Our featured Angler for December is Virginia B.A.S.S. "Alumnus" Curt Lytle

Curt Lytle

Since moving to the Tidewater area after graduating from college in 1991, two-time Bassmasters Classic qualifier Curt Lytle, of Suffolk, Virginia, has experienced great success at every level of bass fishing competition. He currently competes on both the Bassmaster Top 150 and FLW circuits, clearly the domains of the world’s elite anglers, as well as in other tournaments as time allows. He has won a B.A.S.S. Invitational, on Lake of the Ozarks, as well as 2 Operation Bass Everstart tournaments, both on Beaver Lake in Arkansas.

Prior to moving to Virginia, Lytle spent a lot of time on the water. As a full-time college student, he still managed to fish somewhere in the neighborhood of eighty days a year. Prior to attending college, he fished even more than that. “I was an absolute nut,” he states, noting that for a brief period during his senior year of high school after he reached 18, he was able to write his own sick notes, and somehow managed to become “sick” whenever there was a hot bite on local waters.

Despite spending a lot of time on the water in his younger days, Lytle is quick to point out that his fishing success didn’t take off until he joined the Virginia B.A.S.S. Federation. He states unequivocally that the Federation is “the absolute best place to learn about bass fishing.” Adding to his point, he states that he learned “more about bass fishing while fishing the Federation, than I did fishing either Red Man or the B.A.S.S. Invitationals.” In fact, he notes that his learning curve didn’t accelerate at anywhere near that same speed until he qualified for the B.A.S.S. Top 150s.

Roadmap to Success

Curt’s story is an instructive one for Federation anglers who may think that they can succeed at a higher level. At one time or another, all of us dream of standing on the stage at the Bassmasters Classic, weighing in our fish before a packed auditorium. Many Federation anglers think that they, or perhaps someone in their club, could “make it” if only given the opportunity to fish full time. Yet the numbers show that most guys who try to tackle the “big leagues” rarely cash a check, let alone make it a full-time (and profitable) career.

While active in the Virginia Federation, Curt belonged to both the Little Creek Bassmasters and the Blue and Gray Bassmasters. In the latter club, he briefly served as President. The critical common characteristic of these two clubs, he maintains, is that both fished “a lot of tournaments,” and rarely had two tournaments on the same body of water in a given year. He was immediately forced to be versatile, and to constantly be on the water to stay ahead of the competition. Additionally, he credits the fact that the clubs used a random draw, rather than yearlong partners, for accelerating his learning process.

Curt quickly experienced success at the club level. Even though most of the older club members had fished the waters for years, Curt nevertheless displayed an ability to break down waters that were new to him. In his first full season in Region 7, he and his partner finished second in two different tournaments, and second overall for the year. He is quick to add that “we should have won it all.”

Red Man tournaments were Curt’s next hurdles. Fishing lakes like Buggs Island, Gaston and Smith Mountain, he “was not that sharp, just good enough to hang on.” Perhaps the biggest epiphany came at Gaston, where he drew out with a partner who was an experienced flipper. “Before that,” he says, “I thought I was a flipper. I realized I wasn’t.” Recognizing that weakness, he worked hard to make it a strength, and now considers flipping one of his strongest tactics. The lesson learned is that in order to become a better fisherman, he had to recognize not only his strengths but also his weaknesses.

Beginning B.A.S.S. Competition

After several years fishing Federation and Red Man events, Curt decided that he was ready to fish the B.A.S.S. Eastern Invitationals. Unfortunately, he quickly realized that Virginia waters don’t necessarily translate onto a more national scale. “There’s not another James River,” he says. Arriving at New York’s Thousand Islands, he acknowledges that he simply “wasn’t prepared for water that dangerous.”

Asked how the Virginia angler seeking to attain higher goals can use the state’s waters as a learning ground, he advises that one focus on Buggs Island and Lake Gaston. Curt perceives the former as largely a shallow water fishery without a lot of aquatic vegetation or shoreline development, while on the latter Curt fishes more deep water as well as a lot of grass and docks. To a large extent, he credits hundreds of hours spent on those two waters for his ability to win tournaments on lakes in other parts of the country.

