By Lawrence Taylor
BASS Elite Pro Terry Butcher has been close before in his five years on the big tour, but this year he came in on the right side of the cut-off line. He slid into the 2010 Bassmaster Classic at 35th place, two places shy of the cut-off line that determines whether an angler’s butt will be in a stadium seat or a bass boat fishing for all the marbles in the Super Bowl of bass fishing.
“Making the Bassmaster Classic has been a goal since I started,” the quiet Oklahoman said. “My first year I was close, then I went though a couple tough years and I just missed qualifying for the Classic through the Opens last year.”
Right now, he said during a telephone interview Friday afternoon, he’s concentrating on the upcoming PAA tournament at Toledo Bend, and downplayed the fact that the Classic now looms big in the shadows of his mind. It’s a good poker face – one that will serve him well in October when he fishes and plays Texas Hold ‘Em at the $100,000 Fish & Chips bass fishing and poker tournament in central Oklahoma.
Butcher said that he’s never been on the 2010 Classic destination lake, Lay Lake near Birmingham, Ala., but it is the kind of body of water that he feels comfortable on. He plans on visiting for several weeks in November and spending a lot of time on the water.
Butcher, a former bull rider, said that he fished as a youngster but didn’t get into bass fishing until he was 20 years old. It was his father that exposed him to the joys and despair of bass fishing.
“Dad always fished the Tuesday night jackpots at Oologah Lake near the house and he got me into it,” Butcher said. “From there I worked up to the team tournament trails and from there started fishing the BFLs and pro/ams, and from there some Everstart Series and Opens. I ended up qualifying for the tour through the Opens and I thought, ‘I’m not getting any younger.’ I also thought that fishing wasn’t near as hard on my body as bull riding.”
Even though he started his top-level fishing career with a strong season, the next few were difficult. In his words, he “did terrible.”
“It was a big learning curve,” he said. “I’d always fished here in Oklahoma and been a creek and river-type fisherman and I learned pretty quick that that doesn’t work everywhere in the country.”
He feels like he became a much more consistent angler this year, which was something he intentionally work hard on. “I don’t want to take away my chances of winning a tournament, but I need to be in the mix and cash a check,” he said. “I guess it worked because I’m in the Classic this year.”
One interesting note about Butcher, his sister is married to fellow BASS Elite Pro Edwin Evers. Evers now lives just down the road from Butcher. Butcher recently placed a sign reading “Pro Carp Fisherman Lives Here” at the end of Evers’ driveway, a sign Evers likes and left in place.
“We were all fishing Opens and camping around each other. I actually set up Edwin on a blind date with my sister and they were married not long after.”
I asked him if there was one thing he would change about his last five years on the bass fishing tour: “Did I mention I set up my sister with Edwin Evers?”
(Editor’s note: I made up that last part.)