From Kneelin’ and Reelin’ to Smashing Records
Photo by Phoenix Moore - BRANSON, Mo. – What were you doing in January of 1976? It’s possible you weren’t even born yet, as is the case with this author. For Paul Elias, it was the start of a long and storied career as a professional bass angler.
The 1976 Bassmaster Florida Invitational on St. Johns River was the beginning of what would lead to many innovations from the legendary bass angler, who is still slugging it out 43 years later, on the MLF Bass Pro Tour.
Along the way, Elias has won a Bassmaster Classic, set a weight record that still stands, and also introduced the masses to the Alabama Rig after a 2011 FLW Series victory on Lake Guntersville, Alabama. The Mississippi native has been a significant force of change and altered the way we fish to this day.
Getting Off the Bank
As we watched the anglers of the Bass Pro Tour fish Table Rock Lake, several all of them were offshore, and using their electronics to locate bass. That wasn’t always the case, and the field should thank Paul Elias and other pioneers for helping lead the way to fishing structure in deeper water.
“I’ve made my career by fishing off the bank, and it used to be much harder to locate the spots – now the mapping cards are so good, and everything is on your GPS,” he points out.
There was no idling on your big motor and dropping waypoints in those days.
“I looked at an old paper map of Logan Martin recently: I had things written down like ‘line up this tree and the end of this gable and then line up with this power line’ it was so funny to see,” Elias recalls about having to triangulate every offshore location instead of relying on a GPS waypoint to get back to the spot.
“During practice in those days, I would study maps and ride around to search and search, and if I could find two or three spots with a few stumps or a rockpile, I was lucky to find that many places. I would also have them all to myself.”
It wasn’t until he won the 1982 Bassmaster Classic on the Alabama River that folks started to see the power of getting off the bank, and that event itself spurred two other innovations: deeper diving crankbaits and longer rods.
If I Could Write a Letter to my Younger Self …
By Dave Landahl - Photo by Phoenix Moore - It was 1980-something. The Who was on their first farewell tour, Ronald Reagan was the President of the USA, Cheers was a smash hit on television, and Paul Elias was on top of the bass fishing world.
The Mississippi pro was not only one of the first public figures since Abraham Lincoln to rock a full, bushy hipster beard, he had also staked a claim to the top of the bass-fishing world with a victory in the 1982 Bassmaster Classic on the Arkansas River. For the foreseeable future, Paul Elias was positioned to be the king of the hill in professional bass fishing.
And then it all came crashing down.
Dear Paul: Get your priorities straight, trust your gut
Chatting with a writer from his home in the small southern Mississippi town of Luarel, Elias speaks frankly about that era of his life – painfully frankly sometimes – and without an abundance of joy. He’s rightfully proud of his tournament-fishing accomplishments: in addition to his Classic win, he accumulated 12 Top 10s in a four-year period in the early 1980s.
But decisions Elias made during that time in his life and the turmoil that followed shook him to his core; so much so that the 67-year-old legend admits that he’s still recovering.
“When I look back at my early career, I realize I made a lot of mistakes,” Elias admits. “If I could send a letter to myself back then, I’d let myself know that I did a good job sticking to my style of fishing, and that it would pay off with wins and a Bassmaster Classic championship. But, I’d also tell myself to change my personal life around. I was all about my career back then. I should’ve put God and my family first, but instead I put my fishing career above everything.”
Elias: A Big Change In Pro Fishing Was Long Overdue
By John Johnson - BassFan Senior Editor At 67, Paul Elias will be far and away the oldest competitor fishing the Bass Pro Tour in its inaugural season. Heck, a hefty percentage of his fellow BPT anglers weren't even born when he won the Bassmaster Classic in 1982.
Obviously, the grizzled Mississippian isn't on the roster due to his recent Elite Series results. He's qualified for only two of the past 13 Classics (the most recent was in 2015) and he had a particularly rough go this year, finishing 55th or lower (outside the money cut) in all eight events and landing at No. 105 on the points list.
MLF officials have proclaimed all along, though, that with taking the sport to a larger audience the primary goal of the BPT, criteria other than recent performance was factored into the angler selection process. Elias' past achievements (the Classic win, the B.A.S.S. four-day weight record of 132-08 set at Falcon Lake in 2008, etc.), combined with him being an all-around good guy and someone who looks at the sport from a much broader perspective than just what will benefit him personally, was sufficient to garner him the invitation.
