Kayla Jocumsen — Fear HER Heart

How many people are at the intersection of two famous fishing families?

Kayla Jocumsen is one of the few that fits this description and the families she represents hail from two of the most unlikely locales – Coeur D’Alene Idaho and Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia.

She may typically operate behind the scenes but it’s time to put this multi-talented woman’s story out in the open.

HPFC: Kayla, you obviously have fishing in your family. Did you ever expect you to be on the tour full time?

Kayla Jocumsen: No, I actually had no idea that there was really even a fishing industry.

Brandon Palaniuk, the four-time elite winner and nine-time Bassmaster Classic qualifier, is my cousin and we're both from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. This part of Idaho is known for trout fishing more than anything and I didn't even really know that there were such things as tournaments. I knew Brandon did some tournaments, I just didn't know the full extent of them. The fact that there's an entire industry for fishing, I had no idea.

I definitely never thought that I would be a part of and living it.

HPFC: How did you meet Carl and what did you think of him at first?

Kayla Jocumsen: I met Carl through Facebook. I know it's different -- not many people guess that but there's a little bit of backstory.

Carl got his truck broken into, maybe seven years ago, and they stole his backpack which literally had his whole life in it. His phone, iPad, laptop, his Visa, passport, his wallet, literally everything, and remember Carl's not a citizen here. The second he doesn't physically possess his visa he's illegally in the country.

He had to fly back to Australia, go to the embassy in Australia, and complete all the particulars, to turn around and be able to come back. As you can imagine this isn’t cheap. Actually it’s really, really expensive. Not only did he lose a bunch of belongings, he lost a bunch of money trying to get it all back.

Long story short: Brandon and Carl were already friends prior to us meeting. They didn’t hang out a ton but they knew about each other through fishing. Carl used to do all his recap videos and Brandon kept up with those and he noticed he wasn't doing them any longer.

Brandon found out what happened, that his car was broken into and his iPad was stolen, and this is why the videos had stopped.

At the next tournament, Brandon had purchased a brand new MacBook for Carl. Brandon just randomly bought it for him, just the nicest thing ever, just a random act of kindness.

So anyways, Carl posted a video or picture on Facebook thanking Brandon and it popped up on my thread.

I thought he was cute and so I added him as a friend on Facebook. Then we hadn’t spoken or had any correspondence after I added him for about a year later.

Then I saw that he was going to be at the Classic and with me not knowing very much about the fishing industry I messaged him. All I knew was that it was a big deal to be in the Classic, so I told him congratulations and that it was really exciting that he was going to fish it.

He messaged back and said he was working the booth.

That broke the ice and we just talked every single day after that.

HPFC: We're there any cultural misunderstandings? Things you didn't understand or Australian foods or customs that struck you as odd?

Kayla Jocumsen: Yeah, definitely. Lots of words, their slang and their different words for something clearly different than we use.

A gas station is a servo.

An air conditioner is an aircon.

Aluminum foil is aluminium foil.

Food in Australia, it's so fresh and I think much more nutritious than our food here.

HPFC: Fitness is obviously an important part of your life. How do you maintain a routine on the road?

Kayla Jocumsen: That's definitely something that I've struggled with being on the road. Whether it's just our daily routine, having a workout routine, to just eating healthy, it's definitely a struggle camping, although camping is what gave Carl and I both some kind of normalcy and routine back. We have our own stuff. We have our own bed, we have our own clothes and we can bring our workout equipment with us. So the camper, a hundred percent, has really helped me with that.

HPFC: I know you lived in your Lance truck camper for quite some time. What's it like living in such a small space?

Kayla Jocumsen: Carl and I lived in our Lance truck camper for four years and that’s a long time. It's not a very big truck camper but honestly, I really, really enjoyed it. I grew up camping but not like this. I had a very nice home growing up. I definitely didn't struggle. I was very blessed. So to go from having a nice house, with separate bedrooms, bathrooms and just room for belongings and then dropping it all and going down to the basics, having your essentials and what you really need, puts a lot of stuff in perspective.

You figure out everyday life, your relationships and just what you actually need to survive.

HPFC: What has changed about your life since you purchased your home last year?

Kayla Jocumsen: Oh, gosh, we don't drive as much. We're at a little bit more of a halfway point for all the tournaments. We get to have a home base and we mentioned the routine earlier, I'm getting a little bit more of a routine having my own space. It's not a big house, but again going from the camper to this we slowly graduated size wise, so it helps you appreciate it every step of the way. Our little space is plenty for us right now and just having a home base is definitely a nice thing. A place to reset which we realized has been a big thing for us.

HPFC: What are some of your favorite meals to prepare on the road?

Kayla Jocumsen: Okay, so I am not a chef. Probably one of the qualities I struggle with is my cooking trait. I kind of go for just meats and veggies which Carl is okay with as he likes to eat pretty healthy. I keep it pretty basic.

Our favorite thing to eat is just steak and potatoes.

We recently started traveling and camping with Brandon and Tiffanie, his girlfriend, and Tiffanie actually enjoys cooking so we have been doing one day on one day off on who cooks, during tournaments. We love when it’s Tiffanie’s day to cook, she spoils us.

HPFC: What are your favorite tour stops?

