PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. — The life of a professional bass angler is filled with brilliant sunrises, radiant sunsets and lots of fishing. And driving. Welcome to the dark side of Adrian Avena’s job.
He’s not alone. Driving thousands of miles—up to 60,000 each year—is the other side of being a pro angler. Yet this trip was different for Avena, the only Elite Series pro fishing the Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year Championship, who also fished the Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Northern Open on Lake Champlain.
Coming off a 16th-place finish last week at the AOY, the New Jersey pro made the kind of drive a long-haul trucker makes with a hot load of freight.
There was no choice. Avena is fishing all three of the Opens for a shot at the 2017 GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by GoPro. The AOY championship overlapped on the schedule. Avena racked up a lot of miles on his Toyota Tundra just to make it in time to fish the Open.
Running on adrenaline is paying off. Avena caught a limit weighing 20 pounds, 15 ounces, on Day 1. He followed that up with another limit weighing 16-15, to qualify for the Top 12 championship round.
Avena’s route to Lake Champlain began in Onemia, Minn., continued across six states and ended in Plattsburgh, on the border of Vermont. Along the way he encountered the rush hours of Chicago and Cleveland. Numerous construction zones and slow rolls through toll plazas. And lots of fast food, fueled by caffeine.
Thirty hours over 1,400 miles. If Avena were a long hauler his truck driver logbook would have those numbers.
“It was brutal, I mean it’s really hard to come off the water after fishing all day and drive non-stop,” he said.
Make those 5 weeks of fishing all day. The Elite Series pro fished the regular season finale on the upper Mississippi River in La Crosse, Wis., the week before to the championship. Prior to that he fished the Bassmaster Northern Open at Richmond, Va. In between more driving and days of practice fishing filled the calendar.
Avena credits his father, Danny, with getting him safely to Plattsburgh. Danny and his wife, Gloria, are leaders of the Jersey Boy Pit Crew that accompanies their son whenever schedules allow.
“There is no way I could have made it without him,” he said. “We drove in shifts, all the way.”
At hour 29 of 30 on the long haul the Avena’s literally ran out of fuel, both in body and Tundra.
“About an hour from Plattsburgh my truck was on empty and there was no gas for miles,” he recalled. “So at 4 a.m. we pulled into a gas station, slept a while and waited for it to open.”
When it did the truck and boat got refueled and the final leg was complete. Avena had only four hours to fish on Champlain after rolling into Plattsburgh on Tuesday, the final day of practice. The tournament began one day earlier than normal, on Wednesday, due to a permitting conflict with the state of Vermont.
After Day 1 the long drive paid off. Avena took second placed with a limit weighing 20 pounds, 15 ounces.
“I’m fishing with a lot of confidence right now,” he said. “It’s the fourth consecutive tournament day that I’ve caught 20-pound limits.”
The previous limits came at Mille Lacs, where he weighed limits over 20 pounds each of the three days.
At Champlain, Avena is applying lessons learned from his only tournament win, a Rayovac FLW Series event in 2011.
“I’m junk fishing and just fishing on the fly and it’s working,” he said.
Five weeks and more than 3,000 miles later, Avena the road warrior, is certainly road weary. Yet he relishes in experiencing a month’s worth of brilliant sunrises, radiant sunsets and lots of fishing. Doing that takes a lot of driving, lots of it.
