AMERICA'S GREATEST BASS FISHERMAN

Clay Explains His Life Motto: "If I Can, You Can."

EDITOR'S NOTE: He's a giant among bass fishermen, and in my opinion Clay Dyer of Hamilton, Alabama, is the greatest bass fisherman with whom I have ever fished. Fishing since he was five years old, Clay has tournament fished since age 15 and has been a full-time professional bass fisherman since 1995. Clay, at 24 years old, is almost 40 inches tall and weighs 86 pounds. He has no legs, but he does have a partial 16-inch-long arm on his right shoulder. If you see Clay in a fishing tournament, you won't think he has a disability either. Clay is highly competitive and fishes two to four bass tournaments a month. Clay's sponsors include: Skeeter boats, Yamaha outboards, Minn Kota trolling motors, All Star graphite rods, Strike King Lure Company, Lowrance electronics and Team Fish fishing line. Rather than tell Clay's story to you, I'll let Clay tell his own story.

QUESTION: Clay, most people in your condition would feel lucky just to go fishing. You have carried fishing to another level since you compete as a professional tournament angler.
ANSWER: I love a challenge. I love competition. And I've always enjoyed proving that I can do what anyone else can do. When someone tells me I can't, I will do whatever I have to do to prove that I can. I played baseball all the way through junior high school. I was either the catcher or the first baseman so I wouldn't have to move a lot. When it was my turn to bat, I had a designated runner. I knew that I would never be a professional baseball player. However, I believed that I could be a professional fisherman if I worked at it. I knew that being a professional fisherman would be a challenge but I also knew that I was one of God's creations. I feel like He created me to fish, to be able to show other fishermen that I can fish and to be able to demonstrate that if Clay Dyer can do it, anybody can who wants to be a professional fisherman.

QUESTION: When you first started professional fishing, what were the first tournaments like?
ANSWER: I knew when I first started fishing tournaments, I probably wouldn't win in the beginning. I knew that I had a lot to learn, but I was willing to invest the time required to learn my profession. I wanted to fish with the best professional fishermen that I could possibly fish with so I could learn my craft. When I first started fishing, the competition blew me away. But instead of getting down mentally, I tried to learn something at every competition. I not only wanted to learn why I had lost, but what the winner was doing that I wasn't.

QUESTION: How did the fishermen treat you in those first tournaments?
ANSWER: At first the other fishermen were a little standoffish. They didn't understand how someone who looks like me could fish, let alone compete. They couldn't figure out how a 40-inch guy with a 16-inch arm could flip and pitch up under docks and piers and overhanging bushes, and how he could drive a Skeeter boat at 70 miles an hour. Most of the fishermen in those early days were real uncertain about my abilities until they saw me drive the boat and watched me fish and compete. In the first tournaments that I fished, most of my partners were also standoffish and would ask what they could do to help me. My standard answer was, "Just stay out of my way so I can fish. If I need something I will tell you." I was real excited, however, about how other anglers accepted me and allowed me to compete with them. I have fished the Alabama B.A.S.S. Federation circuit since 1995, a draw tournament where no one knows who they will be fishing with until after the drawing. All the partners that I've drawn on that circuit have really been great. They seem to be comfortable with me and none hesitate when getting in the boat with me. They haven't treated me, like I was an alien dropped here from outer space. They have treated me like another fisherman and that is the way I want to be treated.

QUESTION: What is the most difficult aspect of being a tournament fisherman for you?
ANSWER: Trying to figure out how to catch a bass is tough. I can handle the blast-off at the beginning of the tournament, running down the lake at 70 miles an hour and the casting. But at certain times of the year, trying to find and catch those little green bass can be a major problem for me. I get frustrated and aggravated like everyone else does when I am not catching fish. And I've had some bad streaks. One time I went over a year without drawing a check in a single tournament. That year really has helped me appreciate the days when I do get a check.

QUESTION: What are your two favorite techniques?
ANSWER: I really like flipping. (Dyer can drop a -ounce jig in a Styrofoam coffee cup from 30 to 50 yards away -- one of the best pinpoint-accurate casters) My second favorite technique is fishing shallow or medium crankbaits on points along ditches, ridges, ledges and areas where most fishermen don't fish. I really like to fish offshore structure. But I believe that I'm more consistently successful flipping or throwing buzzbaits. I like power fishing, but I'll fish any way I have to fish to catch a bass. I told the people at the B.A.S.S. Federation, "When I go to fish a tournament, if I have got two flipping rods laying out on my deck, then the other fishermen had better watch out. But if I've got eight or 10 rods piled up on my deck. they probably don't have anything to worry about this tournament."

QUESTION: What baits do you like to flip?
ANSWER: I like to flip the Strike King jig and the Strike King Wild Thing, which is a creature bait. I've never seen anything that looks like the Wild Thing. It has a tube body with legs on it, flippers and all types of appendages. I believe that the Strike King Jig is a big-fish bait. But when I can't catch them on a Strike King jig, I believe I can catch bass on a Wild Thing. I really believe that if I can compete and win bass tournaments and be accepted on the fishing circuit, then anyone can. My motto continues to be, "If I can, you can." You can contact Clay Dyer at 5321 Steel Street, Hamilton, Alabama 35570.

TOMORROW: LARRY HOPSON ON FISHING WITH CLAY DYER