Entry 67-3

George Cochran On How He Started Professionally Fishing For Bass

The Big Decision

Editor's Note: Fifty-three-year-old George Cochran has won two Bassmaster Classics in 1987 and 1996, more than a million dollars in tournament fishing and has finished first six times at BASS tournaments. Known as Gentleman George on the professional bass fishing circuit because of his quiet, courteous demeanor, he's as good as it gets when it comes to fishing. Cochran has had 47 top-10 finishes on the BASS tournament trail alone. This week we'll get up close and personal with the man known as Gentleman George.

Question: George, you had a great job at the railroad. You were making $35,000 a year, had a medical plan and a retirement program and were fishing as much as you wanted. How did you decide to give it all up and become a tournament fisherman?

Cochran: Well, I didn't give it all up right away. When I started fishing the BASS circuit, the organization had four tournaments in the East and four tournaments in the West. I fished the four tournaments in the East and kept my railroad job. In the first tournament, I finished 18th and won $800, which was a lot of money back then. So, I decided I would fish all the tournaments the next year, 1981. I'd just take a vacation from the railroad, fish a week and then go back to work.

That first year, 1981, I qualified for the Bassmaster Classic and had no sponsors. Charles Spence at Strike King started helping me out because I was a hometown boy. I finished 18th in my first Classic, but I also caught the biggest bass in the Classic that year. That one fish caused me to get a lot of recognition. At that tournament Forrest and Nina Wood of Ranger Boats asked me if I planned to fish the next year. I told them I hoped to, and they said they'd sponsor me if I did.

So, in 1982 I had two sponsors: Strike King and Ranger Boats. I felt good about being a fisherman having two companies that were willing to help me. But I still didn't give up my railroad job. For the next four or five years, I made the Classic every year. Mercury and several other sponsors began to believe in me and help me.

Although I had five or six sponsors, I still couldn't make a living as a fisherman so I hung on to my railroad job. But when I won the Bassmaster Classic in 1987, I had a decision to make. My wife and I sat down and discussed the rest of our lives. The question was whether I'd give up the security of the railroad job for the insecurity of being a professional bass fisherman. My wife told me this was my dream and that I should go for it. I've chased my dream of being a professional fisherman since that day and have never looked back.

Question: What did the people at the railroad say when you told them you were going quit your job to become a tournament fisherman?

Cochran: They understood my decision because when I won the Classic I was on the front page of the newspaper. Arkansas is a hunting and fishing state, so all my friends at the railroad wanted me to make the move. My sponsors started paying me more after I won the Classic, and I could see I would be able to make more money fishing for a living.




 

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