Jay Yelas hasn't done much fishing since winning the BASSMASTERS Classic in July, maybe 10 days total.
Sponsor appearances, interviews and speeches all go with winning the top bass fishing tournament. In the past month, he's been spending about five hours a day cranking out a 50,000-word autobiography that will be published in mid-February by Thomas Nelson Inc.
"My time's never been more in demand," says Yelas, who slipped away from his 4-year-old daughter's holiday dance recital for a telephone call. "I've just been swamped. I'm looking forward to when the new season starts and fishing 25 days a month."
He won't have to wait much longer.
The 10-event BASSMASTERS Tour begins Jan. 9 in Leesburg, Fla., at Harris Chain of Lakes.
"I don't know the first thing about fishing down there," he says. "It's a small lake and we'll have 175 boats out there. Somebody will catch a 10-pounder; they always do in Florida."
The tour has changed its format this year. The first six events will have 175 anglers. The field will be cut to 100 as the tour swings to the West Coast for stops in at California's San Joaquin River Delta and Clear Lake. The field is cut to 50 for the final two stops at Lake Hamilton in Hot Springs, Ark., and the Alabama River in Montgomery, Ala.
The top 40 pro anglers will be invited to the BASSMASTERS Classic in New Orleans on Aug. 1-3.
This year's classic in Birmingham, Ala., had all the suspense of a Muhammad Ali-Jerry Quarry bout. Yelas grabbed the first-day lead and never loosened his grip on his way to the $100,000 first prize and endorsements worth 10 times that.
He'll be chased next year by a number of top-flight fishermen, including Davy Hite, who won the 1999 classic and is this year's B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year.
Hite says he enjoyed both honors because each makes a statement about an angler's character.
"They're two entirely different titles," he says. "The BASSMASTERS Classic says the most about somebody who can withstand the pressure and the spotlight. Angler of the Year shows consistency from tournament to tournament. ... Sometimes Angler of the Year is won without winning any tournaments."
Hite says repeating as Angler of the Year is easier than coming back with a second classic victory because the classic winner rarely gets any downtime between seasons to recover.
History seems to bear him out. Roland Martin won consecutive Angler of the Year awards three times - including one back-to-back-to-back - but has never won a classic. The 1988 classic winner, Guido Hibdon, was named Angler of the Year in 1990 and 1991.
However only one angler has taken back-to-back classic trophies in the 32-year history of the event: Rick Clunn, who missed making the cut for the classic this year after 28 consecutive appearances.
Still, Hite says, winning Angler of the Year is no easy task.
"The competition is just so darn tough," he says. "If you slip one or two tournaments, you're not going to repeat."
In addition to Hite, you've got to figure Kevin Van Dam and Mark Davis will be in the hunt along with 2002 classic runner-up Aaron Martens and former classic champion and two time B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year Larry Nixon. And you can never count out Clunn.
And Yelas? He's thinking ahead.
"I'm already scheduling time in August and September 2003 to spend some time with my family," Yelas says, laughing.
Rockfish rules
Although the final votes haven't been taken, it appears that Maryland recreational anglers weathered a challenge to their share of the rockfish stock.
The regional panel that advises the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission met all day in Warwick, R.I., Thursday and decided that maintaining the status quo - with a minor tweak or two - is the best policy.
That recommendation, called Amendment 6, will be reviewed by the Striped Bass Management Board in February before it is sent to the full commission for approval. It includes mortality rates and target quotas "that allow for continued growth and maturation of the stock," says Maryland fisheries chief Eric Schwaab.
"The average angler should not notice a difference at all," says Schwaab, who helped negotiate the new management plan. "We likely will not change any of our recreational regulations for 2003. This will give us stability we haven't had in a while."
Amendment 6 was several years in the making and involved sifting through more than 100 proposals. There were 19 public hearings in 11 states this fall.
The advisory panel reviewed 11 management options, including ones that called for increasing the minimum size of rockfish caught in the Chesapeake Bay. States farther north, such as Massachusetts, wanted Maryland anglers to take fewer fish so that there would be more of them migrating up the coast.
The implications were serious. State biologists estimated that raising the bay minimum size from 18 inches to 20 inches would cut the number of keepers by 40 percent. A 22-inch minimum would mean a 60 percent reduction, and a 24-inch standard would leave us with just 20 percent of the usual harvest.
New England states also wanted more fishing in the "exclusive economic zone" that starts three miles off the coast and extends to 200 miles. That request was tabled.
The other threat to recreational anglers came from coastal commercial fishermen, who complained that while recreational catches have increased since the lifting of the moratorium in 1990, there had been little adjustment for their industry.
Those quotas have been relaxed.
Going into the public hearing process, Schwaab said he was comfortable with Maryland's regulations: a 28-inch minimum during the spring trophy season, and for the rest of the season, a limit of two fish a day between 18 inches and 28 inches or one fish between 18 inches and 28 inches and one exceeding 28 inches.
He remains confident that the proposal ironed out in Rhode Island will be good for both the anglers and the future of rockfish.
"Everybody approached this in the spirit of cooperation. There was compromise and it worked really well," Schwaab says. "It's never done until it's done, but I doubt the Striped Bass Management Board is going to want to go back and revisit the issues."