Jan 2, 2019 3 min read

This holiday season has been crowded with much more than last-minute shopping and gift wrapping for local professional fisherman Matt Becker.

The Finleyville angler is gearing up to compete in his second Fishing League Worldwide Tour, the top tournament circuit for the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization.

To prep for the tour’s kickoff on Jan. 10, Becker has spent the last few months setting up sponsors, purchasing gear and rigging up his vessel – a brand new Phoenix Bass Boat.

“I’m trying to get my equipment ready to go because once the New Year rolls around, it’s going to be a busy couple of months,” Becker said.

For the next seven months, Becker will trek across the country with the tour, hitting bodies of water in six states. He’ll make stops at Lakes Seminole, Toho, Champlain and more, competing for a $125,000 prize at each spot.

In August, the tour will culminate on Lake Hamilton in Hot Springs, Ark., where the top 40 anglers will go head to head for a $300,000 grand prize in the world championship of bass fishing: the FLW Cup.

This won’t be Becker’s first time vying for the cup. In his FLW debut last year, he was named Rookie of the Year for his performance in the tour’s seven tournaments.

But Becker is hardly a rookie when it comes to bass fishing. Before he was 1 year old, his father had him casting lines on the water. And after a childhood of watching the pros on TV and competing in regional tournaments, it was only natural for Becker to turn his hobby into his career.

“That’s all I’ve really ever wanted to do,” he said. “I mean, who doesn’t want to fish for a living? You get to be outdoors, make some money.”

Each tournament in the FLW circuit runs for four days. Anglers set off at around 6:30 a.m. and have up to 10 hours to reel in the five biggest fish they can, which are weighed together at the end of each day.

Becker’s heaviest one-day catch on last year’s tour weighed in at 26 pounds, 2 ounces. But the fisherman gets his edge before anyone casts a line in the competition.

“Pretty much everybody is on the same level, as far as equipment goes,” he said. “There’s a few secrets here and there that guys have, but a lot of it comes down to doing a lot of research.”

This means taking a trip down to each tournament spot before they’re closed off to anglers, two weeks prior to the start of each competition. Becker scans the water for vegetation – a bass’s favorite place to hide – and looks for rock formations and tree roots that could pose obstacles to navigation.

Before Christmas, the fisherman was in Texas to scope out the Sam Rayburn Reservoir, where this year’s tour will begin.

Apart from making these scouting visits, Becker is on the water any chance he can get, whether it be running down to the Monongahela or driving up to Lake Erie. The best advice he can give amateur anglers is to do the same.

“Keep going fishing,” he said. “When you’re not fishing, watch videos, read on it. You gotta put your time in to learn it.”