and Kreiger’s dad put it in the livewell, where Koby couldn’t resist taking look after look at it.
Kreiger was dumbfounded when his Dad finally told him it was time to release it.
“‘Let it go? Dad, this is the biggest I’ve ever caught,’” he said. “I’m thinking I’m taking it home and showing everybody.
“He made me let it go and I cried for the 50-minute drive from the lake to my house. I remember my Dad telling my Mom: ‘I wish I would have let him keep the dang thing — he drove me nuts all the way home.’”
After getting over that, success continued for Kreiger, who won the St. Joe Valley Bassmasters Club at 12 while fishing out of the back of the boat, and that made “the older guys mad.”
Dad certainly afforded Koby plenty of great opportunities, like an annual trip to Florida. He’d take Koby out of school for at least a week while he fished a B.A.S.S. event. Since they couldn’t practice together, his Dad rented him a John boat at Dunns Creek for the teen to fish all day on his own.
Quinn’s connection to B.A.S.S. let Koby hobnob with legends of the sport, too. Kreiger said he has an autograph book with signatures from the likes of “Guy Eaker, Rick Clunn and Roland Martin, everybody. I still have in it in my tote.”
Competing in FLW events, Kreiger earned more than $1.5 million in his 18 years as a pro, including five wins that helped him garner the nickname “Mr. Everstart.”
“I’m probably one of the only guys who’s earned over a million dollars in FLW and never won a tour event,” he said. “When I left FLW, I had the second most top 10s to Andy Morgan. It’s not like I walk around with the stats on my back, but I was a very consistent angler for a long time.”
That’s why the past few years of not fishing up to his potential have worn on him. He’s fished 77 B.A.S.S. tournaments starting in the mid-1990s, cashing in 43 and earning $236,987, which includes a Northern Open win on the St. Lawrence River. He’s hoping to regain his mojo on his second stint with the Elites.
“My fishing in the last few years hasn’t been near as good as it was in the past,” he said, adding business interests have drawn some of his attention. “There’s a lot more going on in my life — not that fishing isn’t important — but there’s a lot of other things that have importance now.
“You see that in a lot of people’s fishing in their careers. They get a little busier and maybe sometimes things fall off a little bit. I sort of stepped back and see all the young guys coming into the sport now, and that’s the way I used to be 20 years ago.”
Kreiger sees himself in many of the young anglers bursting onto the scene now. He lived that gung-ho, practice-dawn-to-dusk life, and he’s trying to regain his past results.
“The skills are still there, the mindset is still there, but you have a lot of others things you do on a daily basis other than going out and catching five fish,” he said. “Still trying to get things in a row so here pretty soon I can get back on track and do things the way I used to do them.
“The last few years really bother me, but not to a point where I get as aggravated as I might have in the past.”
Part of that mindset is from seeing his father suffer through pancreatic cancer. He learned not to sweat the small stuff and to focus on the important things.
“From watching him, I changed my outlook of life,” he said. “I used to have a bit more of a temper and get hot under the collar a lot more. Now, hey, I’ve seen the worst of the worst. And all these little things that happen don’t mean anything.”
For Father’s Day, or any other day, Kreiger said he’d like to have one more day of fishing with Quinn, or maybe compete together one last time. Kreiger looks at one of their last outings before his father passed and regrets not being able to oblige one of Dad’s final requests.
“When he had a couple months to live, my dad said he just wanted to fish one more tournament,” Kreiger said. “I didn’t realize it then how important that might be for him … He just wanted to fish one more tournament together.”
Kreiger choked up speaking of it before switching gears and reiterating how blessed he feels to have had so many memorable times with his father, and how Quinn helped form his life for a career in the fishing.
“You learn a lot about life,” he said. “I look at things a whole lot differently than I had. This is what I wanted to do from a young age, and I was fortunate enough to be able to follow my dream.”
Thanks to Dad. Happy Father’s Day.