Kayla Jocumsen: My favorite place that we have been is upstate New York, the St. Lawrence. Everybody gets so excited when we go up there because it's just everyone's favorite place. We all get together. We get to do things and explore and yeah, it's just a good time. This year was a little bit different, of course, but we still got to have and got to do some fun stuff. The St. Lawrence River, it's just so pretty, it's clean and there's tons to do. There’s no people up there. Just different from everywhere we go. As long as I'm up north, I'm happy.

HPFC: What is an average day like when Carl is out fishing?

Kayla Jocumsen: An average day really depends on where we are and what we have going on.

Our routine while tournament week is happening: Carl is practicing, he's out on the water about 4:30 in the morning till about 8:00 or 8:30 at night.

I'm usually doing anything from just getting content for a couple social medias that I run to meal prepping for the rest of the week, which I just kind of started. Maybe running some errands, such a going to the tackle store for Carl, if he can't make it out. We just started our new apparel deal with Fear My Heart. I've been working really hard on that.

My day is definitely full. It's always something different but always full.

HPFC: What mishaps or crazy things have happened to you on the road?

Kayla Jocumsen: There’s a lot but for the most part everything runs smooth.

Upon first starting out and the start of traveling with the camper and the number of miles we traveled it's inevitable that if you're out there doing that kind of driving everyday things are gonna happen. I feel like when we first started out, we would both get a little stressed out, maybe the tire went flat and we still have to drive another 600 miles and we had to be at our next destination the following day. Now, we just laugh about it, fix it and we keep going.

But I will say one of the craziest things that happened: I had just dumped Carl off at the lake to practice and I took the truck and trailer to Walmart. I parked and went inside for no longer than 15 to 20 minutes and I came back out and drove away. I was about three minutes down the road and behind me the trailer is just fishtailing all over the place.

So I'm freaking out and I ran back behind the truck and the trailer is just lying there. The entire tow hitch came out of the back of the truck and was still in the trailer. The ball was still in the head because I think somebody tried to steal the trailer and they just pulled the pin out of the tow ball and they were just going to take the whole thing.

I guess I must've come out of Walmart and they mustn't see me and fled.

Thankfully some guys helped me pick it up and put it back on. I randomly found a bolt laying on the side of the round and just stuck it in there and drove back to Walmart where I bought a lock.

And now we lock our stuff.

HPFC: How many times have you been to Australia? And what were your favorite things to do there?

Kayla Jocumsen: I have been there four times. On my second time there we traveled around for a couple of months. Carl really wanted to show me as much of Australia as we could in those couple months. We drove from Queensland, from the Gold Coast, all the way up to Proserpine and the Great Barrier Reef, up in Whitsundays, up North and that was a blast. We took Kevin and Kerry Short up there. We went barramundi fishing for a week. We snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef. We had a great time and we drove all the way back down.

I got to see the actual Outback. I got to see a dingo, like an actual wild dingo. I got to see koalas and kangaroos and echidnas. It was really awesome as I love nature.

As long as I can be outside or in the water around wildlife that is like the best thing for me.

HPFC: You mentioned you went barramundi fishing. Did you do any other kind of fishing when you were in Australia?

Kayla Jocumsen: We did barramundi fishing and they have Australian bass. One thing I haven't had the chance to do yet is cod fishing, which is super popular. They fish for them a little bit more down south. It’s on my bucket list.

HPFC: When you say popular, you mean like bass fishing in the United States?

Kayla Jocumsen: Yes, there are tournaments for bass, brim and cod. In Australia they don't have largemouth, smallmouth or spotted bass. No bass that you can find in the United States can be found in Australia. The first time Carl ever caught a bass, an American bass, was when he came over here 10 years ago. It's just completely different, the fish are just different. Carl had to relearn everything to be doing the tours over here, which I think is kind of wild.

HPFC: What would you be doing if you'd had never met Carl?

Kayla Jocumsen: Oh, gosh. I am speaking to you from my mom's front porch. Perhaps I would be in my own place on my front porch. I know I would be still exploring. I live in a really cool place, an amazing part of the country, the northwest. I'd definitely be in the mountains here somewhere.

HPFC: What are your long-term plans?

Kayla Jocumsen: I actually stopped making long-term plans after I married a tournament fisherman. We really fly by the seat of our pants, to be honest. We just take things as they come, turn opportunities into new ideas, business, adventures and we feel we have everything to look forward to in our future.

HPFC: Throwing this crazy question out there, what is your death row meal?

Kayla Jocumsen: My Grandma's stuffed pork chops.

HPFC: And one final question: Do you like Vegemite?

Kayla Jocumsen: Oh my word. No! I don't even know that Australians like Vegemite. I think they just eat it because they were just fed it when they were born.

Kayla Jocumsen is a consummate adventurer. She lived a comfortable life in a scenic region, in a house with a porch and several bathrooms, along with a close-knit family. She left that all to travel with a partner who speaks a funny dialect and lives for a sport she didn’t even knew existed.

She has taken on a new identity (Happy almost first anniversary!), and adopted a second “mother country.” Most importantly, she appreciates life. When Kayla, Carl and Roo the Bass Dog have a moment to breathe, their number one goal is to count their blessings and appreciate the moment.