After a year fishing the Eastern Invitationals, with some success, Lytle decided the next year to put a few extra miles on his tow vehicle and fish the Central Invitational circuit, generally on lakes that were altogether new to him. The difference between the two series of tournaments, he says, is that the Easterns are largely held on “marginal waters,” while the Centrals are on “better lakes, where I could fish for bigger fish.” On the eastern waters, a finesse approach was often warranted, which Curt admits is not one of his strong suits. In the Centrals, though, he could fish to his strengths, since success was “mostly a matter of just finding the fish.” In his first year fishing the Centrals, he qualified for the Top 150s and the Classic.

FLW and Other Circuits Provide Additional Opportunities

When Operation Bass started the FLW Trail, the dramatic increase in prize money and chance for additional exposure proved irresistible to many anglers, including Curt. He did so well fishing the FLWs that he “couldn’t stay out,” and continues to fish them today. Increasing responsibilities have led him to make the Top 150s and FLWs his top priorities, although he’ll still fish other major tournaments as time allows.

The increased number of opportunities to fish for big prizes gives tournament fishermen greater possibilities for national publicity. Curt acknowledges that the beneficiaries of these opportunities may include talented Federation anglers, as all fishermen now have a “greater chance to break through.”

The best way for the Federation angler to test his skills at the next level, Curt says, is to put in for the amateur draw in either a B.A.S.S. Top 150 or Everstart tournament. If an angler experiences success that way, it is then possible to move over to the pro side of the Everstarts.

Obviously, a full-time job makes it difficult to fully commit to fishing professionally. Curt recognized this early on, and says that the most important thing he ever did was to negotiate a consulting position with his employer. Working on an hourly basis, rather than as a salaried employee, Curt was able to fish for two weeks (or more, if necessary), then work during the gaps.

Because he maintained a steady source of income in the early years, Lytle was able to fish without wondering whether he’d be able to cover his mortgage, which he acknowledges is the “biggest hurdle” for most aspiring pros. That was important, he says, because he “wasn’t good enough at first” to make a living at the sport. It took him two full years for “all of it to come together.” For other pros, even many successful ones, it can take much longer.

While the proliferation of tournament circuits has the potential to benefit the up-and-coming fisherman, Lytle states that the current economic climate has made recent months “a bad time for the fishing industry.” He admits that he has recently “lost sponsors through no fault of my own,” and adds that even several of the sport’s biggest names have suffered the same fate. “They tell me that it’s the hardest it’s been in over twenty years,” he adds.

Continuing Involvement

Asked about his fishing related goals, Curt is nearly at a loss for words for the first time during the interview. “At this point,” he says, “I’m just trying to keep up.” Pressed on the topic, he says that he just wants to “get stable” with regard to his sponsors and his home life, and that may involve cutting back on fishing and backing off a little on his travel.

Considering the question further, Lytle quickly seizes the opportunity to expound on a topic that concerns him greatly, the fight against the misuse of aquatic herbicides. He has been active in the political effort to get state legislation on this topic passed, but acknowledges that the strength of the Federation is necessary to “provide the best chance to get legislation on herbicide control.”

More generally, Curt’s nationwide travels have made him aware of the “scary reality” of the Largemouth Bass Virus, which has decimated number of waters. Famous fisheries such as Sam Rayburn, Lake of the Ozarks, Santee Cooper, and virtually every water in Oklahoma have been crippled, at least temporarily, by this disease. “I’m scared about what happens when it comes east to places like Buggs,” he says, “and I hope we can find a way to immunize against infection. We need to be vigilant.”

Curt’s story is indeed representative of what a Federation angler can achieve by combining inherent skills and hard work. Even more than his tournament success, however, Curt’s continued commitment to preserving our fisheries demonstrates his Federation roots. Certainly, when the fish are put on the scales, tournament bass fishing appears to be a purely individual effort. If one delves a little deeper, however, one cannot help but realize that behind every successful angler is the collaborative effort of a number of influences. The Federation is in many ways a microcosm of this world of influences. Curt’s commitment to preserving the resources upon which our sport depends reflects his true understanding that both continued individual success and the broader survival of our sport require an umbrella organization which is able to harness our collective power. The Federation served that purpose for him long before he became a full-time pro, and will continue to do so for all anglers into the foreseeable future.

If you would like to learn more about Curt or contact him directly, check out his website, www.curtlytle.com