"He's got some serious credentials and a ton of veteran knowledge, but on top of that, he's always been a great spokesman for the sport," said MLF co-founder Boyd Duckett. "He's got a great personality, he comes across well on TV and he wants to be part of making a difference in the sport and leaving a legacy for the future.
"He fit a lot of our criteria and we're really proud to have him."
Happy to Be There
Elias said he wasn't exactly shocked to receive a BPT invitation, but "I wouldn't have felt wronged if I hadn't." He remained on the Elite Series the last two years only via the Legends exemption that awards points for Classic victories and Angler of the Year titles.
He thinks he stands a chance to fare pretty well under the MLF format of counting every legal fish caught during a competition day.
"Naturally, the guys who've done the MLF thing for years are going to have an advantage and I think there's quite a few anglers who are going to have to make some changes to their styles, but I think it's going to complement my style to a certain extent," he said. "Some of that will depend on how much time we're going to have to fish during the day, and we haven't been told that yet, but it could open the door to a lot more offshore stuff.
"A guy who goes out and finds a school of pound-and-a-half to 3-pound fish can excel in that format vs. a guy who goes out and gets seven or eight bites."
He used the St. Lawrence River, a frequent venue for the Elite Series, to expand upon his point.
"Say you go there and you know it's going to take well over a 3-pound average of smallmouth (under the five-fish limit format) to get a check. Now say I went out and caught 30 smallmouth and brought in five that weighed 16 pounds. If it took a 3 1/2-pound average, then I'm a pound and a half off at the end of the day and probably in 80-something place.
"But maybe I caught 20 more fish than some of the guys averaging 3 1/2 pounds. That would really come into play."
Time had Come
Elias was heavily involved in the now-defunct Professional Anglers Association (PAA) when it was founded in the mid 2000s and had hoped that it would evolve into an effective angler advocacy organization, but that never transpired. Eventually, it's No. 1 function was to offer members an additional series of tournaments, but it ran into all kinds of hurdles, many of them involving sponsorship conflicts.
"I was totally against holding our own tournaments and as soon as that started I could see the writing on the wall," he said. "After that, I just kind of backed off and left things alone. All the while I was listening to a lot of the anglers, most of the younger ones, complaining about the entry fees and the payouts (on the Elite Series and FLW Tour) and they just didn't understand how much power they had. It took something like the BPT to come along for them to see the light.
"It took a big thing like a 70-percent exodus (from the Elite Series to the BPT) to wake everybody up. If that didn't happen and everybody just continued going along with it, then why would anything change? It would've been the same old thing it's been all along."
Now he's interested to see the specifics of how the MLF folks go about presenting BPT tournaments to fans without a weigh-in at the end of each day as the centerpiece. And at this point, he's not giving a lot of thought to when his long career will reach its conclusion.
"I'll do this three-year deal for sure (BPT anglers have received a guarantee for that duration) and then we'll see where we're at. They'll either kick me out or I'll have to decide whether I'm going to stay or not."
Notable
> Elias recently had surgery on his left (non-casting) rotator cuff and hopes his shoulder will be completely rehabilitated by the time the BPT season kicks off in late January. "It'd bothered me bad for about a year and a half – I had two tears and some bone spurs in there and it got to the point where I knew I had to do something. The biggest handicap had been landing fish. I'm just so accustomed to landing them with my left hand and I lost a few when I couldn't get a grip; I'd get stretched out and it just hurt too much."
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Jake Lands 7.7 Largemouth Fishing with Paul
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Testimonial
Paul, Patrick and myself want to thank you for the two day in depth fishing lessons. These are two days we will never forget. From the time we arrived at your cabin for breakfast you made us feel welcome and at home. We hit the water and begin catching fish. You would sit down for a while, we couldn't catch any fish, you would get a rod and bam you showed us again one behind another. My biggest fish was 7 lbs 9 oz. You shared a lot with us and we will be forever greatful for learning from a legend. I would do it again and would not change a thing.
Thanks again Paul for a wonderful time.
Wayne Gant and Patrick Currie
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Testimonial
Paul, Wanted to drop you a line and again thank you for the great time Lance and I had. The time spent with you on the electronics was amazing,but the real deal was when we put that knowledge and applied it out on the water on Friday.We guessed our best 5 would of been in the 42 lb range, with both of us catching our personal best fish of our lifes.We had 2 over 10 and 1 around 9 from your lake. We are getting ready to start into the Everstart series this year and your class will definitely help us out.
Thanks again, Frank
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